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Old 01-10-2010, 17:19
TelevisionUser
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Question for the space and astronomy people: can you recommend me a good general, factual book about space travel? A mix of techy stuff and biography would be great, if such a thing exists.

I've looked on Amazon and the books I found all seem to be speculative, astrophysics textbooks, or only relating to certain missions.
Well, Mallaha, l have two recommendations and a suggestion for you.

Starting off with the history of space travel, l can recommend both Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff about the devlopment of the US space programme and Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon which specifically deals with the Apollo project.

ln terms of what's ahead, Licence to Orbit http://www.amazon.co.uk/License-Orbi...5949245&sr=8-1 from Apogee Books http://www.cgpublishing.com/Books/SPACE_SPLASH.html might do the trick but l've not read it myself.

Some interesting faster ways of getting around the Solar System are being developed such as the NERVA fission rocket engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA and the VASIMR [vassimir] plasma rocket engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variabl...oplasma_Rocket

However, in order to escape this Solar System, it's going to take something like an advanced helium-3 fusion pulse rocket or similar which could theoretically get up to 50% of the speed of light http://www.newscientist.com/article/...ce.html?page=1.

Even using that last option, it would still take at least 40 years to get to the newly discovered Gliese 581g planet! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11444022
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Old 01-10-2010, 17:47
HenryGarten
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I was thinking of Enterprise's test flights... but they were off the back of that wild 747! I hadn't realised until I just read up on it that Enterprise was supposed to have been the second operations shuttle after Columbia but some re-designs after the maiden flight made that impossible. And that they considered refiting Enterprise after the Challenger disaster but decided to build Endeavour instead.... out of spares!



Trivia answer -
Spoiler
Well done. I guess you also know the reason for the change?
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Old 02-10-2010, 11:33
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China launches its second lunar mission. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11453384
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Old 02-10-2010, 12:30
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...which is a research probe and it'l be interesting to see what results it returns in due course. l think the cover on this book here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chinas-Space...6018494&sr=1-1 is highly optimistic.

Whilst the Chinese are developing more powerful launchers such as the Long March 5 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10762634, that rocket is certainly not sufficient in itself to launch a command module/lunar module combination to the Moon.

The best they can possibly hope for is to do an Apollo 8/Zond figure of 8 loop around the Moon and back. They certainly aren't yet spending enough of their national income on a Moon landing programme to indicate that they are serious about that objective.
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Old 02-10-2010, 16:51
Mallaha
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Well done. I guess you also know the reason for the change?
Less money/bother?
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Old 02-10-2010, 16:59
squack
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Less money/bother?
It was for weight. By not painting the external tank they saved about 270kg.
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Old 02-10-2010, 20:48
HenryGarten
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It was for weight. By not painting the external tank they saved about 270kg.
Yes that is it. It increased the lifting capacity of the shuttle.
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Old 02-10-2010, 21:11
Mallaha
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Well, Mallaha, l have two recommendations and a suggestion for you.

Starting off with the history of space travel, l can recommend both Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff about the devlopment of the US space programme and Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon which specifically deals with the Apollo project.

ln terms of what's ahead, Licence to Orbit http://www.amazon.co.uk/License-Orbi...5949245&sr=8-1 from Apogee Books http://www.cgpublishing.com/Books/SPACE_SPLASH.html might do the trick but l've not read it myself.
Thanks for this. I've already read The Right Stuff - that's how I got interested in space. I'll look up that Andrew Chaikin one.

There's also a "50 Years of Nasa" book in Waterstones that looks like quite a nice entry-level one.
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Old 02-10-2010, 21:28
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Thanks for this. I've already read The Right Stuff - that's how I got interested in space. I'll look up that Andrew Chaikin one.

There's also a "50 Years of Nasa" book in Waterstones that looks like quite a nice entry-level one.
Try Riding Rockets for an easy going astronaut bio. Mike Mullane was in the original Space Shuttle training group along with the first American women such as Sally Ride & the late Judy Resnik. An interesting light read about astronaut training and life and is a bit more contemporary than the Apollo stuff.
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Old 03-10-2010, 00:05
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Thanks for this. I've already read The Right Stuff - that's how I got interested in space. I'll look up that Andrew Chaikin one.

There's also a "50 Years of Nasa" book in Waterstones that looks like quite a nice entry-level one.
Sounds good, Mallaha. l happen to have a branch of The Works discount bookstore very near me and l've been able to get some very good space/astronomy books from there and at nice prices too! It does depend on what they have in at the time though.

