This book teaches the reader to build rockets--powered by compressed air, water, and solid propellant--with the maximum possible fun, safety, and educational experience.

"Make: Rockets" is for all the science geeks who look at the moon and try to figure out where Neil Armstrong walked, watch in awe as rockets lift off, and want to fly their own model rockets. Starting with the basics of rocket propulsion, readers will start out making rockets made from stuff lying around the house, and then move on up to air-, water-, and solid propellant-powered rockets.

Among the various segments of society affected by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year and a half, few were hit as hard as the aviation industry. At its worst point, in March 2020, passenger volumes for U.S. airlines had dropped more than 95 percent. Airlines, airports, aircraft manufacturers, and other components of the air travel system faced an unprecedented challenge, with threats to the health of passengers and crews combined with threats to the financial health of the entire system. To address the many COVID-related issues facing the aviation industry, on June 28-30, 2021, the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a three-day workshop, Aviation After a Year of Pandemic - Economics, People, and Technology. Funded by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration and held remotely via Zoom, the workshop focused on four specific areas regarding the effects of COVID on the aviation industry: economics, personnel, technology, and next steps. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop. Table of Contents Front Matter 1 Introduction 2 Overview: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic 3 Policy and Procedures 4 Aircraft Design and Flight Operations, Personnel, and Performance 5 Operations and Performance: Airports, Ground Transportation, and Air Traffic Management 6 Aviation Economics 7 Critically Needed Capabilities, Research, and Next Steps Appendixes Appendix A: Statement of Task Appendix B: Workshop Agenda Appendix C: Acronyms Appendix D: Planning Committee and Staff Biographical Information

As humans continue to degrade and destroy our planet's resources, leading to predictions of total ecological collapse, some (such as the entrepreneur Elon Musk) now suggest that a human colony elsewhere may be our species' best hope for survival. Adam Morton examines extra-terrestrial colonization plans with a critical eye. He makes a strong case for colonization - just not by human beings. Humans live relatively short lives and, to survive, require large amounts of food and water, very specific climatic conditions and an oxygen-rich atmosphere. We can create colonists that have none of these shortcomings. Reflecting compassionately on the nature of existence, Morton argues that we should treat the end of the human race in the same way that we treat our own deaths: as something sad but ultimately inevitable. The earth will perish one day, and, in the end, we should be concerned more with securing the future of intelligent beings than with the preservation of our species, which represents but a nanosecond in the history of our solar system.

Incredible discoveries from the fringes of the universe to the inner workings of our minds all from nothing

It turns out that almost nothing is as curious or as enlightening as, well, nothing. What is nothingness? Where can it be found? The writers of the world's top-selling science magazine investigate from the big bang, dark energy, and the void to superconductors, vestigial organs, hypnosis, and the placebo effect and discover that understanding nothing may be the key to understanding everything: What came before the big bang, and will our universe end?How might cooling matter down almost to absolute zero help solve our energy crisis?How can someone suffer from a false diagnosis as though it were true?Does nothingness even exist? Recent experiments suggest that squeezing a perfect vacuum somehow creates light.Why is it unfair to accuse sloths animals who do nothing of being lazy? And more Contributors Paul Davies, Jo Marchant, and Ian Stewart, along with two former editors of Nature and 16 other leading writers and scientists, marshal up-to-the-minute research to make one of the most perplexing realms in science dazzlingly clear. Prepare to be amazed at how much more there is to nothing than you ever realized."

Is your picosatellite ready for launch? Can it withstand rocket thrusts and the vacuum of space? This do-it-yourself guide helps you conduct a series of hands-on tests designed to check your satellite's readiness. Learn precisely what the craft and its electronic components must endure if they're to function properly in Low Earth Orbit.

