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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > Space travel & exploration
Jonathan Ward takes the reader deep into the facilities at Kennedy
Space Center to describe NASA's first computer systems used for
spacecraft and rocket checkout and explain how tests and launches
proceeded. Descriptions of early operations include a harrowing
account of the heroic efforts of pad workers during the Apollo 1
fire. A companion to the author's book Countdown to a Moon Launch:
Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey, this explores every
facet of the facilities that served as the base for the
Apollo/Saturn missions. Hundreds of illustrations complement the
firsthand accounts of more than 70 Apollo program managers and
engineers. The era of the Apollo/Saturn missions was perhaps the
most exciting period in American space exploration history. Cape
Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center were buzzing with activity.
Thousands of workers came to town to build the facilities and
launch the missions needed to put an American on the Moon before
the end of the decade. Work at KSC involved much more than just
launching rockets. It was a place like none other on Earth.
Technicians performed intricate operations, and hazards abounded
everywhere, including lightning, fire, highly-toxic fuels, snakes,
heat, explosives, LOX spills, and even plutonium. The reward for
months of 7-day workweeks under intense pressure was witnessing a
Saturn V at liftoff. For anyone who ever wished they had worked at
Kennedy Space Center during the Apollo era, this book is the next
best thing. The only thing missing is the smell of rocket fuel in
the morning.
Praise for the hardcover edition:
"Extremely practical and enjoyable." -- Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
" Will be] devoured by history or space enthusiasts from eight
to eighty." -- VOYA
"The foreword grabbed me, and by the prologue I was hooked." --
The Science Teacher
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center set the stage for the
American adventure into space and went on to host a succession of
rocket launches that have helped to form our understanding of the
nature of the universe.
The Kennedy Space Center is a major tourist attraction in
Florida, but most of its doors remain locked to the public. This
abundantly illustrated book is an insider's history of the heart of
America's space program, including detailed information on: The
earliest development of rockets in the United States and Germany
The development of rockets and their launch facilities The missile
race and the U.S.-Soviet rivalry to be first in space The great
Apollo program and the race to the moon The shuttle program, the
Space Station and the Hubble Telescope The future of space
exploration
"Kennedy Space Center" is clearly written, meticulously
researched and packed with more than 150 spectacular images -- the
one and only complete history of this important site.
'Bursts with gloriously geeky detail.' The Telegraph Have you ever
made someone you love a mix-tape? Forty years ago, a group of
scientists, artists and writers gathered in a house in Ithaca, New
York to work on the most important compilation ever conceived. It
wasn't from one person to another, it was from Earth to the Cosmos.
In 1977 NASA sent Voyager 1 and 2 on a Grand Tour of the outer
planets. During the design phase of the Voyager mission, it was
realised that this pair of plucky probes would eventually leave our
solar system to drift forever in the unimaginable void of
interstellar space. With this gloomy-sounding outcome in mind, NASA
decided to do something optimistic. They commissioned astronomer
Carl Sagan to create a message to be fixed to the side of Voyager 1
and 2 - a plaque, a calling card, a handshake to any passing alien
that might one day chance upon them. The result was the Voyager
Golden Record, a genre-hopping multi-media metal LP. A 90-minute
playlist of music from across the globe, a sound essay of life on
Earth, spoken greetings in multiple languages and more than 100
photographs and diagrams, all painstakingly chosen by Sagan and his
team to create an aliens' guide to Earthlings. The record included
music by J.S. Bach and Chuck Berry, a message of peace from US
president Jimmy Carter, facts, figures and dimensions, all encased
in a golden box. The Vinyl Frontier tells the story of NASA's
interstellar mix-tape, from first phone call to final launch, when
Voyager 1 and 2 left our planet bearing their hopeful message from
the Summer of '77 to a distant future.
Looking at the night sky, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s all quiet up there in space. But you’d be wrong. Extreme events are forever unfolding: galaxies explode, cosmic debris hurtles through the heavens and our own Milky Way is on a collision course with the giant Andromeda galaxy.
Mayhem moulded the cosmos, shaped life on Earth and at times threatened to end it. With an enduring sense of wonder, through cataclysms great and small, Bob Berman presents a destructive history of our universe.
