Chasing New Horizons

Posted on 23 October 2018 by Alan Stern

Alan Stern and David Grinspoon take us behind the scenes of the science, politics, egos, and public expectations that fueled the greatest space mission of our time New Horizons misison to Pluto.On July 14, 2015, something amazing happened More than 3 billion miles from Earth, a small NASA spacecraft called New Horizons screamed past Pluto at than 32,000 miles per hour, focusing its instruments on the long mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, and then, just as quickly, continued on its journey out into the beyond.Nothing like this has occurred in a generation a raw exploration of new worlds unparalleled since NASA s Voyager missions to Uranus and Neptune and nothing like it is planned to happen ever again The photos that New Horizons sent back to Earth graced the front pages of newspapers on all 7 continents, and NASA s website for the mission received than 2 billion hits in the days surrounding the flyby At a time when so many think our most historic achievements are in the past, the most distant planetary exploration ever attempted not only succeeded but made history and captured the world s imagination.How did this happen Chasing New Horizons is the story of the men and women behind the mission of their decades long commitment of the political fights within and outside of NASA of the sheer human ingenuity it took to design, build, and fly the mission and of the plans for New Horizons next encounter, 1 billion miles past Pluto Told from the insider s perspective of Dr Alan Stern the man who led the mission Chasing New Horizons is a riveting story of scientific discovery, and of how far humanity can go when people focused on a dream work together toward their incredible goal. Free Read [ Chasing New Horizons ] By [ Alan Stern ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.Every once in a while, I wonder where I would have ended up had I stayed at Ohio State instead of joining the Air Force in the mid 80s My major was astronomy, with a minor in physics, topics which still fascinate me to this day Maybe I would have ended up on one of these exploration projects who knows Anyway, this is a great book on the trials and trib...In July 2015, the New Horizons space probe reached Pluto after a 10 year voyage and sent back the first clear pictures of our Solar System s outermost neighbor This is the inside story of how it happened, written by the scientists involved but you don t need to be an astronomer to enjoy this story This book is exceptionally easy to read and understand, and provides fantastic insight into what it actually took to get this unlikely space mission off the ground A must read for fans of space expl In July 2015, the New Horizons space probe reached Pluto after a 10 year voyage and sent back the first clear pictures of our Solar System s outermost neighbor This is the inside story of how it happened, written by the scientists involved but you don t need to be an astronomer to enjoy this story This book is exceptionally easy to read and understand, and provides fantastic insight into what it actually took to get this unl...Now, let me state up front that these type of books, chronocling scientific research, or events, are hard to write It s very hard to write a book that can convey a level of excitement and emotion for an event that happened in the past, in which we technically know the outcome, generally filled withscientific and beaurecratic dealings and most of all, set over a very very long span of time Chasing New Horizons I think does and doesn t fall into this trap The fact that it s written by one Now, let me state up front that these type of books, chronocling scientific research, or events, are hard to write It s very hard to write a book that can convey a level of excitement and emotion for an event that happened in the past, in which we technically know the outcome, generally filled withscientific and beaurecratic dealings and most of all, set over a very very long span of time Chasing New Horizons I think does and doesn t fall into this trap The fact that it s written by one of the main leads of the project I think helps in that he can bring apersonal emotion and energy to the project, over someone writing it from a 3rd perspective Trying to capture someone else s excitement over a project is much harder than relating it first hand I enjoy the fact that Dr Stern has a ...One the hottest debates in the space nerd community over the last couple years surrounds the little planet Pluto Out at the far reaches of our solar system Pluto has only been known to our science since the 1930 s when Clyde Tombaugh using math and an analog telescope proved that there was another object out beyond Neptune Eventually this planet was given the name Pluto, and in recent years it was demoted from Planet to Dwarf Planet Look I am not a planetary scientist but being small in my op One the hottest debates in the space nerd community over the last couple years surrounds the little planet Pluto Out at the far reaches of our solar system Pluto has only been known to our science since the 1930 s when Clyde Tombaugh using math and an analog telescope proved that there was another object out beyond Neptune Eventually this planet was given the name Pluto, and in recent years it was demoted from Planet to Dwarf Planet Look I am not a planetary scientist but being small in my opinion should not count against Pluto Dwarf people are still people Dwarf planets are planets.We as a species had not been to Pluto, if you are not as into these things you might wondering why neither Voyager went to Plu...It s an amazing story that was quite gripping at times, and I recommend the book The audiobook narrator one of the authors is horrendous and they should have gotten a pro reader It works best if you can play it...As a lifelong space geek, I wanted so badly to absolutely love this book and read about the Pluto mission However, while the subject was so fantastically interesting, the writing left something to be desired The first half of the book before the mission launched into space reads like just lists of names and job descriptions And throughout, the switching between third and first person story telling is disjarring, as the layout doesn ...Detailed story of how the project came about and was executed I find this story intrinsically interesting, especially on how problems were dealt with as they arose Don t expect as much on Pluto this is mainly about the spacecraft itself.By the way, sometimes they cram too much in, esp...Fascinating insider s experience from the mission conception to reaching Pluto I totally enjoyed reading Chasing New Horizons Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern I learned so much about NASA and how missions come about within the committee red tape They managed to bypass the usual pat on the head to actually getting folks excited about the need to explore the remainder of the planets in our solar system It is somewhat fascinating how when the concept was first developing Fascinating insider s experience from the mission conception to reaching Pluto I totally enjoyed reading Chasing New Horizons Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern I learned so much about NASA and how missions co...An excellent book on the Pluto system the outermost planet in oursolar system and the New Horizons mission that was the first to explore it in 2015, after a 9 year transit from earth, with a flyby of 7 scientific instruments Brings out the heroic persistence needed over decades to gain support for the mission, design and build the spacecraft, and manage the mission through its many difficult stages Discusses the design tradeoffs needed to meet the cost and schedule requirements in depth New An excellent book on the Pluto system the outermost planet in oursolar system and the New Horizons mission that was ...

23 October 2018

Alan Stern