As this excellent book demonstrates, the study of comets has now reached the fas cinating stage where we understand comets in general simple tenns while, at the same time, we are uncertain about practically all the details of cometary nature, structure, processes, and origin. In every aspect, even including dynamics, a choice among several or many competing theories is made impossible simply by the lack of detailed knowledge. The space missions, snapshot studies of two comets, partic ularly the one that immortalizes the name of Sir Edmund Halley, have produced a huge mass of valuable new infonnation and a number of surprises. Nonetheless, we face the tantalizing realization that we have obtained only a fleeting glance at two of perhaps a hundred billion (lOll) or more comets with possibly differing natures, origins, and physical histories. To my personal satisfaction, comets seem to have discrete nuclei made up of dirty snowballs, as I concluded four decades ago, but perhaps they are more like frozen rubbish piles.

Lectures on Non-linear Plasma Kinetics is an introduction to modern non-linear plasma physics showing how many of the techniques of modern non-linear physics find applications in plasma physics and how, in turn, the results of this research find applications in astrophysics. Emphasis is given to explaining the physics of nonlinear processes and the radical change of cross-sections by collective effects. The author discusses new nonlinear phenomena involving the excitation of coherent nonlinear structures and the dynamics of their random motions in relation to new self-organization processes. He also gives a detailed description of applications of the general theory to various research fields, including the interaction of powerful radiation with matter, controlled thermonuclear research, etc.

In this volume of essays, the top experts and major players behind the United States's recently renewed push to the moon fuel a growing debate over lunar exploration. The announcement in 2004 that the U.S. would be revamping its moon program inspired both excitement about the possibilities and concern over cost and safety issues. This book takes the controversy out of the realm of pure science and into the mainstream of national debate. Lunar experts Alan Binder, Andy Chaikin, Yoji Kondo, Courtney Stadd, Frank White, and many others weigh in on the case for a return, point out the best way to do it, and speculate on what could be done with this newly obtained real estate. The essays are accompanied by illustrations of what life on the moon might look like. Contributions come from different perspectives and styles, offering a broad take on the very real possibility that humans will again walk-- and work, live, and play-- on the lunar landscape. From telescopes and tourism, to training for Mars, to building a new branch of humanity and saving the Earth, this compendium makes the case for sending people back to the moon.

This volume consists of invited talks and contributed papers presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute "The Post Recombination Universe" which was held in Cambridge in the summer of 1987. There have, in recent years, been numerous meetings devoted to problems in observational cosmology. The attention given reflects the exciting rate of de velopment of the subject, and a survey of the proceedings from these symposia reveals that a great deal of emphasis has been given to consideration of the very early universe on the one hand, and to large scale structure in the universe at the present epoch on the other. The theme of this meeting was chosen to comple ment these efforts by focussing on the state of the universe at quite early times, but at those epochs which are still accessible to direct observations. The meet ing provided a broad coverage of the post recombination universe by drawing on experts from a wide variety of fields covering theory, background radiation fields and discrete sources at high redshift. Events in the moderately early universe will have left their mark in a great range of wavebands, from X-rays to the microwave region, and the evolution of the universe can be revealed by studies of the inter galactic medium, gravitational lensing and the abundance and clustering of high redshift sources. All of these subjects received much attention at the meeting, and the papers demonstrate the rich interplay between these areas in the rapidly expanding world of observational cosmology."

Space scientists and engineers belonging to the professional societies associated with the International Astronautical Federation gathered together in Vienna to hold the Federation's 23rd Congress. A selected number of papers and critical surveys that were presented and debated at this Congress and which span the widely diversified field of astonautics are collected in the present Proceedings, together with a number of summaries of Round Table Discussions andjor Forum Sessions. As its predecessors in the series, Astronautical Research 1972 constitutes an indispensable reference for several groups of people: those who are actively engaged in astronautics; those who are interested in following and assessing, year by year, the developments in astronautics, its progress, its new directions in research; and those who are concerned with its many applications. Space science and technology are bound to play an increasing role in the immediate future, now that greater effort is being devoted to the exploitation of their relevance to other fields of human activity. Problems posed by the scarcity of earth resources and by their inadequate management, pollution problems, problems created by man's indiscriminate and often irresponsible action in vital sectors of the biosphere can be tackled and successfully alleviated, if not solved, by means of the soft and hard advanced technology developed for space systems.

