Best space flight books according to redditors
We found 369 Reddit comments discussing the best space flight books. We ranked the 82 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 369 Reddit comments discussing the best space flight books. We ranked the 82 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Forgive the cheap plug, but I just wrote a whole book on this, to appear in Feb 2012, titles "Space Chronicles".
I originally called it "Failure to Launch" but the publishers nixed the title, citing it was too depressing.
Here's the listing for a pre-order, if interested. http://www.amazon.com/Space-Chronicles-Facing-Ultimate-Frontier/dp/0393082105
Ok, the physics is one thing, but the psychology is another!
I was reading Packing for Mars today. She contrasted accounts from non-orbit spacewalking and orbital spacewalking: it sounds like while the Apollo mission spacewalks were euphoric and peaceful, orbital spacewalking often comes with a strong sensation of, well, falling. If I recall correctly, the visual stimuli cause most of the panic.
Packing for Mars is a great book, btw. I highly recommend the book and others by Mary Roach. I don't have the copy with me, but perhaps someone who does can give more details on this part.
Read all of his books.
The Demon Haunted World
Cosmos
Varieties of the Scientific Experience
Pale Blue Dot
The Dragons of Eden
Billions and Billions
His novel:
Contact
The first Muslim astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, from Malaysia had the problem of not knowing what direction to face when praying in orbit. A conference of scientists and scholars determined that facing the earth's surface would suffice.
I learned about this while reading Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. A rather interesting book about the difficulties and funny peculiarities of manned space exploration.
Since I read this for physics coursework, I've been convinced that we should colonise Mars and as soon as possible.
Welcome to the Zubrin AMA! As you may already know, Dr. Robert Zubrin's book "The Case for Mars" was a significant early influence on SpaceX's Mars colonization plans, and his new book, “The Case for Space,” discusses how the entrepreneurial launch revolution spearheaded by SpaceX can open up a future of unlimited possibilities. His recent IAC2019 Mars Direct 2.0 presentation presentation also generated some good discussion here on r/spacex.
That's all, folks! Dr. Zubrin has signed off for today after answering questions for 3 solid hours, and he even plans to pop back in over the next few days to answer more! Thanks again to Dr. Z and everyone else involved from the Mars Society!
Also, thank you very much to the community for doing such an excellent job with the questions! There's been some great technical discussion in here.
Space Chronicles by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Looks good!
If I recall correctly, in Pale Blue Dot, this question is answered in this way: It is very expensive and somewhat dangerous to send a person to the moon/space. You have to have a ton of life supporting equipment, and also have to have the equipment to return the person home. It is much safer and less costly to send robots out into space for scientific research, and leave them there - they can stay out there for years.
STEM generates wealth. Good message.
But apace advocates have been saying this since the 1960's. Neil's not bringing anything new to the table. This 2012 testimony didn't generate much support from policy makers. Neither did the book he published in 2012.
Space advocates can point to huge benefits generated by research from the 1950's and 60's. Not all of it was NASA R&D. Some of it was military and commercial. A few of the more prominent:
Miniaturization of electronics -- Rockets and missiles needed compact, low mass electronics. U.S. funded R&D helped put American companies at the forefront of an electronics revolution. There were already transistor radios around when NASA formed but the R&D helped accelerate trends like Moore's Law.
Communication sats. Generally not NASA's but it's hard to imagine commerical entities launching satellites if NASA and the U.S. military hadn't blazed a trail. These are huge beneficial spin off from the space program.
Weather sats. Again, not NASA but enabled by development of launch technology More accurate weather prediction has saved lives, prevented property damage and enabled farmers to produce more food.
Will future NASA endeavors generate such dramatic spin offs? If that could be solidly demonstrated, it'd be easier to persuade policy makers. I certainly don't regard it as a given.
One of the rallying cries has been Colonize Mars! With huge, disposable rockets like the SLS. Basically Apollo rockets redux. The Apollo trips to the moon were about 10 billion a pop. It is likely SLS trips to Mars every two years would be even more expensive. Settling Mars would take a long sustained effort taking decades or maybe even centuries. Would policy makers support that sustained effort? An expensive, high profile program would be a lightning rod for policy makers that want to appear fiscally responsible. I'd give the program two presidential cycles. Agaiin, Apollo redux.
