Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Guest Post: Newly Born: the Science of Astronomy

Astronomical equipment from the ages, on display at the Adler Planetarium. Image: Nancy Atkinson

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Editor’s Note: Astronomy journalist Govert Schilling has written a book that looks at the 100 most important discoveries since the invention of the telescope 400 years ago, called “Atlas of Astronomical Discoveries.” In Schilling’s distinct style, he takes the reader on an adventure through both space and time. Schilling has written this guest post for Universe Today:

Astronomy is a newborn science.

Yes, I know astronomers like to say it’s the oldest science in the world. In a sense, our distant ancestors who wondered about the lights and motions in the night sky were the first practitioners.

But look at it this way: until four centuries ago, we all had the same opportunities in the field. Or lack thereof. Two eyes and a brain – that has been the main instrumentation in astronomy for thousands of years. Not much, really.

Little wonder then that astronomy was in a pretty primitive state at the start of the seventeenth century. Granted, scientists had come to realize that the Sun occupied the center of the solar system, rather than the Earth. They had seen the occasional comet and Stella Nova, and they knew about the slow change in the orientation of the Earth’s axis.

But no one knew the distances to the planets, let alone to the stars. No one had the slightest clue about the true nature of the Sun or the Moon. Meteors were a mystery; planetary satellites and rings were unheard of, and to many, the Milky Way was just that – a cosmic river of milky clouds.

The Milky Way as seen near the Very Large Telescope in the Atacama Desert. Credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky

More importantly, no one realized that the Universe is in a constant state of flux, albeit at an extremely slow pace. That stars were once born and will eventually die. That the planets in our solar system are built from the ashes of an earlier generation of stars. That the Universe hasn’t always been there.

Most of the astronomical knowledge that we take for granted these days, was completely unknown four centuries ago. That’s why I say astronomy is a newborn science.

And the telescope was its midwife.

A replica of Galileo's telescope.

The invention of the telescope, probably around 1600 in the Netherlands, ushered in a whole new scientific era. It paved the way for hundreds of revolutionary discoveries and revealing insights. It brought astronomy to where it is now.

On the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy (2009), I decided to devote a book to the hundred most important astronomical discoveries since the invention of the telescope. Recently translated into English as Atlas of Astronomical Discoveries (Springer, 2011), it is a lavishly illustrated and beautifully designed history tour of the grandest science of all, chockfull with surprising details and personal anecdotes.

What I realized when writing the book was that the young science of astronomy went through a number of very distinct stages, just like a human being goes through childhood, puberty and adolescence before reaching full maturity.

In the seventeenth century, astronomers were like children in a newly opened candy store. Wherever they aimed their rather primitive telescopes, they beheld new discoveries, but this embarrassment of riches was also an undirected endeavour.

During the eighteenth century, the search became more systematic, with diligent observers surveying the skies and taking stock of everything that the telescope brought into view. This was no longer a first reconnaissance, but a real exploratory phase.

Then came the nineteenth century, with the advent of photography and spectroscopy, and the discovery of mysterious cosmic denizens like spiral nebulae, white dwarfs, and interstellar matter. Nature was trying to tell us something profound, and astronomy stood on the threshold of major theoretical breakthroughs that would explain this surprising variety of phenomena.

Finally, the twentieth century saw the emergence of an interconnected, all-encompassing view of cosmic evolution. We discovered the energy source of stars, the true nature of galaxies, the expansion of the Universe, and the humble position of our home planet, both in space and in time. Moreover, we finally understood that the atoms in our bodies were forged in the nuclear ovens of distant suns. That we are truly one with the Universe.

So has astronomy grown into a mature science? With the current generation of giant telescopes, the full exploration of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the advent of space science and computer technology, it’s tempting to answer this question with a resounding ‘yes’. Then again, ninety-six percent of the cosmos consists of mysterious dark matter and dark energy; we have no clue about the origin of our Universe, and no one knows whether or not life – let alone intelligence – is rare or abundant.

Personally, I feel that astronomy is still in its early years. And that’s exactly why it fires the imagination of so many people. The questions that astronomers try to answer are the same questions that a ten-year old would ask. The answers may be difficult, but the questions are simple, because the science is young. What’s it made of? How did it all start? Are we alone?