Living with the Stars tells the fascinating story of what truly
makes the human body. The body that is with us all our lives is
always changing. We are quite literally not who we were years,
weeks, or even days ago: our cells die and are replaced by new ones
at an astonishing pace. The entire body continually rebuilds
itself, time and again, using the food and water that flow through
us as fuel and as construction material. What persists over time is
not fixed but merely a pattern in flux. We rebuild using elements
captured from our surroundings, and are thereby connected to
animals and plants around us, and to the bacteria within us that
help digest them, and to geological processes such as continental
drift and volcanism here on Earth. We are also intimately linked to
the Sun's nuclear furnace and to the solar wind, to collisions with
asteroids and to the cycles of the birth of stars and their deaths
in cataclysmic supernovae, and ultimately to the beginning of the
universe. Our bodies are made of the burned out embers of stars
that were released into the galaxy in massive explosions billions
of years ago, mixed with atoms that formed only recently as
ultrafast rays slammed into Earth's atmosphere. All of that is not
just remote history but part of us now: our human body is
inseparable from nature all around us and intertwined with the
history of the universe.
Dieses Buch zeigt, wie spannend Astronomie sein kann. Mit einfachen
Beobachtungen kann man wichtige Fragen der Menschheit eroertern:
Wie ist das Universum entstanden und wo ist unser Platz darin? Der
Leser erhalt praktische Informationen, um die Faszination des
Nachthimmels selbst zu erleben: Welches Teleskop ist geeignet,
welche Details lassen sich damit auf den Himmelskoerpern erkennen
u.v.m.. Der Autor beschreibt die Planetenbewegungen und wann
selbige zu beobachten sind. Tipps zur Fotografie der Himmelskoerper
mit Digitalkameras oder Webcams werden ebenfalls gegeben. Neben
Anleitungen zu eigenen Beobachtungen erhalt der Leser auch
astrophysikalisches Hintergrundwissen zu den Fragen "Wie entstehen
Sterne und Planeten?", "Gibt es auf den neu gefundenen Exoplaneten
Leben?" und "Was ist Dunkle Materie?". Mit diesem Buch werden die
Wunder des Universums rasch zu einer Freude. Aber Vorsicht:
Sternegucken kann suchtig machen.
How to predict and calculate the positions of stars, planets, the
sun, the moon, and satellites using a personal computer and high
school mathematics. Our knowledge of the universe is expanding
rapidly, as space probes launched decades ago begin to send
information back to earth. There has never been a better time to
learn about how planets, stars, and satellites move through the
heavens. This book is for amateur astronomers who want to move
beyond pictures of constellations in star guides and solve the
mysteries of a starry night. It is a book for readers who have
wondered, for example, where Saturn will appear in the night sky,
when the sun will rise and set, or how long the space station will
be over their location. In Celestial Calculations, J. L. Lawrence
shows readers how to find the answers to these and other astronomy
questions with only a personal computer and high school math. Using
an easy-to-follow step-by-step approach, Lawrence explains what
calculations are required, why they are needed, and how they all
fit together. Lawrence begins with basic principles: unit of
measure conversions, time conversions, and coordinate systems. He
combines these concepts into a computer program that can calculate
the location of a star, and uses the same methods for predicting
the locations of the sun, moon, and planets. He then shows how to
use these methods for locating the many satellites we have sent
into orbit. Finally, he describes a variety of resources and tools
available to the amateur astronomer, including star charts and
astronomical tables. Diagrams illustrate the major concepts, and
computer programs that implement the algorithms are included.
Photographs of actual celestial objects accompany the text, and
interesting astronomical facts are interspersed throughout. Source
code (in Python 3, JAVA, and Visual Basic) and executables for all
the programs and examples presented in the book are available for
download at https://CelestialCalculations.github.io.
Increasing discoveries of new planets beyond our solar system are
invigorating the quest for new knowledge and understanding of the
birth of stars and planets. This new volume in the Space Science
Series, with 249 contributing authors, builds on the latest results
from recent advances in ground and space-based astronomy and in
numerical computing techniques to offer the most detailed and
up-to-date picture of star and planet formation, including the
formation of our own solar system. This book emphasizes the
cross-disciplinary aspects of the field, with a particular focus on
the early evolution of our solar system. Protostars and Planets V
is the new foundation for further advancement in the fields of
stellar and planetary formation, making it an indispensable
resource for researchers and students in astronomy, planetary
science, and the study of meteorites.
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