Category: Book Reviews

Project Mercury and Project Gemini preceded the landing of a person on the Moon. These projects taught the United States how to safely fly humans in to space and out to adventure. Steve Whitfield has prepared a Pocket Space Guide for each of these. Within, he combines smooth narrative with hundreds of both colour as well as black and white pictures to bring a reader complete, colourful little synopses. Their result is a generous reminder of what people can achieve when given a task, no matter how hard.

Both Project Mercury and Project Gemini were extreme engineering marvels as much as Project Apollo. The first placed people above Earth’s atmosphere and into space. The second gave control to the pilots of the space craft in order to give them independence and capability with which to complete missions. The third, as most remember, put men upon the lunar surface. Given the definitive goals for each project, definitive results must occur. This hard definition lends well to ready documentation. In consequence, Whitfield can draw on clear objectives and well documented achievements for his pair of books. He does this for a remarkably fine result.

The Project Mercury guide clearly shows the veritable flying phone booth that was the first vehicle the United States used to put men into space. Yet Whitfield doesn’t begin there, as the project started well before the Mercury capsule was lofted. First he mentions the unmanned launches of Little Joe and Big Joe. As well, there’s a bit on Ham the chimpanzee doing tests, and numerous unoccupied vehicles doing systems tests. Then, after providing a short one paragraph description of each of the 20 preliminary tests within the Mercury project, Whitfield provides a few pages for each of the seven manned launches. Given the allowances in these compact guides, they only provide the barest of technical information and not much else. Therefore, Whitfield gives statistics regarding the space craft and launch vehicle. After, he lists some of the more exciting moments of the flight as well as noting the objectives achieved. These clearly show the increasing confidence and capability of all the people involved in the space program of the United States.

Closing the book, though in reality consisting of about half the pages of the book, Whitfield provides copious colour photographs. These act as wonderful memories of an exciting project, whether they be pictures of the contents of the astronauts’ survival package or a sequence of an astronaut while in orbit. Perhaps most fitting is the final picture of the women who trained in parallel with the men in the hopes that they too could go into space.

The outline of the Project Gemini pocket space guide follows that of the Project Mercury guide. However, this project had no unmanned trials, but only a few Agena targeting craft. Hence, this guide focuses solely upon the 12 manned Gemini flights. Again, each of the twelve has a few pages to describe the flight. Where applicable, these include; objectives, the launch, any highlights, and the landing. Concluding the text section is an overview of an interesting plan to use the Gemini craft and launcher to put a man upon the Moon. Of course, this ended up not being necessary, but is a rewarding tidbit nonetheless.

The photograph section in the Project Gemini guide is as varied and plentiful as for the Mercury guide. Each crew and their badge get an entry. There’s Ed White doing the first space walk for the United States. An angry alligator and an Agena silhouetted against the Earth’s far away surface or other visual testaments. These and others showcase events of the Gemini project vividly and clearly.

Both these guides are great examples of well edited and very detailed works. Given their subject manner, it’s easy to get carried away, but they don’t do so. These guides summarize the achievements and provide rewarding visual testaments without overweighting the reader with managerial nuances or technical trivia. Certainly, there’s a dearth of substance but such is not the intention of a guide. The consequence is that these books practicably do justice but not to excess. Anyone wanting an introduction to human space flight or an overview of multi-year project development will benefit from reading either or both of these two. As well, they’re handy references for anyone not wanting to memorize.

Only a few days were needed to transport a human to the Moon. But, more than a decade of research and discovery were necessary to bring all the abilities together to make this happen. Steve Whitfield provides two guides; Project Mercury and Project Gemini that display two projects that preceded Apollo. Their clarity happily bring these heady times back to the ready fingertips of any reader.

Life was so much simpler when a person’s world extended no further than a long day’s walk, while a night time’s pleasure was viewing twinkling diamonds. But now we know that Earth’s continents rush around like bumper cars. Our Sun eats so much hydrogen that it’s going to explode. And our galaxy is crashing its way through another. These severe sounding events, and others, permeate through the book The Future of the Universe by A.J. Meadows. And, as it shows, our simplistic view is being well replaced by much grander visions.

