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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > Observatories, equipment & methods
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The Last of the Great Observatories - Spitzer and the Era of Faster, Better, Cheaper at NASA (Paperback)
Loot Price: R551
Discovery Miles 5 510
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The Last of the Great Observatories - Spitzer and the Era of Faster, Better, Cheaper at NASA (Paperback)
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Loot Price R551
Discovery Miles 5 510
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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The Spitzer Space Observatory, originally known as the Space
Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), is the last of the four aGreat
Observatoriesa, which also include the Hubble Space Telescope, the
Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
Developed over twenty years and dubbed the aInfrared Hubble,"
Spitzer was launched in the summer of 2003 and has since
contributed significantly to our understanding of the universe.
George Rieke played a key role in Spitzer and now relates the story
of how that observatory was built and launched into space. Telling
the story of this single mission within the context of NASA space
science over two turbulent decades, he describes how, after a
tortuous political trail to approval, Spitzer was started at the
peak of NASAas experiment with streamlining and downsizing its
mission development process, termed afaster better cheaper.a Up to
its official start and even afterward, Spitzer was significant not
merely in terms of its scientific value but because it stood at the
center of major changes in space science policy and politics.
Through interviews with many of the project participants, Rieke
reconstructs the political and managerial process by which space
missions are conceived, approved, and developed. He reveals that by
the time Spitzer had been completed, a number of mission failures
had undermined faith in afaster-better-cheapera and a more
conservative approach was imposed. Rieke examines in detail the
premises behind afaster better cheaper, a their strengths and
weaknesses, and their ultimate impact within the context of NASAas
continuing search for the best way to build future missions.
Riekeas participantas perspective takesreaders inside Congress and
NASA to trace the progress of missions prior to the excitement of
the launch, revealing the enormously complex and often
disheartening political process that needs to be negotiated. He
also shares some of the new observations and discoveries made by
Spitzer in just its first year of operation. As the only book
devoted to the Spitzer mission, "The Last of the Great
Observatories" is a story at the nexus of politics and science,
shedding new light on both spheres as it contemplates the future of
mankindas exploration of the universe.
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