Certainly, I’d love to see a 2411 edition of Atlas of Astronomical Discoveries, highlighting the hundred most important discoveries and breakthroughs that astronomers made in the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th century. But I’m afraid I wouldn’t understand most of the issues that would be described.

Frankly, I’m glad to live during the youth of my favorite science. After all, I’ve always been fond of the curiosity, energy, creativity and the sheer sense of wonder of children.

Please, astronomy, don’t grow up too soon.

Govert Schilling is an internationally acclaimed astronomy writer in the Netherlands. He is a contributing editor of Sky & Telescope, and his articles have appeared in Science, New Scientist and BBC Sky at Night Magazine. He wrote over fifty books on a wide variety of astronomical topics, some of which have been translated into English, including “Evolving Cosmos; Flash! The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe,” TThe Hunt for Planet X,” and “Atlas of Astronomical Discoveries.” In 2007, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid (10986) Govert after him.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Win a Copy of “Drifting on Alien Winds: Exploring the Skies and Weather of Other Worlds”

Meteorologists have a tough time predicting weather on Earth let alone knowing what the weather is like on other planets, but discoveries from spacecraft, observatories, and laboratories have revealed some of the mysteries of weather across the Solar System. A new book by Science journalist Michael Carroll, “Drifting on Alien Winds: Exploring the Skies and Weather of Other Worlds,” explores the bizarre weather found on the other worlds of our solar system.

Read a guest post by Carroll on Universe Today.

Sound interesting? You could win a copy of your very own! Universe Today has two copies to give away, thanks to Springer and Jeff Rutherford Media Relations.

How to win? Just send an email to [email protected] with “Alien Winds Book” in the subject line, and Fraser will randomly pick the winners. The contest ends on Friday, May 20 at 12 Noon PDT.

Good luck!

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Guest Post: Drifting on Alien Winds: Exploring the Skies and Weather of Other Worlds

Triton Probe: Neptune’s blue skies may be visited by beachball-sized methane raindrops. (painting ©Michael Carroll)

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Editor’s note: We all want to explore other worlds in our solar system, but perhaps you haven’t considered the bizarre weather you’d encounter — from the blistering hurricane-force winds of Venus to the gentle methane rain showers of Saturn’s giant moon Titan. Science journalist Michael Carroll has written a guest post for Universe Today which provides peek at the subject matter for his new book, “Drifting on Alien Winds: Exploring the Skies and Weather of Other Worlds.”

It’s been a dramatic year for weather on Earth. Blizzards have blanketed the east coast, crippling traffic and power grids. Cyclone Tasha drenched Queensland, Australia as rainfall swelled the mighty Mississippi, flooding the southern US. Eastern Europe and Asia broke high temperature records. But despite these meteorological theatrics, the Earth’s conditions are a calm echo of the weather on other worlds in our solar system.


Take our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus. Nearly a twin of Earth in size, Venus displays truly alien weather. The hurricane-force Venusian winds are ruled not by water (as on Earth), but by battery acid. Sunlight tears carbon dioxide molecules (CO2) apart in a process called photodissociation. Leftover bits of molecules frantically try to combine with sulfur and water to become chemically stable, resulting acid hazes. Temperatures soar to 900ºF at the surface, where air is as dense as the Earthly oceans at a depth of X feet.

Venus is the poster child of comparative planetology, the study of other planets to help us understand our own. Earth’s simmering sibling has taught us about greenhouse gases, and gave us an even more immediate cautionary tale in 1978. The Pioneer Venus orbiter discovered that Venus naturally generates chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in its atmosphere. These CFCs were tearing holes in the planet’s ozone. At the same time, a wide variety of industries were preparing to use CFCs in insecticides, spray paints, and other aerosol products. Venus presented us with a warning that may have averted a planet-wide crisis.

In the same way, Mars has provided insights into long-term climate change. Its weather is a simplified version of our own. Locked within its rocks and polar caps lie records of changing climate over eons.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a cyclone larger than two Earths. (photomontage ©Michael Carroll)

But fans of really extreme weather must venture further out, to the outer planets. Jupiter and Saturn are giant balls of gas with no solid surface, and are known as the “gas giants.” They are truly gigantic: over a thousand Earths could fit within Jupiter itself.