As this book’s title aptly implies, our universe and all its contents are changing and leading to a future that’s different from today. With this assurance, Meadows’ book discusses what we may expect as time unfolds. True, we personally won’t have to worry about much of it. The discussed time frames extend from thousands to billions of years into the future. However, this book raises a profound surreal feel by giving the reader knowledge of the future, even if not for the near-term. Or at least, the odds say that there won’t be a comet impacting, or magnetic twist, or a dimming sun any time soon. For, though this book describes the processes, the moment is up to anyone’s guess.

Given that the ‘when’ is unknown, Meadows concentrates upon the ‘what’ in his book. And the ‘what’ refers to local changes, such as with our Sun’s radiation level, the Earth’s heat flow, or the vagaries of the Earth’s atmosphere. With these, he’s assured the reader that we are very fortunate that so many things came together to support life. Yet, he presses on. He heads out to consider asteroids, comets and neutron star explosions. Last, in looking at the really big picture, there’s galactic curtains and the local bubble that come into play. All these have or could impact Earth and the life that holds fast upon its surface.

This consideration of life is the main driver in Meadows’ book. He clearly shows that innumerable events can and very likely did greatly effect all types of life throughout history. Whether a wobbling Sun, a wayward asteroid, or colliding brown dwarfs, he shows that our solar system was and still is interacting with many nasties of space. However, what really makes his book is the grand scale of the contents. There’s nothing here for short-term insurance brokers. It’s all about a long term and fascinating prognosis that our future on Earth is doomed. Meadows shows it’s just a matter of time, eventually.

Though this consideration of our future appears too fanciful, Meadows bases it all upon well accepted principles and historical examples. Further, he recovers these principles in a straight forward, smooth manner. It’s this deceptive style of writing that misleads the reader into understanding the big picture without worrying about the details. Given this style, the book’s well geared toward a reader without a technical background. To do this, Meadows also keeps the language at a generalist level. If you’re comfortable reading a broadsheet newspaper, then you will have no problem with this book. Yet, hiding behind the easy going prose lie the reasoning about the life of stars, the formation of planets and the possible existence of other universes.

Though the book doesn’t come across as a wake up call for our species, it certainly will add to the impetus. For certainly, in reading it, anyone will realize that our little bit of paradise called Earth is going to have a rough finale. For those who like the big picture, whether a specialist or simply curious, this book connects together many of these disparate dots.

Our Sun seems never to change. And, only with great patience do we know for certain that the stars move independently across the night sky. But the universe is anything but a calm quiet place. A.J. Meadows in his book The Future of the Universe shows that not only is the universe a busy place, it’s also going to be quite nasty for life on Earth.

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Another space shuttle launch. Another truss for the space station. Where’s this activity leading us? The easy answer is, ‘to the stars’. That’s a fine answer for fifty years ago, but not any longer. We’ve learned so much. Addressing this need, a team of authors have compiled an informative picture book entitled What’s Out There – Images from Here to the Edge of the Universe. This book by Mary K. Baumann, Will Hopkins, Loralee Nolletti, and Michael Soluri dish out large format astronomy pictures on large format pages. The captivating beauty can easily seduce anyone into knowing that ‘to the stars’ is indeed the answer.

With all the observation platforms aimed into space, whether on Earth or off, many truly outstanding images are captured. Whether in real colour, with artificial enhancement, or via translating far away portions of the spectrum into visual, the universe has great appeal. Thus choosing which pictures to put in a book based on images is no simple task. The authors for What’s Out There base their selection loosely upon the alphabet, such as A is for Asteroid. It’s a good idea, but S is for Star seems slightly unimaginative. Nevertheless, this technique for organization allows a reader to use this book as part of a lesson plan or for haphazard wandering into the field of astronomy. Each little provides another window into the universe that surrounds us.