Some critics maintain the chief benefit of SLS and Orion is providing employment in certain congressional districts. Pork, in other words. I tend to agree. I don't think NASA is blazing new trails with SLS and Orion.
Many serious proponents of exploiting and settling space call for improved robotics and In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). Already British Petroleum is using remotely operated vehicles to build sophisticated infrastructure on the sea floor where humans can't reach. Should NASA invest heavily in improved tele-robots, this could potentially generate enormous spin offs. I can see tele-robot operaters donning their motion capture suits in their living rooms. No need to commute to work. Besides working on the lunar surface or on asteroids, tele-robot operatros could do work in the deeper mines, high mountain tops, the sea floor. As well as hazardous disaster areas like Fukashima after a tsunami.
Summary: "A penny for NASA" is too simplistic. Some NASA projects might have big pay offs. Others are likely dead ends. If we want to persuade policy makers and fire up the public, we need to place our bets on good horses.
You're looking for Orbital Mechanics/Astrodynamics. MIT has an Open Courseware class on it. Looks like they use
this book
BBC made an hour long documentary about this project and it's well worth the watch. It's available on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYoLcJuBtOw
There's also a book written by Dyson's son, although I have not yet read it so I can't attest to how good it is. This is it here: http://www.amazon.com/Project-Orion-Story-Atomic-Spaceship/dp/0805059857
Not directly related to SpaceX, but pretty exciting news, it could really open up the solar system (thus makes Mars colonization easier, so not totally unrelated to SpaceX ;-) ). This drive is similar in effect to EMDrive, but is much less controversial and has much better theoretical foundation, it's also less well-known. To see a layman's explanation of this drive, see: https://boingboing.net/2014/11/24/the-quest-for-a-reactionless-s.html, there's also a book: Making Starships and Stargates: The Science of Interstellar Transport and Absurdly Benign Wormholes
NIAC is NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, it's a program to provide small amount of funding for TRL 1 breakthrough technologies, this is the best part of NASA IMHO, really what NASA should be doing.
From Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach (chapter 11)
> The zero-gravity fart has been a popular orbital pursuit, particularly on all-male flights. One hears tell of astronauts using intestinal gas like rocket propellant to "launch themselves across the middeck," as astronaut Roger Crouch put it. He had heard the claims and was dubious. "The mass and velocity of the expelled gas," he told me in an email that has forevermore endeared him to me, "is very small compared to the mass of the human body." Thus it was unlikely that it could accelerate a 180-pound astronaut. Crouch pointed out that an exhaled breath doesn’t propel an astronaut in any direction, and the lungs hold about six liters of air—versus the fart, which, as we learned from Dr. Murphy, holds at most three soda cans’ worth.
> Or the average person’s, anyway. "My genes have blessed me with an extraordinary ability to expel some of the byproducts of digestion," wrote Crouch. "So given that, I thought that it should be tested. In what I thought was a real voluminous and rapidly expelled purge, I failed to move noticeably." Crouch surmised that his experiment may have been compromised by the "action/reaction of the gas passing through "through the pants." Disappointingly, both his flights were mixed-gender, so Crouch was disinclined to "strip down naked" and try it again. He was heading to Cape Canaveral and promised to ask around for some other astronauts’ input, but so far no one is, as they say, spilling the beans.
Great book. If you get a chance to read it, it's chocked full of hilarious/disgusting/interesting stuff like this.
Why I don't give a shit about coffee machine expenses, office furniture, etc:
Firstly, and this is important, Star Citizen is an extraordinarily challenging game to write from a technical perspective (even Derek says that they
can't builddon't have the tech for it). Extraordinary tech requires extraordinary engineers.There is a long history of how various companies and colleges try to attract the best and the brightest. The first company that I know of which had to attract extraordinary engineers was General Atomic after WWII, which started working on Project Orion. Remember how your parents would give you pushes on the swing to make you go higher/further? Project Orion was basically that, except you're a spaceship and the push is really a nuclear explosion. Do you think I'm kidding? I'm not. So you're detonating hundreds of the most dangerous kind of bomb known at the time with specific timing in sequence: things have to go right. Therefore, you need the best engineers to work on it.
