When the U.S.S.R. launched the first satellite into Earth orbit on October 4, 1957, a wave of fear and awe shook the world. In the heart of the Cold War, this first satellite was a threatening show of power and the decisive event that led to the infamous space rivalry between the U.S.S.R. and the United States. Launching missile after missile skyward, each superpower goaded its rival with impressive feats in space, each determined to prove to the world its technological superiority. As this engrossing work so clearly shows, it was in this pressure cooker of competition that each country achieved undreamed-of advances, stretching the boundaries of humankind's domain and giving us the first thrilling close-ups of the heavenly bodies in our solar system. The Space Age proved to be a rare instance in history, an era when two nations managed to call on their best and brightest to work single-mindedly toward a goal. Funded by millions of dollars and employing the talents of the top scientists and engineers from universities, the military, and, in the United States, the private sector, the space programs on each side of the Iron Curtain worked with determination and genius to build the incredible craft that would take us to the Moon and beyond. Robert Reeves, a respected historian of the Space Age and contributor to Astronomy, Amateur Astronomy, and Deep Sky Journal, describes the massive power and capabilities of these spaceships. Designed to overcome staggering obstacles, our spaceships accomplished what was once deemed impossible. Both the Soviets and the Americans succeeded in landing craft with amazing precision on the nearly airless surface of the Moon. American space probes touched down on the rocky surface of Mars, while the Soviets succeeded in building probes that could withstand the hellish heat and deadly pressure of the Venusian surface, transmitting photographs and readings that were inaccessible from Earth. Scientists today are still analyzing this invaluable information, deducing the story of our solar system by studying the craters on the Moon, the mysterious channels on Mars, and the nightmarish surface of Venus. Reeves illuminates the brilliant achievements and bitter tragedies of conquering the inner solar system. Fueled by pride and national honor, funded by politicians, and designed by the leading engineers of the world, each hard-earned mission was at once a political triumph for each nation and a scientific triumph for humankind. Reeves traces this most exciting history from its extraordinary genesis to the present and looks toward future cooperative ventures which will, with funding, luck, and united effort, yield knowledge and adventure beyond our wildest dreams.
It's now conceivable to develop a mission in Mars that can take humans to Mars and return them to Earth more safely and inexpensively than ever before, because of the advent of revolutionary new technologies from space firms and university academics. Rising Mission to Mars presents a well-established plan beginning with the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to rekindle our hope in the human spirit by understanding the history and presence of life on Mars with the assistance of human crew on-site to provide more in-depth observational analysis than the unmanned rovers, while also establishing an atmosphere like Earth to investigate the possible prospects of life on Mars with the hope that possibility of human extinction could decrease by the colonization of other planets. Rising Mission to Mars goes in-depth to outline a feasible and cost-effective plan for Mars Manned Outpost Mission, which would initiate settlement on Mars and open the door to an entirely new frontier of possibility for human civilization.
This sweeping reference work covers every aspect of the Cold War, from its ignition in the ashes of World War II, through the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Cold War superpower face-off between the Soviet Union and the United States dominated international affairs in the second half of the 20th century and still reverberates around the world today. This comprehensive and insightful multivolume set provides authoritative entries on all aspects of this world-changing event, including wars, new military technologies, diplomatic initiatives, espionage activities, important individuals and organizations, economic developments, societal and cultural events, and more. This expansive coverage provides readers with the necessary context to understand the many facets of this complex conflict. The work begins with a preface and introduction and then offers illuminating introductory essays on the origins and course of the Cold War, which are followed by some 1,500 entries on key individuals, wars, battles, weapons systems, diplomacy, politics, economics, and art and culture. Each entry has cross-references and a list of books for further reading. The text includes more than 100 key primary source documents, a detailed chronology, a glossary, and a selective bibliography. Numerous illustrations and maps are inset throughout to provide additional context to the material. Includes more than 1,500 entries covering all facets of the Cold War from its origins to its aftermath, including all political, diplomatic, military, social, economic, and cultural aspects Incorporates the scholarship of more than 200 internationally recognized contributors from around the world, many writing about events and issues from the perspective of their country of origin Offers more than 100 original documents—a collection that draws heavily on material from archives in China, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union Provides hundreds of powerful images and dozens of informative maps detailing specific military conflicts and movements of various groups Includes a detailed chronology of important events that occurred before, during, and after the Cold War
From Moon landings to plans for asteroid mining, China is beginning to exploit space to achieve its great power ambitions. Its strategy could, over time, severely and adversely impact U.S. economic and military security. The United States needs to structure its approach to space to ensure that it can meet or surpass PRC timelines. Authors Richard M. Harrison and Peter A. Garretson, both from the American Foreign Policy Council, review the literature on Chinese space ambitions and assess U.S. space-related initiatives across the government, military, and private sector to understand the maturity of technology available to support space initiatives. Their first-hand research and findings are supplemented by interviews with industry experts, corporate space leaders, and government and military officials. The Next Space Race describes and seeks to influence the development of American space policy to ensure the U.S. industrial base is ready to meet or surpass PRC milestones, empower and clarify the mission of the newly minted Space Force, provide guidance to NASA and other federal agencies, and incentivize private sector companies to contribute to ensuring American space primacy.