In acknowledging the technical elements of astronomy, the authors add two notes. Most subjects, identified with a letter of the alphabet, have five or six short paragraphs describing interesting facts and details about the subject. For example, E is for Europa and it describes the origin for the name, the location of this moon, and the reason for the particular colours and patterns seen on the image. The second note states the name of the platform that made the image, the image’s original EMR frequency, the date the image was made, and the distance to the photograph’s subject. These notes are the principle value for the reader who wants to learn more about the glamorous star-scapes and vistas that grace the pages.

Having hundreds of images for over 40 platforms, this book provides depth across the field of astronomy. As such, this book would most benefit the generalist who wants to take a brief foray into the field of astronomy. In particular, it’s for people who’ve seen the great pictures in magazines or the web and want to learn a bit more without being inundated in detail or hard science. However, because of this, the book will likely not have much longevity in a personal library unless for a primary school educator who needs a reference.

The universe may be expanding, but, in our own way, we are getting closer to the planets and stars that travel with us. What’s Out There – Images from Here to the Edge of the Universe, a picture portfolio book by Mary K. Baumann, Will Hopkins, Loralee Nolletti, and Michael Soluri is one way that brings those far away travels into our immediate realm. With all the beauty displayed in the book, it just begs us to keep getting closer for more tantalizing space images.

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Beep, beep, bop, be-bop. These could represent a new song or a communication from intelligent species on another world. With discoveries of more and more planets circling far away suns, there seems an increasing possibility that we have fellow, smart occupants sharing this universe. Michael Michaud takes this consideration seriously in his book Contact with Alien Civilizations. In a very forwarding looking text, he puts sound reasoning into analyzing the issues about if and when we find we’re not alone.

Throughout history and pre-history, across the globe and across races, people have recorded their thoughts and experiences of visitations from elsewhere. Some of these became religions, many were brought into religions and others were perhaps just from too fertile an imagination to be taken seriously. Yet, we exist and there is no proof that others don’t exist. We live on one planet among many. Innumerable other stars may harbour an even greater number of planets. And on these planets, something may be sending and/or receiving messages that transcend their local solar system.

Michaud notes that he’s had over 30 years serious involvement regarding alien life. His book shows his dedication and knowledge. Using passages from luminaries such as Sagan, Rees and Hoyle, he intones a solidly practical analysis of issues regarding contact with aliens. First he provides some definitions: intelligence, civilization, contact and others get careful study. Next, he contemplates possibilities through a studious analysis of the factors of Drake’s equation (see Frank Drake and SETI). Last, he wonders about the relevance to our existence given the finite possibility of aliens and potential interactions should some sort of contact occur. With this, he offers in his book a very broad, thought provoking study that will have the reader becoming quite reflective.

The book encourages reflection through two means. Throughout the book are short paragraphs entitled ‘Mind Stretches’. These take the concept of the previous paragraph or section and provide a very different but valid perspective. For instance, we expect that we can easily communicate with aliens upon contact. But stretch you mind and consider that dolphins may be an intelligent being, yet we can’t communicate with them. Michaud’s other point for reflection is that we only consider one sample set when postulating the actions of aliens. That set is ourselves. As such, he continually pulls historical examples and some very recent human actions into his book to show to the reader that our intelligence hasn’t made us very altruistic or benevolent. For instance, aliens may treat us they way Europeans treated native Americans. We may be a very small fish in a very big pond and, as Michaud suggests in his book’s later sections, we would be wise to be cautious.

With so many challenging preconceptions about alien contact already provided by fanciful movies and books, Michaud understandably has to be sedate in his writing approach. As he notes, there’s a lot of giggle factor related to this subject. Perhaps in response to this, his writing style is wordy. For example, he discusses each factor of Drake’s equation with its relevance when set to a particular value, when set to much less and when set to much more. He does this with almost every other unknown parameter as well. As we’ve never met an alien, there are many parameters. Thus, the book is indeed thorough, but at times tiring with its exhaustive inspection.