The skies of Jupiter and Saturn are dominated by hydrogen and helium, the ancient building blocks of the solar system. Ammonia mixes in to produce a rich brew of complex chemistry, painting the clouds of Jupiter and Saturn in tans and grays. Lightning bolts sizzle through the clouds, powerful enough to electrify a small city for weeks. Ammonia forms rain and snow in the frigid skies. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a centuries-old cyclone large enough to swallow three Earths. Saturn has its own bizarre storms: a vast hexagon-shaped trough of clouds races across the northern hemisphere. Over the south pole, a vast whirlpool gazes from concentric clouds like a Cyclops.

Clouds tower into a twilight sky on Saturn. The planet’s glowing rings seem to bend at the horizon because of the dense air. (painting ©Michael Carroll)

Beyond Jupiter and Saturn lie the “ice giants”, Uranus and Neptune. These behemoths host atmospheres of poisonous brews chilled to cryogenic temperatures. Methane tints Uranus and Neptune blue. Neptune’s clear air reveals a teal cloud deck. Hydrocarbon hazes tinge Uranus to a paler shade of blue-green. Neptune’s clear air is somewhat of a mystery to scientists. This may be because cloud-forming particles can’t stay airborne long enough to become visible clouds. Some scientists propose that Neptune’s abundant methane rains may condense so rapidly that within a few seconds tiny methane raindrops swell to something the size of a beachball. There are no clouds adrift, because methane rains out of the atmosphere too quickly.

One of the strangest cases of bizarre weather comes to us from Neptune’s moon Triton. Triton’s meager nitrogen air is tied to the freezing and thawing of polar ices, also composed of nitrogen. Triton’s entire atmosphere collapses twice a year, when it’s winter on one of the poles. At that time of year, all of Triton’s air migrates to the winter pole, where it freezes to the ground. The moon only has “weather” during the spring and fall; its atmosphere exists only during those seasons.

So, the next time you contemplate complaining about the heat, think of Venus. And if it’s blizzards you worry about, find comfort in Triton: at least our atmosphere doesn’t disappear in winter!

For more on the subject, see Michael Carroll’s newest book, Drifting on Alien Winds: Exploring the Skies and Weather of Other Worlds from Springer.

Posted on by Mark Mortimer

Around the World in 84 Days – The Authorized Biography of Skylab Astronaut Jerry Carr

Around the World in 84 days

Flying into space requires money, good fortune and desire. Some astronauts relied upon the government for money, had good fortune when luck was needed and felt the desire to push themselves ever onward. One such astronaut is Jerry Carr whose biography, “Around the World in 84 Days” by David Shayler demonstrates the validity of these requirements as well as the costs and benefits of becoming an astronaut.

Jerry Carr commanded the third and final crew of the Skylab mission. While doing this, he accumulated a number of records, including the longest time in space at 84 days. As well, he and his team effectively closed the book on the Apollo story, as the next manned flight by the United States was via the Space Shuttle. While this was a highlight of his life, it required lots of preparation. Hence this biography starts well before Carr’s application to NASA in 1965 and extends well past his final days at NASA in 1977. In so doing, this book shows a lot of the person that made up the astronaut, the husband, the father and the engineer.

Shayler’s book begins by setting the scene of Carr’s application and acceptance to be a NASA astronaut. The next chapter skips back to his early years as a boy scout, going through school and then trying to identify a future. The following chapters follow the unfolding of Carr’s life; as a pilot in the marine corps, as an Apollo astronaut candidate with NASA, as a trainee and then a participant for living on Skylab, as a technical expert after Skylab and last as a technical expert through to retirement. Aside from a life spent mostly in the field of aerospace, the flow of Carr’s life, its trials, tribulations and exultations appear as common place as any other middle income bread winner.

The distinctive feature of Carr’s life and the compelling aspect of Shayler’s book is, of course, Carr the astronaut. Here, it is mostly of his preparation for and occupation of Skylab. Living in an enclosed space the size of a three bedroom bungalow gave Carr and his two crew mates lots of opportunity for experimentation and research. Shayler, however, gives due deference to the general reader and stays away from technical descriptions. Rather, he considers more the human side; a spontaneous Christmas tree from can labels, a weekly shower, and adaptations due to weightlessness. Shayler’s choice to keep the vein of the book along the emotive rather than technical will give the reader a powerful appreciation of the human spirit enduring and flourishing in a completely foreign environment.