In 1995, the German Space Agency DARA selected the CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) mission for development under a special support programme for the space industry in the new states of the unified Germany, with the Principal Investigator and his home institution GFZ Potsdam being ultimately responsible for the success of all mission phases. After three years of spacecraft manufactur ing and testing, the satellite was injected successfully into its final, near circular, almost polar and low altitude (450 km) orbit from the cosmodrome Plesetsk in Russia on July 15, 2000. After a nine month commissioning period during which all spacecraft systems and instruments were checked, calibrated and validated, the satellite has been delivering an almost uninterrupted flow of science data since May 2001. Since this date, all science data have been made available to the more than 150 selected co-investigator teams around the globe through an international Announcement of Opportunity. The scientific goals of the CHAMP mission are to gain a better understanding of dynamic processes taking place in the Earth's interior and in the space near Earth. These goals can be achieved by improved observation of the Earth's gravity and magnetic fields and their time variability with high-performance on-board instru mentation and by exploring the structure of the Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere through radio occultation measurements.

We are extremely grateful to Springer-Verlag and to Prof. Dr. W. BeiglbOck for bring ing out the English edition of our book. We are also thankful to Dr. R. S. Wadhwa for a qualified translation. While preparing the manuscript for translation, we took the opportunity to go through the whole text, make necessary amendments, supplement the original material with new results, and considerably enlarge the lists of references. We hope that this book will serv to strengthen the bonds of international coopera tion in this field. July 1986 The authors Translator's Note The final form of the bibliography contains a (free) English translation of all the Russian books and papers published in the USSR. This has been done at the request of the authors and with the concurrence of Prof. BeiglMck. The titles are not always exact, and some of the works have already been translated into English or other European languages. Unfortunately, the authors were not in a position to provide detailed information on this subject. R.S. Wadhwa Preface to the Russian Edition What shall I do ... With their weightlessness In this ponderous world? M. Tsvetaeva, The Poet This book deals with the behavior of a liquid in zero-gravity or conditions close to it. The surge of interest in zero-gravity problems stems from the progress attained in the field of spaceflight, where such conditions can be attained for long periods of time."

Scientists in the late twentieth century are not the first to view galaxy formation as a phenomenon worthy of explanation in terms of the known laws of physics. Already in 1754 Kant regarded the problem as essentially solved. In his Univerlal Natural Hutory and Theory 0/ the H eaven$ he wrote; "If in the immesurable space in which all the suns of the Milky Way have formed themselves, we assume a point around which, through some cause or other, the first formation of nature out of chaoo began, there the largest mass and a body of extraordinary attraction will have arisen which has thereby become capable of compelling all the systems in the process of being formed within an enormous sphere around it, to fall towards itself as their centre, and to build up a system around it on the great scale . . . . Observation puts this conjecture almost beyond doubt. " More than 200 years later, a similar note of confidence was voiced by Zel'dovicb at an IAU symposium held in Tallin in 1911; "Extrapolating . . . to the next symposium somewhere in the early eighties one can be pretty sure that the question of the formation of galaxies and clusters will be solved in the next few years. " Perhaps few astronomers today would share Kant's near certainty or feel that Zel'dovich's prophecy has been fulfilled, Many, however, will sympathize with the optimistic olltlook of these two statements.