Yet, the book includes many fascinating and unexpected points. Understandably there’s lots on philosophy. Are we alone; does the universe revolve around our species; and, is everything in existence for the use of humans? As well, should humans be trying to contact aliens; with what urgency should we start populating outer space; and, how should we react to alien contact? As an example, what would we do if it came to our attention tomorrow that aliens were colonizing Mars? These questions about our actions, our purpose and ourselves serve hopefully, to make the reader delve a little deeper into their own existence.

Because of this, the reader who will get the most from this book is one who looks beyond the façade. They have global interests with timelines that extend past the next meal. Theirs is the purvey of multi-generational, international efforts. Specialists in non-astronomical fields, generalists who have enhanced curiosity and visionaries would all find that this book has meaningful implications. The ideas and the verbiage are more appropriate to a learned audience, but anyone with a strong interest will appreciate the book treats the encountering of extraterrestrials.

Aliens may be little green creatures. They may come to save humanity. They may teach us to be a better race in a galactic club. They may not. Michael Michaud in his book looks at this and other valid questions in his book Contact with Alien Civilizations. He shows that encountering extraterrestrials can come in a variety of ways and with a variety of consequences. It shows that being prepared through scientific study would make a first encounter a better encounter.

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Great riches can buy you a yacht, a mansion or even an observatory. Percival Lowell went for the later and thus, still today, there is the privately owned Lowell Observatory. This facility forms the basis for the topics in Anne Minard’s book, Pluto and Beyond – A Story of Discovery, Adversity, and Ongoing Exploration. Many stories within cover interesting personalities, advances in astronomy and thoughts on the future.

The Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona is home to several, somewhat dated, telescopes and the under construction Discovery Channel telescope. The clear, dry skies and high elevation have drawn many amateur and professional night owls to learn more about the stars and other universe travelers. Their dedication and drive delivered us much important knowledge and continue to do so today.

Minard’s book is a dedication to the Lowell Observatory and many of the people who graced its buildings. But she doesn’t focus upon Percival Lowell, the founder, she looks at the lesser stars. For example, she has a good portion on Vesto Slipher and a bit on his brother Earl. She also powers up some lesser lights such as Art Adel, Henry Giclas and Robert Burnham. Some of her information comes from personal interviews where anecdotes and memories drift up from the pages. Others are from the Lowell archives and preserved astronomical tomes. With these solid references, the book’s contents ring true.

In addition to people, Minard uses her book to champion the work of astronomers, whether based at the Lowell Observatory or elsewhere. Sometimes there’s detail in depth, such as the workings of the Hubble space telescope, filar micrometres and blink plates. And there’s the results of the work with the instruments, including the Catalogue of Proper Motion Stars, Star Catalogues and asteroid searches. For example, there’s a brief bit on SQ222 and its chances of hitting Earth. Most of the work and results have some link to the Lowell Observatory, though it does get a bit tenuous.

This may seem like a lot of detail for one book, and it is. With all that the book covers, the book’s title is out of place. The book has very little mention of Pluto, except for being the push that catapulted the observatory on to fame. Equally, the concept of beyond is unclear. Rather, the book goes down memory lane to reprise the accomplishments that might be linked to the Lowell Observatory, as if trying to justify the observatory’s continued existence. However, the subtitle is more apt, as the book does concern itself with discovery, adversity and ongoing exploration.

This apparent mismatch in titles is symptomatic of the book’s weakness. As the title is unfocused and non illustrative of the contents, so too are the contents unfocused and thus don’t illustrate a particular theme. The book’s sections have the flavour of popular magazine articles that are pleasant to read but only loosely related and seldom directed. However, this doesn’t mean the prose is poor. Rather, like a magazine, the book’s sections are well written, informative and have some relevance to astronomy and the Lowell Observatory.