While Shayler keeps the biography principally upon Carr and his involvement with Skylab and NASA, he does branch out to other aspect of his life. The book shows Carr extending his awareness from military applications out to human factor design and on to art appreciation. He is seen to keep in contact with his six children, his step children and the appreciating number of grand children. While he did provide appreciable consulting work for the design of the Space Shuttle and the International Space Stations, this book shows that there was indeed life for Carr after being an astronaut, and the life was well flavoured.

To further embellish his book, Shayler has included a brief list of Carr’s records and awards, a brief narrative of other, related astronauts and a DVD with original videos from the Skylab mission. This portion, and some other sections, read dryly as if a direct transcription from a flight diary. In recognition of this, Shayler has kept them well balanced with emotive quotes from direct interviews. Thus, “Around the world in 84 Days – The Authorized Biography of Skylab Astronaut Jerry Carr” by David Shayler is a pleasant recap of an astronaut with a very accomplished life.

Click here to read more reviews or buy this book from Amazon.com.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Alan Shepard: Complicated, Conflicted and the Consummate Astronaut

Alan Shepard prepares for his historic flight on May 5, 1961. Credit: NASA

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50 years ago today, Alan Shepard blasted off on board the first flight of NASA’s Mercury program, becoming the first American in space. Shepard was the consummate astronaut, — he stayed with NASA for over 15 years, and eventually walked on the Moon. But for all his successes, Shepard was a complicated and conflicted man; even though he was in constant limelight along with all of the early NASA astronauts, his life was somewhat of an enigma, as he closely guarded his privacy and held most people – including his friends – at arm’s length.

“He was the epitome of the image that NASA had hoped to portray when they selected the first astronauts,” said Neal Thompson, author of the only Shepard biography, “Light This Candle: The Life and Times of Alan Shepard.” “He was a aircraft carrier pilot, a test pilot, drove fast cars, smoked cigars, drank martinis—he was stylish and cool and cocky. I’ve described him as Don Draper in a spacesuit. He represented that “Mad Men” era – cool and suave and all that.”

But, Thompson said, that was an image that Shepard worked hard to portray as well as protect, and Thompson felt there had to be more to Shepard’s story. Through years of research, Thompson found Shepard to be a much more compelling man than he ever expected.

“He wasn’t the most outgoing guy with the press and I felt like there had to be more to his story than what I had read,” Thompson told Universe Today. “There were a lot of aspects to his personality that were complicated and compelling and contradictory. He was highly competitive, but he was also a softy underneath at times. He was accused over the years of being a bit of a womanizer, and yet he was married to the same woman for 40-plus years and I think they were very devoted to each other. So there were a lot of complex aspects to his personality that were fun to explore.”

While all the other Mercury 7 astronauts had either written their own books or had books written about them, America’s first astronaut had not told his own life story, and no one had gotten close enough to tell it for him. Shepard died without ever authorizing a biography that focused on his life.

The launch of Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard aboard on May 5, 1961. Credit: NASA

“I was really intrigued when I started researching his life that, no other biography had been written about him,” Thompson said.

The title of the book, which was first published in 2004, refers to Shepard’s impatience with NASA engineers who were making sure his Redstone rocket was ready to go. Shepard was frustrated: he knew very well he could have been the first human in space, if not for political and technical delays. But as it was, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched on an orbital flight on April 12, 1961, becoming the first man in space and scoring a huge victory for the Soviet Union in the Cold War with the US.

23 days later, Shepard sat on the launchpad, waiting inside his rocket for over 4 hours while engineers tackled one problem and then another. The wait was longer than anyone expected and Shepard ended up having to urinate inside his spacesuit, claiming otherwise his bladder would burst.

Finally, when one more problem cropped up, Shepard exclaimed, “Why don’t you fix your little problem and light this candle?”

“I think that sums up his character in many ways, that one particular quote,” said Thompson. “He was a very intense guy who just wanted to get the job done and liked to move forward and not look back, and I think that reflection of that intensity of his personality is nicely summed in those few words.”