In summary, we can conclude that the contributions of the different ionization processes to the total ionization rate for the most abundant interstellar species are basically known. The ionization of the noble gases He and Ne is almost completely dominated by photoionization, whereas for H charge-exchange with the solar wind is most important. For other species, such as 0 and Ar, both processes contribute significantly. Electron impact ionization can typically contribute by '" 10% to the total rate in the inner Solar System. Because direct measurements of the solar EUV flux are not yet continuously available, the variation of the ionization rate over the solar cycle still contains a relatively large uncertainty. The recent measurements of pickup ion distributions and of the neutral helium gas provide an independent tool to determine the total ionization rate that can be used to cross calibrate with the results obtained for the individual ionization processes. Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to M. Allen for supplying us with new data on photoioniza tion cross-sections compiled by him. We thank also M. Gruntman for drawing our attention to and support in collecting the most recent data on charge-exchange cross-sections. D. R. was supported by grant No. 2 P03C. 004. 09 from the Com mittee for Scientific Research (Poland). This work was also supported in part through NASA contract NAS7-918, NSF Grant INT-911637, NASA Grant NAGW- 2579.

Featuring a foreword by the astronaut Ulf Merbold, this book is devoted to interfaces between two fluids, that is, between a liquid and a gas or between two liquids. It is the first review on the subject, providing an up-to-date overview.

Stellar astrophysics still provides the basic framework for deciphering the imprints left over by the evolving universe on all scales. Advances or shortcomings in the former field have direct consequences in our ability to understand the global properties of the latter.

This volume contains the most recent updates on a variety of topics that, though independent by themselves, are inevitably connected on a cosmological scale. These include comprehensive articles by leaders in fields extending from stellar atmospheres through properties of the stellar component in the Milky Way up to the stellar environment in high redshift galaxies.

The wide coverage of astrophysical themes makes this volume very valuable for researchers and Ph.D. students in astrophysics.

Based on lectures given at a CNRS summer school in France, this book covers many aspects of stellar environments (both observational and theoretical) and offers a broad overview of the field. More specifically, Part I of the book focuses on the Sun, the properties of the ejected plasma, of the solar wind and on space weather. The second part deals with tides in planetary systems and in binary stellar systems, as well as with interactions in massive binary stars as seen by interferometry. Finally the chapters of Part III discuss the very close environments of young stars; Stellar Winds, Magnetic Fields and Disks; Magnetic field and convection in the cool supergiant Betelgeuse; The formation of circumstellar disks around evolved stars; and an introduction to accretion disks is given. With its broad approach the book will provide graduate students with a good overview of the environments of the Sun and stars.

The authors, leading representatives of Russian space research and industry, show the results and future prospects of astronautics at the start of the third millennium. The focus is on the development of astronautics in Russia in the new historical and economic conditions. The text spotlights the basic trends in space related issues before moving on to describe the possibilities of the wide use of space technologies and its numerous applications such as navigation and communication, space manufacturing, and space biotechnology. The book contains a large amount of facts described in a way understandable without specialist knowledge. The text is accompanied by many photographs, charts and diagrams, mostly in color.

Physics of the Inner Heliosphere gives for the first time a comprehensive and complete summary of our knowledge of the inner solar system. Using data collected over more than 11 years by the HELIOS twin solar probes, one of the most successful ventures in unmanned space exploration, the authors have compiled 10 extensive reviews of the physical processes of the inner heliosphere and their connections to the solar atmosphere. Researchers and advanced students in space and plasma physics, astronomy, and solar physics will be surprised to see just how closely the heliosphere is tied to the sun and how sensitively it depends on our star. The four chapters of Volume I of the work deal with large-scale phenomena: - observations of the solar corona - the structure of the interplanetary medium - the interplanetary magnetic field - interplanetary dust.