Therefore, the person most appreciative of this book is someone who likes articles written in the style of a magazine. Of course, they should be interested in astronomy and have a slight interest in the on goings at the Lowell Observatory. For example, the book would be a great reference for anyone contemplating a visit to Flagstaff.

Whether at your own backyard telescope, using an online telescope at a remote location or visiting a site miles away, it’s always nice to have clear skies and aided vision with which to see stars. Anne Minard in her book, Pluto and Beyond – A Story of Discovery, Adversity, and Ongoing Exploration writes of how the Lowell Observatory achieved such high regard in its services to astronomy, both for yesterday and with its plans for tomorrow.

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Here are some facts about Pluto, and some images of Pluto.

Robots are our autonomous surrogates. They faithfully travel wherever we fear to tread. Michel van Pelt in his book, Space Invaders – How Robotic Spacecraft Explore the Solar System provides a practical look at these amazing machines that travel ever further from our home base on Earth. Though they get shaked, baked and rattled, they are the champions for long distance, harsh environment exploration.

Mechanical instruments and sensors duplicate and extend many of our abilities. For instance, their artificial eyes detect electromagnetic energy at frequencies will outside the visible spectrum. With a broad suite of such sensors, a machine can directly measure planetary magnetic fields and atmospheric composition and beam results back to Earth for further analysis. Coupling this with the ability to repeat endlessly and without complaints makes these mechanical marvels superbly suited for their task. With them extending our awareness ever further off Earth, we’re knowing more and more of the surrounding universe.

Michel van Pelt’s book treats these space borne proteges with care and attention. Two main themes are present. One follows the system design elements that typically constrain the complex space robots. The other is a description of the particular missions that they’ve completed, together with a brief description of their findings. Design work includes power supplies, Hoffman transfer routes, and transiting over rough ground. And, as with all such considerations, there’s much ado in the book about cost and schedule for the robot programs. Luckily, there seems to be no shortage of people who want to get and use results, so at least that part of the program management doesn’t need as much attention.

Understandably, our robotic servants do complex work that’s based on elementary physics. However, van Pelt’s book keeps well away from these esoteric niceties and remains with generalities. At times it dips into exotics, such as hypothesising how to travel in highly acidic pools on planets with variable gravity. But these serve to show the challenges and necessary flexibility in robotic design. As well, with a writing date of early 2006, it contains many current references, including Venus Express and the Mars Landers. From it, the reader can well appreciate the effort that goes into ensuring that robots can acquire the most useful information.

van Pelt enhances this distillation by using a simple writing style with little specialized nomenclature. Thus, the book is well suited to youths, young adults and those with a general interest. Yet, the content isn’t trite as it deals with some of the most amazing discoveries made by our species. In recognition of this, van Pelt adds a fair amount of description of these discoveries; major surface features, ring structures and asteroid composition. With this, the reader will be left with no doubt about the capability and utility of our little mechanical assistants.

This book’s weakness, however, is its lack of a solid appraisal of machines. Around us, a current, active debate tries to establish the value of human crewed space exploration versus an outreach based purely on machines. There’s no reference to this in the book. It mentions the Apollo missions and the many robot successes but not as to which is better or what would be most rewarding in the future. This weakness leads into a second one. The book doesn’t consider the immediate future of space robotics. It skips from today’s probes and jumps to a future where squadrons of miniature flying sensors scour foreign climates. Hence, the reader is left staring off a cliff of success into a sea of uncertainty regarding the robots.

We are invading space with our machines. Their sensors give us first hand accounts of places we can only dream of visiting. Michel van Pelt in his book , Space Invaders – How Robotic Spacecraft Explore the Solar System provides us with the design methodology of these machines, together with some of their discoveries. It shows the success of our invasion throughout the solar system.

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Humankind has five senses. Though eyesight provides us with most of our information, truly believing usually relies on the tactile sense. Thus people go to low Earth orbit, the Moon and soon, hopefully, to Mars. Two new books from Apogee highlight the craft that get the privilege of sending a few lucky members of our species into space.

