Review:Not your usual cute animal story, but a great addition to any juvenile nonfiction section! (5/5) Not your usual cute animal story, Ham the Astrochimp would make a great read-aloud introduction to biography, astronauts, or even exploration in an early elementary classroom. This well-written book presents the life and achievements of the U.S.'s first intelligent being to travel in space. While the central, large font text doesn't go into detail about why or how Ham was chosen and trained for the Mercury flights, there are smaller font sidebards that ellucidate this and give the reader many facts about our early space program. The illustrations are meticulous and engaging, as might be expected from a professor of graphic design and illustration. The only thing missing is a bibliography/source notes.
Review:Not Free SF Reader (4/5) You are in danger of having your head hurt if you don't like the tech overload sort of thing, for the first 60-70 page. It even had me scratching my head for a bit.
Then Wright skewers that, literally, as near the end of that confrontation, out come the samurai swords!
He does slip in a few Golden Age references and jokes here and there, of course.
For example, in the last part of the novel, when the conflict between the Silent and Golden Oecumenae has been going and going : "Emphyrio took out a tablet from his garb, and held it up. ΓΆβ,¬Ε"Here is my prophecy: This New College, at least for a time, is dominated by Dark-Grays and Invariants. A warlike spirit grows.
ΓΆβ,¬Ε"The Bellipotent Composition forms again. Other war heroes, Banbeck and Carter and Kinnison, Vidar the Silent and Valdemar the Slayer, are recompiled out of archives, or constructed, or born."
Then, a lighter style prevails as before, while the machine intelligence infiltration situtation is sorted out.
Conversely, the last part, post conflict with the Nothing Sophotect might seem to drag a little bit, but it is worth getting to the end part. A handy appendix, too, explaining all the mental structure, stuff.
Review:A solid ending to a great story (5/5) I was really quite disturbed by the negative reviews listed on the book page and by one or two readers. If you enjoyed the first book of this series then it makes sense to read until the end. As a professor of Human Computer Interaction I found the ideas and discussion quite compelling, although this book is not as exciting as the first two it does round off a superb story overall.
Review:Boring (1/5) Too esoteric, even for a sci-fi lover. The jargon and characterization is so dense and bizarre in the early pages that I could not finish this book.
Review:Wonderful and Exciting Spaceflight Photographs (5/5) The Association of Space Explorers is a unique group of individuals whose only requirement for membership is that one has to have journeyed into space. The goal of the ASE is to bring the excitement and wonder of space exploration to the general public. This book, "The Greatest Adventure" is their second book dedicated to this ideal, and is an excellent companion to their first book, "The Home Planet."
This coffee table book presents some of the best photographs taken of the Earth and a few of the Moon by both astronauts and cosmonauts, from the early days of the space race till the mid-1990's when this book was published. Due to the coffee table format of the book, the high resolution, color photographs are extremely impressive. Accompanying these wonderful photographs is a small piece describing each astronaut's voyage and impression of being in space which includes the entire range of astronauts, from commanders, pilots and mission specialists.
New printings of this book are common, so if it is listed as not being in print, check back frequently, because a new print might be out soon.
Review:ONE OF BEST ALL-TIME BOOKS DONE ON APOLLO/MOON (5/5) Ive read over200 books about Project Apollo to the Moon, and I have to rate this book as one of the best ever on moon landings, and all involved with this miraculous adventure of mankind! The book tells just about everything, covers it all about the missions and has many good excerpts from all the great astronauts from past to present! This is one of the few Apollo/Moon books that deserves an extra special place on anyones coffee table!This book deserves not to be merely looked at, but can be read many times over! I do not own it yet, but have read it twice, and cant wait to purchase it! Ed Gibson and The Association Of Space Explorers have done a wonderful job on this fantastic book of just what the title implies: Going to The Moon was in fact, and still is mankinds greatest adventure to this day, and probably will be for many years to come yet!
Review:More Junk (1/5) At best, Turner's book is a regurgitation of a few of the historical proposed human Mars mission concepts. At worst, it is inaccurate. For example, on Page 251, it states that the core Magnum vehicle was based on an "extended Space Shuttle main fuel tank." The real proposed Magnum core would have used composite fuel tanks and RS68 engines, none of which were derived from Shuttle. The Magnum concept did propose using standard Shuttle SRBs, for boosters, not the liquid flyback boosters, as stated. Also Figure 9.1 is of a sidemount Shuttle Derived Vehicle (SDV), like Shuttle-C, and not a Magnum, as stated. The RS68 engines, referred to on Page 289, would not fit the pictured sidemount SDV configuration. The real proposed Magnum configuration is correctly identified in Figure 8.3. Few of the figures/photos in the book are in color and none give credit to Jack Frassanito, whose company produced most of the enclosed artist's concepts.
