Space exploration A history in 100 objects

Sten F. Odenwald

Book - 2019

"From Galileo's telescope to the International Space Station - a stunningly photo-filled tour through the milestones of space exploration, examining iconic objects from Sputnik to Skylab and their effect on what we know and how we think about space."--

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Subjects
Published
New York : The Experiment [2019]
Language
English
Main Author
Sten F. Odenwald (author)
Physical Description
205 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9781615196142
  • Foreword by John Mather; Introduction; The Blombos Ochre Drawing; The Abri Blanchard Bone Plaque; The Egyptian Star Clock; The Nebra Sky Disk; The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa; The Star Charts of Senenmut; The Merkhet; The Nimrud Lens; The Greek Armillary Sphere; The Diopter; Antikythera Mechanism; Hipparchus's Star Atlas; The Astrolabe; The Dunhuang Star Atlas; Al-Khwārizmī's Algebra Textbook; The Dresden Codex; The Chaco Canyon Sun Dagger; Giovanni de' Dondi's Astrarium; The Big Horn Medicine Wheel; The Ensisheim Stone; De Revolutionibus; Tycho's Mural Quadrant; Galileo's Telescope; The Slide Rule; The Eyepiece Micrometer; The Clock Drive; The Meridian Circle; The Skidi Pawnee Star Chart; Smoked-Glass Sun Viewing; The Gyroscope; The Electric Battery; Pilâtre de Rozier and d'Arlandes's Balloon; William Herschel's Forty-Foot Telescope; The Spectroscope; The Daguerreotype Camera; The Solar Panel; The Leviathan of Parsonstown; Crookes Tube; The Triode Vacuum Tube; The Ion Rocket Engine; The Hooker Telescope; Robert Goddard's Rocket; The Van de Graaff Generator; The Coronagraph; Jansky's Merry-Go-Round Radio Telescope; The V-2 Rocket; ENIAC; Colossus Mark 2; The Radio Interferometer; The Heat Shield; The Integrated Circuit; The Atomic Clock; Space Fasteners; The Hydrogen Line Radio Telescope; The X-Ray Imaging Telescope; The Hydrogen Bomb; The Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator; The Nuclear Rocket Engine; Sputnik; Vanguard 1; Luna 3; The Endless Loop Magnetic Tape Recorder; The Laser; Space Food; The Space Suit; Syncom 2 (and 3); The Vidicon Camera; The Space Blanket; The Handheld Maneuvering Unit; Apollo 1 Block I Hatch; The Interface Message Processor; The Hasselblad Camera; Apollo 11 Moon Rocks; The CCD Imager; The Lunar Laser Ranging RetroReflector; The Apollo Lunar Television Camera; The Homestake Gold Mine Neutrino Detector; Lunokhod 1; The Skylab Exercise Bike; The Laser Geodynamics Satellite (LAGEOS); Smoot's Differential Microwave Radiometer; The Viking Remote-Controlled Sampling Arm; The"Rubber Mirror."; The Multi-Fiber Spectrograph; The Venera Landers; The Compromised Challenger O-Rings; COSTAR; CMOS Sensors; The Allan Hills Meteorite; Sojourner; Gravity Probe B; LIDAR; The Large Hadron Collider; The Kepler Space Telescope; Curiosity Rover; Mangalyaan-the Mars Orbiter Mission; A 3-D Printed Ratchet Wrench; The LIGO Gravitational-Wave Interferometer; The Tesla Roadster; The Event Horizon Telescope.
Review by Choice Review

Technology development has enabled the scientific exploration of space and the solar system. When you think of technology for space, you probably think of rockets, rovers, and satellites, and those are indeed all in the list compiled by Odenwald (NASA) for this book. Many of the first essays recount the history of the study of space and particularly stress the recording of humanity's understanding of space. Odenwald here includes details about more familiar historical objects that may yet be unknown to many readers, but also includes essays about many less well known objects that reveal how much many traditional cultures knew about the Moon, planets, and stars. The list of entries progresses chronologically, from 71,000 BCE (beginning with Stone Age abstract drawings) through the beginnings of the space age, and includes essays on all of the important firsts in technology that allowed humans to make the journey to space, visit the Moon, and robotically study the planets. Some of the text assumes a level of familiarity with astronomy, but for the most part the individual essays are accessible to all with an interest in the subject. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Christopher Palma, Pennsylvania State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.