The space shuttle is today’s workhorse for placing man and machine into space, as Robert Godwin shows in Apogee’s pocket guide Space Shuttle – Fact Archive. But we aren’t content with living in today’s glories, thus we plan for tomorrow. For this, Tim McElyea lays out the next transport system in the pocket guide Project Constellation – Moon, Mars and Beyond. Both these two guides have a thorough collection of notes and pictures to help every future space traveller know how our senses lead us into understanding.

The first guide book is on the space shuttle. These re-useable craft rocket into low Earth orbit, partake in experiments or engineering feats, then glide back to the surface. Up to eight travellers can ascend and help with the tasks in orbit. Physics, life sciences and crystal growth have been subjects of studies within the orbiter. Outside, it has launched space-telescopes and satellites as well as undertaken a number of servicing jobs to keep equipment operating.

Godwin’s space shuttle guide hints at the tasks undertaken in orbit, however, the book’s focus is on the shuttle and the crew. As the first chapter states, it’s about shuttle basics. A page or two describes the solid rocket boosters, the external fuel tank, the engines and the orbiter. Next are a few pages for each of the five operational orbiters, including construction milestones and noteworthy flights. The last part of the text describes some standard payload containers; the Spacehab and Spacelab pallet. These provide a concise but limited view into the shuttle as a technology marvels.

In the book, following the description of the shuttle, are ordered lists of some of the shuttle flights. These are sparse, just titles. Filling the majority of the final pages are all the official crew photographs, together with the crew’s names and the mission badge.

Though this guide relates directly to the shuttle, its focus isn’t clear, as realized by the mix of technical details and crew portraits. Much more could be made of the shuttle’s technical details and accomplishments in flight. On the other side, the same goes for describing the crews. The presence in the guide appears like a sports card collection without insight into the people who flew the craft. The guide is, at best, a light reference that could encourage an unaware reader to learn more.

The book Space Shuttle – Fact Archive hints at the incredible accomplishments achieved by the space shuttle. But, it is more a reference list than a fact archive. Nevertheless, this book reinforces the fact that a technological marvel built by humankind has sent many people to undertake valuable work in space.

Where the pocket guide on the shuttle had the ease of describing an existing craft, McElyea has the challenge of guessing the future. His book, Project Constellation – Moon, Mars and Beyond, targets the craft planned to go to Mars. Hence, with Project Constellation still on the drawing boards, McElyea’s quick to admit his guide won’t be definitive. But in it, he does cover much of the current plan.

At the start of the book, McElyea describes the expected ‘plan of attack’. This is to use an Earth orbit rendezvous that couples a cargo vehicle with a crew vehicle. The combined craft then goes onto its destination. Next, he outlines the Ares Cargo Launch vehicle, then moves on to discuss the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. He also includes a little on schedules and trade-off studies but, principally, he stays with what is known and accepted for this project.

Given the state of the project, most of the text regards system level requirements and the plans or equipment slated to meet them. For example, big low-risk engines will need to propel the craft, so the J-2X is proposed. Separate cargo and passenger vehicles minimize costs due to human-rating. And, the trip to Mars will require a large mass to support a crew for the years of flight. Actually, in spite of the conceptual nature of the project, the book provides clear and logical descriptions of many elements and missions.

The graphic section of this guide well matches the text section. Most images are of artists’ rendering rather than photographs. But they still give a good feel for the magnitude of the project and the planned rockets. Outlines of mission stages provide an equally vivid portrayal of what these craft are to accomplish. There’s even a few images of ongoing tests, such as wind tunnel tests of Ares. The resulting blend between realism and expectation gives the reader a warm feeling of progress toward operations.

The next manned mission for NASA is to the moon, then on to Mars. Tim McElyea’s guide Project Constellation – Moon, Mars and Beyond layouts the basic project elements. From this, the reader can see that humankind’s senses will be continually rewarded with extraordinary receptions.