The facilities at the General Atomic campus were extensive, featuring an enormous library in the center that was shaped to be the same size of the spaceship they were trying to build. Other details can be found in George Dyson's book, but suffice it to say that General Atomic was able to recruit many of the Project Manhattan veterans because of some of these benefits and amenities: not all decisions come down to salary.
Google is a much more recent example; like General Atomic, Google wants the best. How does Google attract and retain the best engineers? Perks are a big, and well-documented, part of that. Just look at all these articles about the perks that Google employees get: https://www.google.com/search?q=general+atomic&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=google+perks.
Colleges do the same thing to try to get the best students to attend: they have large campuses with beautiful architecture. A state-of-the-art athletic center with more racketball and squash courts than would ever be used. A program to allow you to rent Picassos to hang in your dorm room. Hell, the school I work at has a parents association whose sole job is to bring the teachers lunch/breakfast once a month. I'd have left to be closer to friends/family long ago if it weren't for this (and other similar perks).
It's really clear to me that CIG is trying to do exactly this. I'm really surprised Derek hasn't mentioned this, but they have a full kitchen in the new California studio. Producers constantly talk about how they're working to make the engineer's lives better, sometimes that involves running errands or getting dinner. The mural on the wall helps people to take pride in their work (and is beautiful besides). A nice coffee machine and elegant furniture are ways to retain the amazing employees you have. That's part of the cost of hiring the best. Can you go overboard with it? Of course. Have they? Consider that this $20,000 coffee machine is less than 0.02% of their total crowdfunded number. They can afford it. And the employees deserve it.
Welcome to the real world, Derek. You can't just throw money at people and expect them to be inspired and give you their best. And you certainly can't do it when you're paying these people less than what they would get paid at other companies, no matter how awesome your project is.
I recently read Packing for Mars which is a great read for anyone interested in the nitty gritty parts of human space travel you normally don't hear about.
In the end she states that with ~$500B NASA could take a manned mission to Mars. I'm all for it. I feel like there's a major brain drain in this country with the sciences taking a back seat to defense.
/u/another_user_name posted this list a while back. Actual aerospace textbooks are towards the bottom but you'll need a working knowledge of the prereqs first.
Non-core/Pre-reqs:
Mathematics:
Calculus.
1-4) Calculus, Stewart -- This is a very common book and I felt it was ok, but there's mixed opinions about it. Try to get a cheap, used copy.
1-4) Calculus, A New Horizon, Anton -- This is highly valued by many people, but I haven't read it.
1-4) Essential Calculus With Applications, Silverman -- Dover book.
More discussion in this reddit thread.
Linear Algebra
3) Linear Algebra and Its Applications,Lay -- I had this one in school. I think it was decent.
3) Linear Algebra, Shilov -- Dover book.
Differential Equations
4) An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations, Coddington -- Dover book, highly reviewed on Amazon.
G) Partial Differential Equations, Evans
G) Partial Differential Equations For Scientists and Engineers, Farlow
More discussion here.
Numerical Analysis
5) Numerical Analysis, Burden and Faires
Chemistry:
Physics:
2-4) Physics, Cutnel -- This was highly recommended, but I've not read it.
Programming:
Introductory Programming
Programming is becoming unavoidable as an engineering skill. I think Python is a strong introductory language that's got a lot of uses in industry.
Core Curriculum:
Introduction:
Aerodynamics:
Thermodynamics, Heat transfer and Propulsion:
Flight Mechanics, Stability and Control
5+) Flight Stability and Automatic Control, Nelson
5+)[Performance, Stability, Dynamics, and Control of Airplanes, Second Edition](http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Stability-Dynamics-Airplanes-Education/dp/1563475839/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315534435&sr=8-1, Pamadi) -- I gather this is better than Nelson
Engineering Mechanics and Structures:
3-4) Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics, Hibbeler
6-8) Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, Bruhn -- A good reference, never really used it as a text.