Their store locator is here: https://theworks.co.uk/storelocator.asp and they have a couple of books on their online bookstore https://theworks.co.uk/index.asp.
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Old 03-10-2010, 11:34
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New X-Prize developments:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...ace-moon-rover

The first X-Prize led to the creation of Virgin Galactic and other similar companies, and 'space' travel for potentially thousands of people - what will the new X-Prize lead to?

Commercial exploration/mining/water finding on the moon?

ETA: short deadline for such a project
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Old 04-10-2010, 18:31
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New Evidence Suggests Icebergs in Frigid Oceans on Ancient Mars


Ancient Mars once had surprisingly frigid primeval oceans complete with their own icebergs, new evidence suggests.
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Old 04-10-2010, 19:41
HenryGarten
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This seems cool. See space age.
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Old 04-10-2010, 23:18
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Oh of course the space age began 53 years ago today. on October 4th 1957 with the launch of Sputnik I
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Old 05-10-2010, 15:08
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This is very weird

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/image...ture_1774.html

Scientists have yet to discover what caused the strange spiral structure. Nor do they know why it glows. The glow may be caused by light reflected from nearby stars.
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Old 08-10-2010, 00:04
ClarkF1
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Soyuz Launch at 00:10

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
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Old 08-10-2010, 00:26
HenryGarten
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That is very interesting.
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Old 08-10-2010, 08:03
HenryGarten
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Great LRO pictures here. See LRO

Mind you they are probably all faked in a TV studio!

Great analysis on Apollo XIV
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Old 09-10-2010, 16:39
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...and there's more details here: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gener...pheric%20Probe.

According to Aviation Week, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Maven) project has now been approved for launch in 2013.

This space probe will look at Mars' atmosphere to study its interactions with the solar wind with a view to learning more about the disappearance of Mars' atmosphere over eons.

Early geolical activity supplied Mars with a thicker atmosphere than it has now and the cessation of that activity plus the freezing out of the atmosphere into the soil and polar caps has left a thin atmosphere left which can be more easily eroded away by the solar wind.
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Old 10-10-2010, 12:06
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Nice docking of the Soyuz with the ISS. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhAjFjDGfbs
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Old 12-10-2010, 08:27
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Astroid passes close to earth. See here
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Old 12-10-2010, 12:29
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Landing men on an Asteroid? See here
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Old 13-10-2010, 09:32
Dan Fortesque
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A couple of more stories here:

Manned flight around Moon considered

Virgin Galactic's spaceship makes solo flight
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Old 16-10-2010, 09:05
mathertron
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The most massive conglomeration of galaxies ever spotted in the early universe has been found, astronomers say.

This behemoth galaxy cluster contains about 800 trillion suns packed inside hundreds of galaxies. And it's not even finished growing.

The newfound cluster, called SPT-CL J0546-5345, is about 7 billion light-years from Earth, meaning that its light has taken that long to reach us. Thus, astronomers are seeing this clump as it was 7 billion years ago.

By now, it likely will have quadrupled in size, researchers said. The universe is about 13.7 billion years old.

Sauce - http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/mostma...ersediscovered
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Old 16-10-2010, 18:23
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The most massive conglomeration of galaxies ever spotted in the early universe has been found, astronomers say.

This behemoth galaxy cluster contains about 800 trillion suns packed inside hundreds of galaxies. And it's not even finished growing.

The newfound cluster, called SPT-CL J0546-5345, is about 7 billion light-years from Earth, meaning that its light has taken that long to reach us. Thus, astronomers are seeing this clump as it was 7 billion years ago.

By now, it likely will have quadrupled in size, researchers said. The universe is about 13.7 billion years old.

Sauce - http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/mostma...ersediscovered
Thanks for posting that interesting find, mathertron. Perhaps they are early generation elliptical galaxies?

Your post reminds me of a little local galactic mystery. Those who watch the skies are familiar with the M33 Triangulum galaxy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M33HunterWilson09.jpg which is 3 million light years away and the M31 Andromeda galaxy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M31bobo.jpg which is even nearer at 2.5 million light years away. It is also visible in the autumn sky right now and it's larger than our own Milky Way galaxy and the M33 galaxy.

However, very few people have either seen or heard of the great Maffei 1 galaxy. It is a huge elliptical galaxy 10 million light years away and it would also be visible in the night sky but for the fact that the centre of our very own galaxy gets in the way and obscures it. There's a pic of it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maf1atlas.jpg and an article here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maffei_1.
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