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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Rewind to the 1950s and ponder: was America’s first satellite really built by a college student? How did a small band of underappreciated Russian engineers get pictures of the moon’s far side—using stolen American film? As the 1960s progressed, consider: how the heck did people learn to steer a spacecraft using nothing but gravity? And just how were humans able to goose a spaceship through a thirty-year journey to the literal edge of our solar system? Ambassadors from Earth relates the story of the first unmanned space probes and planetary explorers—from the Sputnik and Explorer satellites launched in the late 1950s to the thrilling interstellar Voyager missions of the '70s—that yielded some of the most celebrated successes and spectacular failures of the space age. Keep in mind that our first mad scrambles to reach orbit, the moon, and the planets were littered with enough histrionics and cliffhanging turmoil to rival the most far-out sci-fi film. Utilizing original interviews with key players, bolstered by never-before-seen photographs, journal excerpts, and primary source documents, Jay Gallentine delivers a quirky and unforgettable look at the lives and legacy of the Americans and Soviets who conceived, built, and guided those unmanned missions to the planets and beyond. Of special note is his in-depth interview with James Van Allen, the discoverer of the rings of planetary radiation that now bear his name. Ambassadors from Earth is an engaging bumper-car ride through a fog of head-banging uncertainty, bleeding-edge technology, personality clashes, organizational frustrations, brutal schedules, and the occasional bright spot. Confessed one participant, “We were making it up as we went along.”

Jay Gallentine is a film and video engineer with a lifelong interest in space exploration.

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