Shepard during his Freedom 7 flight. Credit: NASA

Shepard’s whole life was about competition. “Whether it was in sports as a youth, or competing among other naval aviators when he was a carrier pilot,” said Thompson, “and then it just sort of ramped up at each stage of his career, becoming a test pilot where he competed with some of the best aviators on the planet and then to be selected among this extremely elite group of Mercury 7 astronauts and then to compete against them for that first ride. But I think he thrived on that and it was fun to explore what that meant in the scope of the space program.”

Particularly intriguing to Thompson was the competitive relationship between Shepard and John Glenn, who early on were pegged as being the two astronauts who were most likely to fly first.

“As you know, Shepard was picked first and Glenn was furious about that,” Thompson said. “I think it is sort of interesting that now, historically, Glenn is more well known probably than Shepard, even though he was picked to fly third among the first astronauts. But because he has the orbital flight, Glenn’s flight is historically viewed as the bigger accomplishment.”

Shepard always kept a distance between himself and others. While he could be pulling a prank or making a joke one minute, the next he could be sullen and withdrawn or downright angry and unpleasant — which Thompson said was perhaps a way to keep the competition at bay.

But Shepard’s competitive nature is likely what made him so successful throughout his career, and in particular it was something he relied on in the mid-1960’s when he was grounded because of a disabling medical condition, Ménière’s disease, which causes severe vertigo and nausea, which is crippling for a pilot and astronaut.

“After his Mercury flight, he was selected to command the first Gemini mission, and while training for that was felled by Ménière’s disease,” Thompson said. “I think at that point, Shepard just considered hanging it up and leaving the space program and pursuing other things, like business or politics or something high profile.”

While Shepard could have anything he wanted — there were many offers he could have taken, Thompson said – he decided to stick with the program, to stay with NASA, to take on this lesser role as head of the astronaut office.

“It had to be really demoralizing for him to be the first American in space and then not be able to fly at all and to be stuck watching the other astronauts fly ahead of him. But it was always impressive to me that he did stick with it, he got his inner ear disorder cured, and fought his way back into the flight rotation and then was assigned to Apollo 14,” Thompson said.

But the disease may have saved his life from tragedy, as well. Shepard likely would have been chosen to lead Apollo 1 and was originally scheduled to command Apollo 13.

Alan Shepard on the Moon during Apollo 14. Credit: NASA

Thompson added that it says a lot about Shepard’s character that he managed to get assigned to command an Apollo mission and fly Apollo 14 so successfully.

Shepard stayed with NASA for 15 years which is longer than any of the other Mercury 7 astronauts, and longer than many astronauts today stay. “I think he really believed in the mission and believed in what he and what NASA was doing,” Thompson said.

What people might remember most about the Apollo 14 mission is Shepard hitting golf balls on the Moon.

“I think he viewed that as something that he wanted to do, maybe so that his flight could be remembered as being a little more unique than some of the others,” Thompson said. “It was a little bit of flair and maybe a sign of exuberance, punctuating his comeback and his successful flight, and he set things up so that he would only hit the golf balls at the end of the flight if everything went well. It was his kind of exclamation point tacked on to the end of Apollo 14 to say, “I did it” and here’s something fun and extra.”

Alan Shepard preparing for his Apollo 14 mission. Credit: NASA

Later Shepard was successful in business, becoming the first millionaire astronaut. “I think he enjoyed the rest of his life, business, traveling, playing golf, he loved his wife – he just lived a big life,” Thompson said.

Shepard died from cancer at age 74 in 1998. Tragically, his wife Louise died five weeks later from a heart attack during an airplane flight. It almost was if she couldn’t live without him.

“Shepard was almost larger than life – he always had that ‘little extra’ and he was an exceptional man at all levels,” Thompson said.

For more information: Neal Thompon’s website

Find the book “Light This Candle: the Life and Times of Alan Shepard” on Amazon.

You can listen to an interview I did with Thompson for the NASA Lunar Science Institute and 365 Days of Astronomy.

Posted on by Jason Rhian

NASA Space Shuttle Owner’s Workshop Manual Book Review

Zenith Press has re-released NASA Space Shuttle Owner's Workshop Manual just in time to mark the conclusiion of the shuttle program. Image Credit: Zenith Press

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The shuttle era is ending and when things end people have the tendency to look back and reflect on the trials and tribulations of that period. There are many news books that are being produced that seek to capitalize on this nostalgia – and a few old ones, are being re-released with current and updated information within. One of the more notable efforts is NASA SPACE SHUTTLE Owner’s Workshop Manual.

