Ambassadors from Earth

Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft

Jay Gallentine (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

520 Seiten

2014
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-0-8032-4923-3 (ISBN)

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Ambassadors from Earth reminds us that our first mad scrambles to reach orbit, the moon, and the planets were littered with enough histrionics and cliff-hanging turmoil to rival the most far-out sci-fi film. But it all really happened!

Drawing on original interviews with key players and bolstered by previously unpublished photographs, journal excerpts, and primary source documents, Jay Gallentine delivers a quirky and unforgettable look at the lives and legacy of the people who conceived, built, and guided our first unmanned spacecraft and planetary probes. From the Sputnik and Explorer satellites of the late 1950s, to the thrilling Voyager "Grand Tour" of the '70s and '80s, they yielded some of the most celebrated successes and spectacular failures of the space age.

Confessed one participant, "We were making it up as we went along."

Gallentine fearlessly clambers to the bottom of a surprisingly bitter controversy over who first developed the technique of using gravity to steer a spacecraft. Also of special note are his candid discussions with James Van Allen, the discoverer of the rings of planetary radiation that now bear his name.

Jay Gallentine is a space historian who strives to tell never-before-heard stories of the space age in a lightheartedly appealing, readable, and nontechnical style.

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Aboard the Glacier

2. Problem Child

3. The Convict

4. Light Fuse, GET AWAY

5. New Moon

6. Let's Make a Deal

7. The Creators and the Makers

8. Storming the Sea of Dreams

9. Moving at the Speed of Design

10. Job Number MA-11

11. The Science and the Cyclist

12. Get Off the Bus

13. Swing in Time

14. The Meeting and the Mechta

15. Think Like Gravity

16. Didn't They Get It?

17. The Death and the Funeral

18. One Hundred Percent Failure

19. Three-Problem Shipley

20. Pete and Al's Little Field Trip

21. Irradiated Plans

22. Embarking

23. Get It

24. Instant Science

25. Circles of Gold

26. Last Light

27. Continuum

Sources

Index

Reihe/Serie	Outward Odyssey: a People's History of Spaceflight
Zusatzinfo	49 photographs, 1 illustration
Verlagsort	Lincoln
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Weltraum / Astronomie
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
	Technik ► Fahrzeugbau / Schiffbau
	Technik ► Luft- / Raumfahrttechnik
ISBN-10	0-8032-4923-3 / 0803249233
ISBN-13	978-0-8032-4923-3 / 9780803249233
Zustand	Neuware