America's Path to Deep Space - Couverture souple

Kross, John

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1794222588 ISBN 13 : 9781794222588

Editeur : Independently published, 2019

Synopsis

People of a “certain age” – say, aging baby boomers – had the great good fortune to be born before the dreams of spaceflight had yet to collide with a more prosaic reality bounded by budget resolutions and societal attention deficit disorder. Oh, it was thrilling to watch flickering black-and-white TV images of needle-nosed rocket ships inspired by the mind of Wernher von Braun and the hands of Disney Studios artists. On Sunday nights, millions of kids would sit slack jawed on the living room floor as the fleet of space ships landed between jagged lunar peaks.How exciting it was to explore the pre–space age concept of Venus as an antediluvian world replete with vaguely reptilian creatures, a delirium of slashing claws and ripping teeth; or climb sand-colored Martian mesas under a dark blue sky; or marvel at the most iconic and enduring image of all, the pale ethereal vision of ringed Saturn floating in Titan’s blue atmosphere. Simple, yet exotic—and we now know totally false—but a timeless masterpiece that launched a thousand careers.Those earlier images kindled America’s drive to other planets with a series of stunning portfolios of rotating space stations, planetary “landscapes” and “hypothetical” landings, which often included space-suited figures with gumball-shape helmets. The tiny figures may have been added “for scale,” but the subliminal idea of humans in space still wormed its way into the national psyche. Today, we have the advantage of the perspective of more than half a century of human spaceflight. But therein lies an inevitable frustration. We went to the moon, but once there retreated home. As fascinating as missions to the International Space Station are, it is difficult to compete with earlier imagination-inspired images in Colliers and Life magazines. Worse, poor policy decisions have grounded our human spaceflight program until further notice. Pending NASA’s Commercial Crew program, America’s astronauts are reduced to hitching a ride from Russia to reach space.Generously illustrated, America’s Path to Deep Space explores how we got here – the choices made and not made over the past decade in the realm of human spaceflight. More importantly, America’s Path to Deep Space takes a hard look at the direction of NASA and the growing role of the private sector in human missions to deep space. The cosmos is a big place and there is plenty of room to dream. America’s Path to Deep Space provides an update and reality check on those dreams.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Independently published
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1794222588
• ISBN 13: 9781794222588
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 375
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.fr/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxembourg