A new popular science book for all armchair rocket scientists!
'How Spacecraft Fly - spaceflight without formulae' is a popular science book recently published by Springer New York, intended for readers with no technical background, but who are nevertheless fascinated by space and spaceflight.
How Spacecraft Fly - Spaceflight without formulae
by Graham Swinerd
2008, 272 pages, 71 illustrations, 11 in colour
Softcover ISBN 978-1-4419-2629-6; Hardcover ISBN 978-0-387-76571-6
How Spacecraft Fly - Spaceflight without formulae
by Graham Swinerd
2008, 272 pages, 71 illustrations, 11 in colour
Softcover ISBN 978-1-4419-2629-6; Hardcover ISBN 978-0-387-76571-6
50 years of the Space Age.
The beginning of the Space Age was heralded by the launch of a small Soviet satellite called Sputnik 1 in October 1957. This afront to the United States led to a space race between the super powers which culminated in Neil Armstong's first footfalls on the lunar surface just 12 years later in July 1969. The Apollo missions, mankind's only adventure beyond low Earth orbit, were very inspirational for a generation of young people who went on to follow careers in space science and engineering. An explosion of space applications followed Apollo as space technology came of age - communications, satellite navigation, Earth observation - leading to the current situation where there a hundreds of active spacecraft in Earth orbit supporting the technogical culture that pervades the developed world today. In addition, the glory of our Solar System, and the wider Universe, is being revealed by an armada of interplanetary robotic spacecraft and space observatories. Fifty years in, we seem to be once again on the threshold of human space exploration, with national space agencies looking to return to the moon, and to undertake the first human exploratory trip to Mars.
How do spacecraft 'fly'?
It is against this backdrop that the author, Graham Swinerd, invites you to understand how spacecraft work, while becoming a convincing rocket scientist along the way! The books opens with an historical perspective of how we have come to understand the arena within which our current generation of spacecraft operate - the Solar Sysytem - and the people who made those strides in understanding. It then progresses through orbital flight, weightlessness, rocket science, the hostile environment within which spacecraft operate, and how they work. The concluding chapters give a glimpse of what the 21st Century might hold in terms of human space exploration, and more futuristic propulsion technologies for interstellar space travel.
Where can you get your copy?
From good book stores,
direct from Springer at http://www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-0-387-76571-6 (hardcover)
or http://www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-1-4419-2629-6 (softcover)
or from Amazon online. Price around £15 $27.50 Euro 21.35
direct from Springer at http://www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-0-387-76571-6 (hardcover)
or http://www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-1-4419-2629-6 (softcover)
or from Amazon online. Price around £15 $27.50 Euro 21.35
