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We're on the cusp of new era in the great adventure of space exploration. More than a half-century ago, humanity first hurled objects into space, and almost 50 years ago, astronauts first walked on the moon. Since then, we have explored Earth's orbit with shuttles, capsules, and space stations; sent robots to Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus; sampled a comet; sent telescopes into orbit; and charted most of our own planet. What does the future hold? In Space 2.0, space historian Rod Pyle, in collaboration with the National Space Society, will give you an inside look at the next few decades of spaceflight and long-term plans for exploration, utilization, and settlement. No longer the exclusive domain of government entities such as NASA and other national agencies, space exploration is rapidly becoming privatized, with entrepreneurial startups building huge rocket boosters, satellites, rocket engines, asteroid probes, prospecting craft, and even commercial lunar cargo landers to open this new frontier. Research into ever more sophisticated propulsion and life support systems will soon enable the journey to Mars and destinations deeper in our solar system. As these technologies continue to move forward, there are virtually no limits to human spaceflight and robotic exploration. While the world has waited since the Apollo lunar program for the next "giant leap," these critical innovations, most of which are within our grasp with today's technology, will change the way we live, both in space and on Earth. A new space age—and with it, a new age of peace and prosperity on Earth, and settlement beyond our planet—can be ours. Speaking with key leaders of the latest space programs and innovations, Pyle shares the excitement and promise of this new era of exploration and economic development. From NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, to emerging leaders in the private sector such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Moon Express, Virgin Galactic, and many others, Space 2.0 examines the new partnerships that are revolutionizing spaceflight and changing the way we reach for the stars.
In 1958, mankind's centuries-long flirtation with space flight became a torrid love affair. For a decade, tens of millions of people were enraptured -- first, by the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon, and finally, as America outstripped its rival, by Project Apollo alone. It is now more than three decades since the last man walked on the moon...more time than between the first moonwalk and the beginning of World War II. Apollo did not, as had been promised by a generation of visionaries, herald the beginning of the Space Age, but its end. Or did it? Project Apollo, like a cannonball, reached its apogee and returned to earth, but the trajectory of that return was complex. America's atmosphere -- its economic, scientific, and cultural atmosphere -- made for a very complicated reentry that produced many solutions to the trajectory problem. Rocket Dreams is about those solutions...about the places where the space program landed. In Rocket Dreams, an extraordinarily talented young writer named Marina Benjamin will take you on a journey to those landing sites. A visit with retired astronauts at a celebrity autograph show is a starting point down the divergent paths taken by the pioneers, including Edgar Mitchell, founder of the "church" of Noëtic Sciences. Roswell, New Mexico is a landing site of a different order, the "magnetic north" of UFO belief in the United States -- a belief that began its most dramatic growth precisely at the time that the path of the space program began its descent. In the vernacular, the third law of motion states that what goes up, must come down. Thus the tremendous motive force that energized the space program didn't just vanish; it was conserved and transformed, making bestsellers out of fantasy literature, spawning Gaia, and giving symbolism to the environmental movement. Everything from the pop cultural boom in ufology to the worldwide Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) feeds on the energy given off by America's leap toward space. Rocket Dreams is an eloquent tour of this Apollo-scarred landscape. It is also an introduction to some of the most fascinating characters imaginable: Some long dead, like the crackpot visionary Alfred Lawson, who saw in space flight a new stage of human evolution ("Alti-Man"), or Robert Goddard, the father of rocketry, whose workshop in Roswell stands only half a mile from shops selling posters of alien visitors. Others are very much alive -- like Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog and partner with Gerard O'Neill in the drive to build free-floating space colonies, and SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, who has spent decades listening to the skies, hoping for the first contact with another intelligent species. Perceptive, original, and wonderfully written, informed by history, science, and an acute knowledge of popular culture, Rocket Dreams is a brilliant book by a remarkable talent.