With modern imagery and text reflective of the program’s long history, the book encapsulates all of the accomplishments that the vehicle’s design allowed to become a reality. The book uses very current information, so much so that it mentions the shooting of U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords which took place this past January.

The book provides for a succinct review of the program’s history, its contributions, the setbacks of the Challenger and Columbia disasters as well as other aspects both known and unforeseen of the vehicle’s overall design. Although the book is relatively short, it covers the rationale behind why the space shuttle was designed the way that it was, how the spacecraft launches, flies and lands as well as numerous other facets that comprised the space shuttles’ history.

Written by Dr. David Baker and published by Zenith Press, the book retails for $28 and is well worth the price. With only two flights left before the shuttles are sent to their final resting places in museums and theme parks around the nation this book will make for a great memento of the vehicle that placed the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit, that helped build the International Space Station and that has been the focal point of U.S. human space efforts for the past thirty years.

With the shuttle program ending soon, the book; NASA Space Shuttle Owner's Workshop Manual provides a concise review of the various aspects and impacts that the thirty-year program has had. Photo Credit: Jason Rhian
Posted on by Jason Rhian

“How Apollo Flew To The Moon” Second Edition Set For Summer Release

The second edition of "How Apollo Flew To The Moon" is set to be released this summer. Image Credit: Springer/Praxis

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Apollo: the name conjures up images of spacesuit-clad astronauts riding fantastic machines to the surface of another world. But when it comes to the brass tacks, the mechanics of how it was accomplished – the image gets a little fuzzy.

It is with that in mind that author, engineer and historian David Woods has written: How Apollo Flew to the Moon. Now while this book is written by someone that has sat down with those involved with the Apollo Program and is an engineer himself – it doesn’t read that way. This appears to be one of Woods’ key considerations from the outset.

“I believe that the essential elements of any technology can be understood by any reasonably intelligent person, provided that the words can be found to explain it,” said Woods during an interview regarding the second edition of his book which was recently released. “This was the basis for this book. There’s no point in getting into the function of every electronic component or each equation used to describe a trajectory to the Moon, but I could see no reason why a person couldn’t come to understand the broad sweep of a mission and the many layers of technology and procedure that went into one.”

Many books that cover the Apollo Program delve a little too deeply into the technical aspects that made man’s first journey to another world possible. Novices, or those without engineering degrees get quickly bored and the books find themselves warming shelves.

How Apollo Flew To The Moon defeats this problem by breaking the technical hurdles, accomplishments and other aspects of the missions into bite-sized segments. It also avoids engineer-speak, explaining points in easy-to-understand language. It also is filled with color and black-and-white images as well as diagrams that explain how things happened, why other things were selected (and others weren’t) and so on.

The first edition of the book can be found on Amazon.com for around $30, whereas the newly updated second edition will set you back around $44.95. Given the attention to detail that is contained within this tome – it is well worth the additional cost to pick up the newer edition. How Apollo Flew To The Moon, second edition, is available for preorder from Amazon.com and other outlets. The book is scheduled to be released this summer.

“The book’s initial reception has been fantastic and I have been deeply humbled by folk’s kind words about it since it first came out,” Woods said. “The second edition is nearly ready and it expands on what was written in the first edition. At over 500 pages, it will be 25 percent larger with more color photographs throughout. There are additional stories of Apollo’s engineering triumphs both on the surface of the Moon as well as in flight, much of which reflects my continuing journey into the technical achievement that was Apollo.”

The first edition cover of "How Apollo Flew To The Moon." Image Credit: Springer/Praxis
Posted on by Jason Rhian

Review: Apollo 12 On the Ocean of Storms

David M. Harland has detailed man's first precision landing on the moon in: Apollo 12 On the Ocean of Storms. Image Credit: Spinger/Praxis

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As one chapter in manned space flight draws to a close, it is human nature to look back, to draw parallels and to remember similar points in time. A new offering from Springer-Praxis details man’s second landing on the surface of another world, the 1969 mission of Apollo 12. The book is entitled; Apollo 12 On the Ocean of Storms. Strangely, this is the first time that the full story of man’s first trip to the Ocean of Storms has ever been written down. The story in-and-of-itself is compelling, filled with peril, discovery and friendship.

