[the text below needs editing and we must be careful not to say things about Dan Brown's book that could get Springer in legal trouble]Dan Brown s novel, The Da Vinci Code, was first published in 2003; its sales have reached 40 million worldwide.
David Harland opens with a review of the robotic probes, namely the Rangers which returned television before crashing into the Moon, the Surveyors which 'soft landed' in order to investigate the nature of the surface, and the Lunar Orbiters which mapped prospective Apollo landing sites.
Given the fundamental importance of and universal interest in whether extraterrestrial life has developed or could eventually develop in our solar system and beyond, it is vital that an examination of planetary habitability go beyond simple assumptions such as, "e;Where there is water, there is life"e;.
Venus and Mercury have always been regarded as difficult targets for amateurs, but advances in commercially-made instruments have brought them within range of only moderately experienced observers.
In The Search for Extraterrestrials, Monte Ross explores in detail the key problems in starting a search, the programs that have failed and those that continue.
Out of the technological battlefield of World War II came a team of gifted German engineers and designers who developed the vengeance weapon, the V-2, which evolved into the peaceful, powerful Saturn V rocket to take men to the Moon.
The aim of the Space Exploration annuals is to provide a yearly update on recent space launches, missions and results, to be published every September.
The aim of the State of the Universe annuals is to provide an annual astronomy review suitable for the popular science level reader to be published every September.
For the experienced amateur astronomer who is wondering if there is something useful, valuable, and permanent that can be done with his or her observational skills, the answer is, "e;Yes, you can!
Paolo Ulivi and David Harland provide in Robotic Exploration of the Solar System a detailed history of unmanned missions of exploration of our Solar System.
Miner and Wessen have teamed together again, along with noted planetary ring scientist, Dr Jeffrey Cuzzi, to produce the most comprehensive and up-to date book on the topic of planetary rings systems yet written.
Praxis Log of Manned Spaceflight 1961-2006 will open with a section entitled: Quest for Space, which will provide an explanation of the methods employed to get in and out of orbit and brief overviews of the different international space programmes.
Cassini At Saturn - Huygens Results brings the story of the Cassini-Huygens mission and their joint exploration of the Saturnian system right up to date.
This successor edition picks up the story where the first edition left off in 1997, and runs through to Mir's de-orbiting in March 2001, providing the definitive account of the Mir Space Station.
When, in July 1969, the Americans decisively beat the Soviet Union in the race to put an astronaut on the moon, this event had profound historical, scientific and political implications.
With the aid of unique photographs, first-hand interviews and historical resources, Rex Hall, Dave Shayler and Bert Vis explain, for the very first time, how Russian citizens have been selected and trained to fly in space, and how these procedures have changed during the past 40 years.
On February 1st 2003, one of the worst and most public disasters ever witnessed in the human space programme unfolded with horrifying suddenness in the skies above north central Texas.
The book covers the field of solar system astrophysics beginning with basic tools of spherical astronomy and coordinate frames and celestial mechanics.
Although most people have some knowledge of the essential structure of the Solar System, few are familiar with the large and varied array of objects that travel with and between the planets in their journeys around the Sun.
Between 1994 and 1999, I had the pleasure of lecturing Special and General Relativity in the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales of the Universidad de Buenos Aires.
In our quest to elucidate the origin of the universe and the formation of galaxies, particularly that of the Milky Way in which we live, astounding progress has been made in recent years through observational and theoretical studies.
In Spies in the Sky Patrick Norris responds to the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the dawn of the Space Age - the launch of Sputnik 1 - with a review of the most important historical applications of space science for the benefit of the human race during that half century, focusing particularly on the prevention of nuclear war.
This book traces the history of celestial cartography and relates this history to the changing ideas of man's place in the universe and to advances in map-making.
XI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii INTRODUCTION XV CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES 1 The Magical Vision of the Nonhuman 1 Ancient Philosophy 2 Medieval Philosophy 6 The Renaissance 8 The Birth of Modern Science 10 First Attempts at Contact 16 Cosmism 17 From Enthusiasm to Disenchantment 18 CHAPTER 2: THE RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE 23 Is Extraterrestrial Life a Threat to Religion?