Space technology has an important role to play in shaping a sustainable future, employing both human and robotic spaceflight capabilities. But the U.S. civil space program focuses the majority of its resources on the traditional paradigm of sending humans to increasingly distant targets (the Moon, Mars, and beyond). Rather than picking the destinations first and figuring out the goals later, the book suggests that NASA’s spaceflight programs should primarily target the creation of advanced capabilities, especially space infrastructure in the Earth-Moon system, and facilitate a greater role for the commercial sector in this endeavor. This will bring direct benefits to Earth more quickly and at the same time enable steady progress in the exploration and development of the solar system. The narrative begins by examining space in the context of today’s globalized world. Globalization has been a good news/bad news story, and space technology has been an important factor in this process. New wealth and international collaboration have been generated, but so have new problems and old problems have accelerated and spread. If we make the right choices, space development can do more to provide solutions in the decades ahead. The work of noted space futurists of the Cold War era is reviewed, with particular attention to the question: Why have things turned out differently from what most experts predicted and most advocates expected? The NASA exploration program finds itself locked into the “Von Braun paradigm” of the 1950s, which focuses on human spaceflight to the Moon and Mars without adequately explaining the reasons for doing it. This situation is not well suited to the political, economic, and societal environment of the 21st century. At a time when long-term strategic thinking is needed to address enduring global issues, many forces drive us to short-term thinking. The most significant of these forces for the nation’s top decision-makers come from the election cycle, the budget cycle, and the news cycle. Their effects on the presidency, the Congress, and the bureaucracy are examined using examples from recent history and current practices. The emphasis is on the need to change the incentive structure to promote long-term thinking since big technology projects have multi-decade life cycles and are aimed at problems that are national and global in scope. This shift in thinking leads to a revised rationale for spaceflight for the coming decades that is more directly tied to societal needs and ambitions. Space development will require more resources than NASA—or even all of the world’s civilian space agencies combined—can devote to the effort. Partnership with the commercial sector will be essential. Will space commerce be the stimulus for moving out into the solar system? If so, will it contribute to improvement of life back on Earth at the same time? Space commerce is growing fast, but is still small compared to other major global industries. Possibilities and pitfalls are discussed, along with examples of the checkered history of public and private sector attempts to promote space commerce. Making wise choices that have implications lasting decades is a daunting challenge, even when there’s broad agreement on a course of action. The book includes a chapter that warns: be careful what you wish for. Real-world examples (including the space shuttle and space station) demonstrate the difficulties of long-term strategic planning, and two futuristic thought experiments provide further illustration. The chapter concludes by demonstrating the long-term repercussions of poor choices, citing a current problem that has proven hard to fix despite widespread recognition that it needs fixing: export control for space technologies. If 21st century reality is driving us toward a course of action different from that of the Apollo/Cold War era, what should it look like, and what rationale should drive it? Voices of authority and advocacy for space ex
From the first landings on the moon to the implications of our cyber worlds, this unusual and intriguing book takes a provocative look at our fascination with space. Rocket Dreams is a fast-moving, fact-filled study of how all the dreams that went in to moonflight in the '60s have found new homes and mutated into new fascination with space. It is about our unquenchable desire to reach out to other worlds, physical and imaginative. From the Apollo astronauts to the military origins of the internet, and the whole phenomenon of 'virtual communities', it reveals how the ideals and longings pinned on cyberspace have evolved directly from those of the space age. Space dreams have been transformed into screen dreams, but the longing for communication with 'the other' lies at the heart of both.
"The book is divided into six chapters. The first section, "Project Constellation: NASA's Vision for Space Exploration," focuses on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s plans to bring Americans out of low Earth orbit and back to the Moon, where the space agency hopes to establish a permanent lunar colony as part of its long-term preparations to conduct a manned exploration of Mars. In the second chapter, "A New Space Race? The Rise of China's Space Program," selections provide an overview of China's space program, including information about its Shenzhou space capsules and Long March rockets, as well as articles that debate the impact the Chinese program will have on its American counterpart. The issue of privately funded spaceflight is addressed in "Commercializing the Cosmos: Private Industry in Outer Space," which brings together articles that describe the many private space ventures that have sprung up in recent years. The fourth section, "Roving the Red Planet: The Continuing Exploration of Mars," assembles articles that provide historical context to the ongoing robotic exploration of the red planet, as well as information on what these missions have uncovered thus far. Robotic exploration is also examined in "Sailing Through the Solar System: A Look at Unmanned Probes," in which selected entries detail how probes work, recall famously successful probes like the Pioneer and Voyager series, and compare the various probes currently tooling about our solar system. Articles in the final section, "Exoplanets: The Search for Extrasolar Earths," discuss the efforts by astronomers to find a planet similar to Earth that might harbor extraterrestrial life." -- Book Preface.
"IBM and the Seven Dwarfs" was a phrase coined in the 1960s to describe IBM and the seven companies struggling to catch up. This book tells the story of those early days in the computer industry when General Electric alone had the technical and economic resources to compete effectively in this sophisticated high stakes market. However in 1970, GE's top management decided to sell the computer business to Honeywell--a decision which changed history.
At age eight Marilyn Harlin already knew she wanted to be a scientist. Throughout the peaks and valleys in her life-including widowhood when her husband fell off a mountain in Switzerland, and the challenges of raising two children on her own--she kept her eyes on her goal and eventually joined the faculty at the University of Rhode Island as its only female botany professor. Marilyn's mission in her career and into retirement has been to inspire youth, especially girls, to venture into the sciences. Making Waves is a memoir of a progressive life lived with passion....