The perfect follow-up to "DIY Satellite Platforms" (our primer for designing and building a picosatellite), this book also provides an overview of what space is like and how orbits work, enabling you to set up the launch and orbit support you'll need.Go deep into the numbers that describe conditions your satellite will faceLearn how to mitigate the risks of radiation in the ionospherePick up enough formal systems engineering to understand what the tests are all aboutBuild a thermal vacuum chamber for mimicking environment of spaceSimulate the rocket launch by building and running a vibration shake testUse a homebuilt centrifuge to conduct high G-force testsGet guidelines on scheduling tests and choosing an appropriate lab or clean room

This book presents fundmentals of orbit determination--from weighted least squares approaches (Gauss) to today's high-speed computer algorithms that provide accuracy within a few centimeters. Numerous examples and problems are provided to enhance readers' understanding of the material.
*Covers such topics as coordinate and time systems, square root filters, process noise techniques, and the use of fictitious parameters for absorbing un-modeled and incorrectly modeled forces acting on a satellite.
*Examples and exercises serve to illustrate the principles throughout each chapter.
*Detailed solutions to end-of-chapter exercises available to instructors.

Meteorite tells the fascinating story of the stones from outer space scattered across our planet. From the impact that finished off the dinosaurs to the dagger made of extraterrestrial iron found in Tutankhamun's tomb, this book is packed full of surprising information, unlikely pioneers and eye-opening science. Dr Tim Gregory explains how these rocky fragments offer clues not just to the earliest origins of everything, but also to humanity's survival into the future. 'A passionate communicator, Tim Gregory conjures colourful environments and events far outside the human' NATURE 'Meticulous and eminently readable, served with clarity, erudition and humour' WALL STREET JOURNAL 'Tim Gregory gets it. He has an uncanny ability to swiftly understand, to clearly explain, and to be joyful' CHRIS HADFIELD

Propellants contain considerable chemical energy that can be used in rocket propulsion. Bringing together information on both the theoretical and practical aspects of solid rocket propellants for the first time, this book will find a unique place on the readers' shelf providing the overall picture of solid rocket propulsion technology. Aimed at students, engineers and researchers in the area, the authors have applied their wealth of knowledge regarding formulation, processing and evaluation to provide an up to date and clear text on the subject.

This volume surveys our current scientific understanding of the terrestrial aurora. It is organized into eleven reviews detailing theoretical and observational aspects of characteristic auroral morphologies, and how these in turn are organized according to local time, latitude, and activity level. Popular descriptions often attribute the aurora to the interaction of charged particles from the solar wind with atoms in the upper atmosphere. In fact, most auroras are not the result of direct entry of solar wind particles. Rather, as detailed in this volume, auroral particle acceleration and generation of auroral forms occur primarily within the magnetosphere. Importantly, many key aspects of the aurora - most notably, the physical mechanisms responsible for the generation of discrete arcs - are still unexplained, and auroral physics continues to be an active area of scientific research. Each review chapter therefore includes a summary of open questions for further investigation. Providing the first comprehensive review of the terrestrial aurora in two decades, this book will aid both active researchers and newcomers interested in understanding the current state of the field. Previously published Space Science Reviews in the Topical Collection "Auroral Physics"

In 1969, Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill began looking outward to space colonies as the new frontier for humanity's expansion. A decade later, Eric Drexler, an MIT-trained engineer, turned his attention to the molecular world as the place where society's future needs could be met using self-replicating nanoscale machines. These modern utopians predicted that their technologies could transform society as humans mastered the ability to create new worlds, undertook atomic-scale engineering, and, if truly successful, overcame their own biological limits. The Visioneers tells the story of how these scientists and the communities they fostered imagined, designed, and popularized speculative technologies such as space colonies and nanotechnologies. Patrick McCray traces how these visioneers blended countercultural ideals with hard science, entrepreneurship, libertarianism, and unbridled optimism about the future. He shows how they built networks that communicated their ideas to writers, politicians, and corporate leaders. But the visioneers were not immune to failure--or to the lures of profit, celebrity, and hype. O'Neill and Drexler faced difficulty funding their work and overcoming colleagues' skepticism, and saw their ideas co-opted and transformed by Timothy Leary, the scriptwriters of Star Trek, and many others. Ultimately, both men struggled to overcome stigma and ostracism as they tried to unshackle their visioneering from pejorative labels like "fringe" and "pseudoscience." The Visioneers provides a balanced look at the successes and pitfalls they encountered. The book exposes the dangers of promotion--oversimplification, misuse, and misunderstanding--that can plague exploratory science. But above all, it highlights the importance of radical new ideas that inspire us to support cutting-edge research into tomorrow's technologies.