President Nixon was at the launch, but a storm had blown in. The launch went ahead regardless and the Saturn V rocket thundered into the sky – where it was struck twice by lightning. The lightning traveled down the rocket’s plume and struck the pad. On board the Yankee Clipper (the Command Module in which the crew rode), fuel cells, inertial guidance platform and telemetry system went offline.

EECOM John Aaron in Mission Control, with the help of Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean, saved the day by remembering an obscure procedure, and once in orbit the spacecraft was restored to full operation.

By setting down on the Moon close by an unmanned probe, Apollo 12 showed that precision lunar landings were possible, that microbes could survive for years inside such a robot in that harsh environment – and that friends can make the best crewmates.

This is just a tiny hint of the richly detailed story that is Apollo 12. When it came time to select an author to tell this tale, Springer tapped one of the best in the business – David M. Harland.

Harland is one of the most prolific, accurate authors in his field of expertise – aerospace history. As such, when he started to cover the Apollo era, fans were waiting with great anticipation for his chronicles covering the greatest era in human exploration.

The crew of Apollo 12, from left-to-right, Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and Alan Bean. Photo Credit: NASA

“I wrote this book as part of my series on NASA’s Moon program. I started with Apollo 11, and will work sequentially with books devoted to each of the missions which landed on the Moon, explaining the planning, assembly of the vehicles, launch through to splash, and the scientific insight gained,” said Harland during a recent interview. “People tend to remember the Apollo 8 flight around the Moon at Christmas 1968, the Apollo 11 landing, and the aborted Apollo 13 mission. Yet the missions which followed Apollo 11 and landed on the Moon were far more than ‘flags and footprints’, they were scientific exploration – indeed as one of the astronauts said, ‘exploration at its greatest’. I’m delighted that Springer-Praxis has given me the freedom to write this series.”

Springer Praxis has developed a virtual library’s worth of books regarding space flight. Apollo 12 On the Ocean of Storms is a very worthy addition to this collection and can be found online at Amazon.com. The book includes 530 pages with dozens of historic, color images.

Alan Bean looks out on the moon's Ocean of Storms. David M. Harland has produced a vivid, detailed account of this amazing journey in Apollo 12 On the Ocean of Storms. Photo Credit: NASA
Posted on by Mark Mortimer

Blogging the Moon

Blogging the Moon

The Earth’s Moon beckons just above us like a seductive siren. For some it’s the next step in humankind’s journey into space. One such advocate is Paul Spudis who has written the book “Blogging the Moon – The Once and Future Moon Collection“. Within it is a compilation of short essays together with rejoinders that collectively put the reader into the midst of today’s arguments about where or even if our future extends beyond the Earth’s surface.

This book’s main argument in support of using the Moon as our next step is that in so doing, we can use non-earth resources while accruing more knowledge. Yes, we would need to build the infrastructure to acquire and process material on the Moon. But, conceivably we could take this capability and the extracted resources to continue elsewhere. Potential follow-on locales might include asteroids, on to Mars and beyond. So the argument goes. Central to the book is the 2004 Vision for Space Exploration presented by President Reagan. The principal antagonist is NASA, described as an organization that exists to complete isolated programs and nurture self-absorbed bureaucracy. This is heady stuff for a blog and a book.

While the argument about which is the best next step into space remains current and ongoing, this book’s presentation makes almost as much a statement as the contents. Traditionalists expect a non-fiction book to present a claim resulting from cohesive, comprehensive supporting evidence. This and a conclusion would serve to convince the reader that the author’s claim is reasonable and worthy. A blog on the other hand is more a personal daily journal based upon an individual’s experience and interest. When a blog includes responses then it becomes a much more fluid venue like an open ended discussion. Hence, this book about blogging the Moon is as if the reader is a fly on the wall while various avatars in a virtual room espouse errors and preferences for space exploration and development.

If the reader accepts this approach then this book has some great material. One benefit is that apparently the author is well known in the aerospace community, especially with regard to selenic geology. Thus, his essays have got a lot of appropriate detail as well as many online references. The book presents each essay as a chapter usually a couple of pages at most. The chapter then concludes with presumably lightly or unabridged rejoinders from the blogosphere. Again, with the author being well known, many of the responders are also well known in the community, assuming that they used their real names. This makes for interesting reading as a large amount of disparate material gets introduced. Each essay thus has many pro and contrary views, sidebars and verbal ripostes that say as much about consensus forming as they do for using the Moon next.

