To The End Of The Solar System

The exploration of space could have been decades ahead of where we are now...During a two-decade period; from the 1950s to the 1970s, a nuclear rocket propulsion system was developed capable of performing robotic and human exploration of our solar system. The US government's Rover programme developed the system and succeeded in demonstrating the propulsion capabilities required for deep space exploration missions. The programme was terminated for political reasons in the mid-1970s. You have to wonder - if the nuclear rocket had been used and further developed during the 30 years since then, where could we be today?This comprehensive history details both the technical accomplishments of the nuclear rocket system and the political wrangling that strangled it. Together, NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission carried out the Rover program, and together they had their budgets slashed and were micro-managed by pork-barrel-motivated politicians. And after accomplishing success against the odds, they were shut down. Instead of NERVA, the state-of-the-art nuclear system developed by the Rover program, Congress was sold on the Space Shuttle, outdated before it was launched. Instead of the solar system, we got low-Earth orbit. James A. Dewar has produced a well-researched and well-organised account of what was accomplished, who made the decisions, and why it all was for naught. If NASA and the AEC had been allowed to do the job they had originally been given, today we could have been exploring out 'To the End of the Solar System'.

Join award-winning astronomy writer Govert Schilling on a journey through space and time to the most far-reaching corners of the universe in this stunning photographic voyage into deep space. This one-of-a-kind trip begins inside our own solar system with a brief tour of the sun, the planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and dwarf planets. We then accelerate into deep space and, with Schilling as our guide, we explore the birth of stars in the Orion and Carina Nebulae; the death of stars, from red giants to catastrophic supernova explosions; and galaxies and galaxy clusters beyond our own including spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies, and lenticular galaxies. We learn about supermassive black holes, which astronomers now believe exist at the center of every galaxy including our own, and exoplanets, billions of which are believed to be orbiting stars in the Milky Way and beyond. The book concludes at the edge of the cosmological horizon with a look at dark matter, dark energy, and theories of extraterrestrial life and the Multiverse. With hundreds of photographs, including new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and custom illustrations throughout, as well as a star atlas that shows the full celestial sky, Deep Space is the perfect book for astronomy buffs, students, and anyone fascinated with the mystery and beauty of the cosmos.

Nearly three billion years into the future, the solar system is a very different place. Earth is long gone, and the sun is a gray, shrunken dwarf. All that remains of humanity and conscious thought is Jonathan—the last machine. Created to survive Earth’s destruction by our ever-expanding sun, Jonathan witnessed the end of life on Earth. This is his story and that of his creator, Nikolai. It is also the story of the human race, which failed to disentangle its destiny from the star that gave rise to all life-forms on Earth.

Since the first edition of this book appeared in 1990, planetology has seen a number of fascinating discoveries that have increased our knowledge of the Solar System. These have come from both ground- and space-based observa tional programmes. Although some space probe missions have ended in fail ure, even they have added to our store of information about the planetary environment. The Galileo probe, despite being crippled by its incompletely deployed main antenna, has already achieved some spectacular results. For the first time we have obtained pictures of asteriods, with the images that Galileo returned of Gaspra, Ida, and the latter's satellite, Dactyl. The main objective, the drop ping of an instrumented capsule into Jupiter's atomosphere, and prolonged in-situ investigation of the planet, will take place at the end of 1995. Saturn's turn will come early in the next century with the Cassini mission (to be launched in 1997), which will study the planet for an extended period and attempt to land the Huygens probe on the surface of Titan. NASA's Magellan mission proved to be a great success, with its highly detailed radar mapping of the surface, and atmospheric studies. The exploration of Mars was less fortunate with the failure of both spaceprobes of the Soviet Phobos mission, as well as NASA's Mars Observer probe. Despite this set back, plans are in hand for future, collaborative exploration of the planet, using both surface stations (possibly active rovers), surface penetrators and balloon probes, as well as orbiters.

Now updated with the journeys of the 2012 Mars rover Curiosity and the 2020 Mars rover Perseverance, Solar System undertakes an astonishing visual journey through time and space through fascinating text, original graphics, and stunning photographs. Never before have the wonders of our solar system been so immediately accessible to readers of all ages. Award‑winning writer and broadcaster Marcus Chown combines science and history to visually and narratively explore our neighboring planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets and more, as well as the historical figures who aided in their discoveries. From the explosive surface of the sun to the new missions on Mars; from the gargantuan rings of Saturn to the volcanoes of Io; from the latest images of Pluto from NASA's New Horizons probe, to a simulation of what the Oort Cloud might look like, Solar System offers a window seat from which to view the beauty and magnificence of space.

Details the science behind the Copernican Revolution, the transition from the Earth-centered cosmos to a modern understanding of planetary orbits.

Chemically propelled rockets can lift less than 5 percent of their take-off weight into orbit, a fact that could forever limit the space program. Nuclear-powered rockets, however, with their superior thrusting power and speed, are radically different. So argues James A. Dewar in the only comprehensive history ever written of the nuclear rocket project. It is a story of political battles over the space program's future, involving Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, and a readable account of its technical successes, a story perhaps more interesting and certainly more important, Dewar believes, than the history of atomic and H-bomb development. Dewar maintains that only by reestablishing a nuclear rocket project can the nation have a space program worthy of the 21st century, one that makes reality of the hopes and dreams of science fiction.

It presents equations and derivations starting from a level that permits one to see the underlying physical ideas. There is no other book that does this on the market. The book presents an up-to-date overview on all essential topics but is concise where possible to keep it a practical resource for courses. The book is based on extensive experience in the class room. Its contents have been field-tested for years by students.