Review:A very good book (5/5) Will the first Human mission to Mars be a historical fact in my liftime? This is the central question of the book and the answer from a technological standpoint is certainly positive. The book Expedition Mars covers all technological fields needed to make a manned mission to Mars happen. The orbital mechanics of such a trip described in this book are even for a non-expert easy to follow, while the section on launch mass makes clear that every kilogram of payload to be send to the Martian surface needs a major increase in the launch mass of the rocket lifting the mission of Earth's surface. In the chapter on possible propulsion systems the author takes into account the public distrust in nuclear propulsion and describes the necessary measures to be taken to test such an engine on Earth without the release of radioactive material. He also clearly explains that such a engine will only be used and activated in space, greatly diminishing the risks. Not only technical issues related to a mission to Mars are described in the book, but also the financial-economical and social part of such a mission are well covered, proving that scientists and engineers are able to explain their work to the man in the street. In the final chapters Martin Turner explains the NASA reference mission to Mars, greatly influenced by the work of Zubrin and coworkers, and shows that the improvement in the design of such a mission is ten fold in almost every aspect. The costs for a human mission to Mars is currently estimated at 55 billion dollars as much as the (ANNUAL agricultural subsidies of the European Union) to be spread over a period of 15-20 years, equalling 2 billion dollars a year. This fits in the American as the European space budget. It is even lower than the annual amount spend in the Space Shuttle programme. The last chapter is devoted to the social-economic arguments for and against a human mission to Mars and should be a must-read for every one in the space business. In a realistic way the pros and cons of a manned mission are explained with even new arguments, such that the money spend on space missions is mostly covered by the man hours in such a project. This refutes the statement by antagonists of the Mars programme that all money is launched into space instead it is launched into the local economy by the people who work in the space industry.
All in all this book should be on the list of all space enthousiasts and space professionals and can well be used in science classes to get students back to studying natural sciences and engineering.
Review:Very interesting (5/5) This book is really sad but really teaches you a lot about what happened - more than you ever read in the newspapers or heard on the news. I am a 5th grade student who is very interested in space and I hope the program carries on after the Columbia tragedy. I hope this never happens again.
Review:Not a lot of information in this book - I'm surprized. (3/5) The flight of Apollo 9 was the first mission to test the entire Apollo spacecraft which included the Lunar Module (LM) and the Command and Service Module (CSM), During the ten day mission, the astronauts tested all three Apollo components and all the operations needed for a trip to the moon, such as docking and undocking the lunar lander with the command module, testing the LM's propulsion system and guidance and tracking. In addition to testing the LM and CSM, the astronauts also tested the space suits that would be eventually used on the surface of the moon. This mission was commanded by Jim McDivitt, with David Scott as the Command Module Pilot and Rusty Schweickart as the Lunar Module Pilot.
The book opens with the typical NASA mission press kit. Unlike many later Apollo mission press kits, this is quite long and very detailed, containing descriptions on everything from orbit and reentry profiles to the crew biographies. Because this is the first time that the LM was flown there is a lot of information of the LM and the lunar space suits. The next section contains the preflight and postflight operation reports which again provide an enormous amount of information on the operation of the LM and space suits. As other reviewers have pointed out, there is no crew debriefing report, which I personally find the highlight of the mission report series.
The CD Rom that accompanies the book is also very limited and lacking, especially when compared to the other books in the series. It contains photographs of the interior of the LM and a 17 minute NASA produced movie about the mission.
Of all the books produced by Apogee books for this Mission Report series, this one by far is the one that needs a second volume or a revision because of the limited amount of material.
Some general information that might be useful.
1) This report contains scanned-in documents from previously released NASA documents. In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.
2) Proceeds from the book go to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced books and documents.
Review:Great Reference on an Important Mission (5/5) Apollo 9 was where Apollo really came together--first manned LM flight, first Apollo docking, first in-space test of the moon suits. This book brings a wealth of information to the fore. Just about everything you want to know about Apollo 9. A must have for space buffs.
Review:There is no crew debriefing in this book. (2/5) It is missing the most enjoyable part of this book series.