The space race grew out of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the most powerful nations after World War II. For a half-century, they competed for primacy in a global struggle. Space was a crucial arena for this rivalry. Before a watchful world, each side sought to demonstrate its superiority through impressive feats in rocketry and space flight. Meanwhile, secret satellites were developed to keep a war eye on the adversary. At the Cold War's end, the United States and Russia agreed to build a space station and pursue other joint ventures in space. A contest that had begun in fear and enmity ended in partnership. Drawing on recently declassified material and featuring a wide variety of U.S. and Soviet artifacts, "Space race" examines the spectacular, publicly celebrated milestones of our first steps into space, as well as highly secret efforts to spy on adversaries from high above the Earth. In compelling photographs and terse, informed text, this book tells the story of time when the superpowers sought to make the heavens inseparable from the earth.
One of the few works to analyze the establishment of a major global infrastructure project, this book provides an outstanding analytical overview of the history of global electronic communications from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
"The 34 papers presented in this book represent our best effort to present a diverse and comprehensive overview of key issues in the management and realization of digitization projects. ... This is, above all, a book written by practitioners for practitioners who together recognize the critical needs and goals in digitization in our industry"--P. x-xi.
The Big Sky Black Hole Brides, all in one place! Adventure and romance together in high-speed pursuit of Happily Ever Afters throughout the universe. If you’ve been looking for love in all the wrong galaxies, find your alien mate with the Intergalactic Dating Agency! THE INTERGALACTIC DUKE’S INCONVENIENT ENGAGEMENT Alien abduction is a thing? Rayna Quaye, hard-headed, hard-working Earth girl, wouldn't have believed it. But when she wakes up on an abandoned space station orbiting a black hole many, lightyears from home, she gets a crash course in such extraterrestrial inconveniences. Speaking of inconveniences… His Grace, Aelazar Amrazal Thorkonos, Duke of Azthronos, has enough problems on his interplanetary plate. His inherited solar system is in debt, his mother wants to marry him off, and now Raz has to rescue some baffled back-world female. But then the Black Holes Brides are bequeathed the salvaged space station. Faster than light, Rayna has fortune hunters after her. Conveniently, the Duke of Azthronos has an engaging idea… THE INTERSTELLAR RAKE’S IRRESISTIBLE KISS Imprisoned on an abandoned space station, Trixie Boudreaux prayed for just one chance to escape…and she failed. When she and the other Black Hole Brides are rescued, she’s left adrift between the coward she was and the new universe ahead of her. If only she had a guide she could trust… Nor irThorkonos paid good galactic credits for his captain’s commission on the flagship dreadnaught, and how many erstwhile interplanetary pirates have come as far? If he has a secret that the Azthrnos nobles mustn’t discover, well, certainly one skittish Earther girl won’t be the one to find him out. But when interstellar imprisonment can’t hold an old evil, Trixie and Nor must save not only the worlds of Azthronos but each other. THE INTERDIMENSIONAL LORD’S EARTHLY DELIGHT After a bad divorce, Lishelle Lewis was finally ready to put herself out there. She just had no idea how far out there. Abducted by a cruel, heartless alien and then rescued along with the rest of the Black Hole Brides, she’s trying to find herself again in a big universe. At least she has a big wedding where she’s a bridesmaid to distract her. Now she just needs a date for the wedding… But there are more powerful forces at play in the universe than quantum entanglement and buttercream frosting. And Lishelle, who has always kept a piece of her heart locked away, will have to open herself—mind, body, and soul—to the chance of a love bigger than galaxies, deeper than space, and more consuming than any black hole. BONUS BOOK! The Great Space Race: Team Prism FREE FALL Scarred by life, Amy Long finally found peace in quiet Sunset Falls, Montana…until a malfunctioning popcorn popper transports her across the universe to the Great Space Race. Now if she ever wants to return to Earth, she has to pretend to be the famous intergalactic explorer who was supposed to be half of Team Prism, searching for the legendary Firestorm Queen’s Prism. Can this unsuspecting Earther wrap her head around a universe of aliens and