This book presents a review of those efforts that have been and are being made to determine the geochemical composition of the moon and planets. The authors have attempted to present both a review as well as their philosophy about the development of flight experiments for geo chemical studies. Their basic premise is that such flight experiments should emphasize the scientific objectives and a total systems approach to meeting these objectives, involving the analytical device, data handling and data interpretation. While the above seems reasonably obvious, many proposals of experiments often tend to begin with an instrument with too little concern about the constraints imposed and whether the data that can be obtained are sufficiently useful to meet the scientific objectives. This book covers the accomplishments in space science exploration, bearing on the history and composition ofthe solar system. 'It also covers the rationale behind the lunar and planetary exploration program. The latter part of the book is concerned with future plans for lunar and planetary exploration instrumentation and techniques in various stages of development. There is an exposition of the methods of remote analysis of the moon and planets, including some concepts developed by the authors as a result of their long term involvement with the space program, from its early inception to the present day preparation for remote geochemical analysis in the Apollo, Mariner and Viking missions."

Interesting and often unexpected achievements of the mechanics of space flight throw a new light onto several classical problems. The book's emphasis is on analysis carried out on the level of graphs and drawings, and sometimes numbers, revealing the beauty of the research process leading to the results.

April 12, 2011 is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin s pioneering journey into space. To commemorate this momentous achievement, Springer-Praxis is producing a mini series of books that reveals how humanity s knowledge of flying, working, and living in space has grown in the last half century.
Tragedy and Triumph focuses on the 1980s and early 1990s, a time when relations between the United States and the Soviet Union swung like a pendulum between harmony and outright hostility. The glorious achievements of the shuttle were violently arrested by the devastating loss of Challenger in 1986, while the Soviet program appeared to prosper with the last Salyut and the next-generation Mir orbital station. This book explores the continued rivalry between the two superpowers during this period, with each attempting to outdo the other the Americans keen to build a space station, the Soviets keen to build a space shuttle and places their efforts in the context of a bitterly divisive decade, which ultimately led them into partnership.

Some fifty years ago as a cub reporter, Barbree caught space fever the night that Sputnik passed over Albany, Georgia. On a double date where the couples actually did some star gazing, Barbree recognized that exploring space would become one of the most important stories of the century. Convinced that one day astronauts would walk on the moon, Barbree moved to the then sleepy ocean-side community of Cocoa Beach, right outside Cape Canaveral, and began reporting on rockets that soared, exploded, and fizzled. In the decades to come he witnessed a parade of history as space pioneers, hucksters, groupies and politicians participated in the greatest show of technology the world had ever seen. In "Live from Cape Canaveral", Barbree offers his unique perspective on the space program. Warm and perceptive, he reminds us just how thrilling the great moments of the space race were and why America fell in love with its heroic, sometimes larger-than-life astronauts.

The experimental study of magnetospheric processes consists of several disci plines or methods, developing in two general directions. The first, internal trend covers the progress in experimental techniques and methods and re search specific to this discipline. The other trend combines with other methods in a mutual attempt at understanding the boiling whirlpool of the disturbed magnetosphere. Investigations of auroral X-rays began after Van Allen's (1957) discovery of hard radiation in the upper atmosphere of the auroral zone, and are based on high latitude balloon observations. Scientific apparatus, payload equip ment, and particular questions of scientific ballooning are discussed in Chap ter 1. Chapter 2 concludes the internal trend of the subject by describing the problems of X-ray generation at the boundary of the atmosphere and propa gation downward to balloon altitudes. Auroral X-rays are closely related to most of the processes of the disturbed magnetosphere through energetic auroral electrons; precipitating into the at mosphere, the latter create bremsstrahlung photons able to penetrate to an at mospheric depth of 10- 20 g cm - 2. In quiet periods auroral electron flux ex ists only in embryo, as a hot plasma layer at the inner edge of the plasma sheet: in general it is a transient phenomenon caused by magnetospheric distur bances and carrying valuable information of the magnetospheric dynamics."