Should you prefer books the old fashioned way then this book is likely not for you. Aside from each essay being related to the Moon as our next step, there is little cohesion. Much is made of water/ice kind of being detected on the surface. Much is also made of the need (or not) of heavy launch vehicles, flexible exploration paths, fiscal accounting and hot nights in India. Taken together, yes, they all relate to the Moon and humans using it as stepping stone into space. But, on completing the book, there’s no reason to go jump into the street yelling eureka as no conclusion is apparent. Further, the blog is still live on the web so there’s nothing stopping you from visiting and providing your own comments to current posts.

Yet, the Moon still beckons. Almost every night it presents a different face, enticing, scintillating, inviting. We’ve been there and as Paul Spudis well declares in his book “Blogging the Moon – The Once and Future Moon Collection“, we need to go back. The book describes why we can and need to make an impression there that goes beyond planting a flag. The Moon will continue to beckon; it is up to humanity to respond.

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Posted on by Mark Mortimer

The Wright Stuff

The Wright Stuff

Space holds the future of our species. While we’ve been flying for just barely over a century, we’ve also been rocketing upward for nearly as long. As these technologies advanced so did related opportunities. Space tourism is one such and Derek Webber in his book “The Wright Stuff– The Century of Effort Behind Your Ticket to Space” shows how it was such a logical progression and holds such promise from where we stand today. Through his words we see how private citizens may soon be able to enjoy and contribute to our specie’s future.

The Wright brothers first flew their human controlled aircraft in December of 1903. The author uses this as the starting point and the namesake of his book. In a lively, active voice he carries the reader along a quick, somewhat routine history of flight and rocketry. However, where most historical journeys, especially in the field of aerospace, focus upon events and technology this book espouses the individual or sometimes a couple as with the brothers Wright.

In somewhat jocular fashion, the author anoints a ‘Wright Stuff Award’ to individuals that he thinks have most significantly contributed to space tourism. Some recipients are obvious such as the Wright brothers and Sergei Korolev who respectively advanced flight and rocketry. Other recipients may cause a few surprises such as former President George Bush and Chesley Bonestell. Yet, it is clear the author’s intent is to show that major contributions to the field of space tourism have arisen from a disparate source of promoters and nurturers.

The real relevance of the book comes with its final chapter entitled Tourists. In it, the author introduces the reader to non-government individuals who have taken advantage of a spare seat or two and used government equipment, principally the Soyuz spacecraft, to journey into space. Their flights were principally for personal pleasure. The first few were sponsored. Most of the later used personal fortunes. Nearly all are still alive today. These, the book says, are the original tourists and they are the ones shown to be as much benefactors as champions of human space flight.

While the early part of this book stressed the individual and their accomplishments, the very last section extends tourism into the future. In it, the author runs through a cacophony of current companies, developers and pioneers who are vibrantly competing against each other to offer reasonable and attractive space travel packages. Some seem to have much promise such as Virgin Space with its new space port and White Knight 2 vehicle. Others have just started test flights while still others are in the planning stages. All however show themselves to be part of a busy business sector aiming to offer, at a reasonable cost, a few hours travel into or very close to space.

With the historical progression and the review of current organizations, the
author has shown that space tourism has solid groundwork and that supporting infrastructure continues to flourish. The book doesn’t however address some base questions. The principle one is that so much of the current industry is still Earth focused. People fly up to the edge of space, see the curvature of the Earth and fly back down. As such it would be a small step in moving our species spaceward but space travel would still be a long way down the road. As well, the book doesn’t deal with much substantiation of the business case for space tourism. There is mention of the Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry. But, placing the future of our species at the vagaries of discretionary spending seems at best opportunistic. Thus while the book shows progress, the progress may be fleeting rather than a permanent capability.

This book does present a brash, bold and optimistic view of space tourism. Derek Webber’s “The Wright Stuff– The Century of Effort Behind Your Ticket to Space” looks at positive contributions through humankind’s brief history of flight and insights a positive feel into space tourism. There would be no surprise if after reading this book, the reader began saving for their own future ride into space.

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