adventure? Maybe by wrapping her arms around the uptight but sexy drakling male who is her teammate? Luc Amaveo of the Flamewalker Clan just needs a treasure. Any treasure, even the imaginary one teased by the Great Space Race. Every drakling needs a treasure to prove himself, and being a respectable transgalactic accountant doesn’t count with his raucous clan. If he can take the Great Space Race prize to his twelve older brothers’ mating ceremonies, maybe they’ll finally stop trying to make him into something he’s not: a ferocious, fiery, bold beast. But he might need to do some pretending of his own if he’s going to keep his innocent Earther girl alive, even if the real danger is facing their own fears…and the risk that they might be falling in love.
More than three thousand different images appeared on United States postage stamps from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Limited at first to the depiction of a small cast of characters and patriotic images, postal iconography gradually expanded as the Postal Service sought to depict the country’s history in all its diversity. This vast breadth has helped make stamp collecting a widespread hobby and made stamps into consumer goods in their own right. Examining the canon of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American stamps, Laura Goldblatt and Richard Handler show how postal iconography and material culture offer a window into the contested meanings and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. They argue that postage stamps, which are both devices to pay for a government service and purchasable items themselves, embody a crucial tension: is democracy defined by political agency or the freedom to buy? The changing images and uses of stamps reveal how governmental authorities have attempted to navigate between public service and businesslike efficiency, belonging and exclusion, citizenship and consumerism. Stamps are vehicles for state messaging, and what they depict is tied up with broader questions of what it means to be American. Goldblatt and Handler combine historical, sociological, and iconographic analysis of a vast quantity of stamps with anthropological exploration of how postal customers and stamp collectors behave. At the crossroads of several disciplines, this book casts the symbolic and material meanings of stamps in a wholly new light.
Intrepid Media is a 2nd generation social network and promotional site for writers and other artists. Founded in 1999, Intrepid Media has grown to over 1000 members around the world, including New York Times bestselling authors, writers represented by major agencies, novelists, journalists, freelancers, technical writers, bloggers, students, and everything in between. GREAT THINGS WILL HAPPEN TODAY: THE INTREPID MEDIA 2008 COLLECTION is a look at the last year like no other -- funny, biting, witty, insightful, thoughtful -- it's the best of Intrepid Media from an historic year in an historic edition. There something in here for everyone and a little something especially for you.
A look into the history of space exploration and its possible future, and just where exactly robotics fit into it all. Given the near incomprehensible enormity of the universe, it appears almost inevitable that humankind will one day find a planet that appears to be much like the Earth. This discovery will no doubt reignite the lure of interplanetary travel. Will we be up to the task? And, given our limited resources, biological constraints, and the general hostility of space, what shape should we expect such expeditions to take? In Robots in Space, Roger Launius and Howard McCurdy tackle these questions with rigorous scholarship and disciplined imagination, jumping comfortably among the worlds of rocketry, engineering, public policy, and science fantasy to expound upon the possibilities and improbabilities involved in trekking across the Milky Way and beyond. They survey the literature—fictional as well as academic studies—and outline the progress of space programs in the United States and other nations. They also assess the current state of affairs to offer a conclusion startling only to those who haven’t spent time with Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke: to traverse the cosmos, humans must embrace and entwine themselves with advanced robotic technologies . . . 2008 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine Praise for Robots in Space “This short volume manages to capture the history of U.S. space flight, to explain the underpinnings of U.S. space policy and to plot out the possibilities for our future in space in a style that most anyone can enjoy.” —Andrew McMichael, Park City Daily News
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