t~icrogravity research, a new field originating from the accessibility of space, has reached the age of adolescence. An impressive set of results has emerged from the fi rst Space 1 ab fl i ght, whi ch by now has been fully evaluated. In view of this and the wealth of information available from other space experiments, ground based research, and short-term microgra- vity experiments in ai rp 1 anes, rockets or fall towers, it was felt that the time was ripe for a comprehensive review of the field. The initiative of the US to build a permanent station in space, which was soon followed by a European decision to join this venture, further focussed attention onto microgravity materials sciences. This originates from the interesting prospects of a commercial space uti 1 ization, which would heavily rely on the results of scientific or technical experiments in space. From this point of view it also seemed timely and essential to provi de prospective commerci a 1 users with the necessary i nformat i on on previous experience, and more importantly, with a sound scientific basis for space processing. The aim of the present volume consequently is twofold, namely - to stimulate new scientific experiments in space in order to expand our knowledge gained from microgravity research, and to provide industry with the information obtained from space experi- ments sofar and to contribute to the scientific background for commer- cial space utilization.

This book on recent investigations of the dynamics of celestial bodies in the solar and extra-Solar System is based on the elaborated lecture notes of a thematic school on the topic, held as a result of cooperation between the SYRTE Department of Paris Observatory and the section of astronomy of the Vienna University. Each chapter corresponds to a lecture of several hours given by its author(s). The book therefore represents a necessary and very precious document for teachers, students, and researchers in the ?eld. The ?rst two chapters by A. Lema ?tre and H. Skokos deal with standard topics of celestial mechanics: the ?rst one explains the basic principles of resonances in mechanics and their studies in the case of the Solar System. The differences between the various cases of resonance (mean motion, secular, etc. ) are emphasized together with resonant effects on celestial bodies moving around the Sun. The second one deals with approximative methods of describing chaos. These methods, some of them being classical, as the Lyapounov exponents, other ones being developed in the very recent past, are explained in full detail. The second one explains the basic principles of resonances in mechanics and their studies in the case of the Solar System. The differences between the various cases of resonance (mean motion, s- ular, etc. ) are emphasized together with resonant effects on celestial bodies moving around the Sun. The following three chapters by A. Cellino, by P. Robutel and J.

During the 30 years of space exploration, important discoveries in the near-earth environment such as the Van Allen belts, the plasmapause, the magnetotail and the bow shock, to name a few, have been made. Coupling between the solar wind and the magnetosphere and energy transfer processes between them are being identified. Space physics is clearly approaching a new era, where the emphasis is being shifted from discoveries to understanding. One way of identifying the new direction may be found in the recent contribution of atmospheric science and oceanography to the development of fluid dynamics. Hydrodynamics is a branch of classical physics in which important discoveries have been made in the era of Rayleigh, Taylor, Kelvin and Helmholtz. However, recent progress in global measurements using man-made satellites and in large scale computer simulations carried out by scientists in the fields of atmospheric science and oceanography have created new activities in hydrodynamics and produced important new discoveries, such as chaos and strange attractors, localized nonlinear vortices and solitons. As space physics approaches the new era, there should be no reason why space scientists cannot contribute, in a similar manner, to fundamental discoveries in plasma physics in the course of understanding dynamical processes in space plasmas.

Communication satellites are a $144 billion industry. Is there any space-based industry that could possibly beat that market? 'Solar Power Satellites' shows why and how the space satellite industry will soon begin expanding its market from relaying signals to Earth to generating energy in space and delivering it to the ground as electricity. In all industrialized nations, energy demand is growing exponentially. In the developing world, the need for energy is as basic as food and water. The Sun's energy is available everywhere, and it is non-polluting. As business plans demonstrate its technical feasibility, commercial potential, and environmental acceptability, every country on Earth will look to space for the power it needs.

The field of satellite communications represents the world's largest space industry. Those who are interested in space need to understand the fundamentals of satellite communications, its technology, operation, business, economic, and regulatory aspects. This book explains all this along with key insights into the field's future growth trends and current strategic challenges. Fundamentals of Satellite Communications is a concise book that gives all of the key facts and figures as well as a strategic view of where this dynamic industry is going. Author Joseph N. Pelton, PhD, former Dean of the International Space University and former Director of Strategic Policy at Intelstat, presents a readable book about the entire essence of the satellite communication field.