G) Introduction to the Mechanics of a Continuous Medium, Malvern
G) Fracture Mechanics, Anderson
G) Mechanics of Composite Materials, Jones
Electrical Engineering
Design and Optimization
Space Systems
Since no one posted yet, as an offshoot I'd recommend Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. It's actually a historical glimpse at space travel. It's not the story you might be looking for, but certainly a hilarious and interesting read. It's one of my favourites.
If you're designing missions (I'm assuming for academic purposes), the Payload Planners Guide will be the source of authority. This has loads expectations, payload adapter requirements, sizing, environmental controls, etc. ULA also publishes a User's Guide that you may find useful; this will contain quite a bit of other material on the vehicle as a whole that should certainly help nail down specifics.
As a starting reference for launch vehicle selection, I'd recommend the International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems, if it hasn't already been consulted. The latest edition I'm aware of is slightly out of date, but there's probably no better compendium for easy reference between different vehicles. Makes putting together a thorough and convincing trade study very simple.
As one final point, it's quite common for payoads to not make up the full fairing volume. It is not advantageous to switch to a smaller fairing in most cases, usually because aerodynamic loads, vibrational and acoustic environments will all change, putting a large risk on the launch. Not to mention the added uncertainties in deployment and the costs of uniquely manufactured equipment.
If there's extra mass in the manifests, EELV standard payload adapters (which is what you'll be using on ULA launchers) can be fitted to launch secondary payloads, usually cubesats or smaller independent vehicles. Regardless, if there isn't, there's no reason to spend millions on new fairing design. And launcher efficiency is not really your concern as a primary payload anyway; so long as the vehicle meets your needs and you can pay for it.
This question gets asked all the time on this sub. I did a search for the term books and compiled this list from the dozens of previous answers:
How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.
Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.
Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.
You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.
Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.
Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.
No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.
Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.
A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.
Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.
Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.
The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.
Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.
An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.
Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.
Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.
Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.
Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.
Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.
Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.
The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.
Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.
The Martian by Andy Weir.
Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.
The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.
Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.
The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.
Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.
International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.
How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.
This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.
The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.
Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Eugene Cernan.
Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.
The end
You miss the implications.
I used to do acoustical engineering for wastewater treatment plants. Human feces has "about" the same density of water for large variations in "about." There's actually a fair amount of science to this that the OP simply ignored; one of those "you know you're an engineer if..." jokes that ends with "you've ever modeled a horse as a sphere" and this is along the same lines.
The density of human feces depends an awful lot on water and gas content. Considering approximately 70% of human feces is e.coli^1, and considering the density of e.coli has actually been the subject of some study^2, saying "the density of this is 1" is a gross approximation that pretty much demonstrates that your source doesn't, well, know his shit.
1. Citation, pp. 282
2. Citation
Pale Blue Dot
And Pale Blue Dot.
If you don't mean Mars-specific, I loved "How Apollo Flew to the Moon" by David Woods. It's sort of technical, but in a way understandable to the layperson. Runs through a whole mission from launch to splashdown, and how everything worked at each stage.
> one thing I always found amusing was that "rocket science" was orders of magnitude simpler to calculate than a simple two link piston turning a flywheel.
Are you certain you're not confusing rocket science with
ballisticsspace dynamics?This is one of the places.
Basically, in short form, the Lunar Module (LM) was actually built from two stages: the Descent Stage and the Ascent Stage.
Each stage had its own independent rocket engine. The Descent Stage rocket engine was used to take the LM out of lunar orbit and land on the moon. The Ascent Stage rocket engine, which, again, was entirely separate from the Descent Stage rocket engine, was used to launch just the Ascent Stage back into lunar orbit.
The Ascent Stage contained the pressurized crew cabin, as well as most of the electronics to actually control the combined Lunar Module.
So, the combination of the Ascent Stage's independent rocket engine, along with the computer and guidance/control systems built into the Ascent Stage allowed it to successfully lift off the moon and rendezvous with the CSM.
If you want more details, there are numerous websites and books that can go into more detail than I possibly could.
One book in particular, "How Apollo Flew to the Moon", goes into considerable detail on the entire Apollo system, including the LM:
http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Springer-Praxis-Books-Exploration/dp/1441971785/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347300598&sr=8-2&keywords=how+apollo+flew+to+the+moon
A bit more googling will get you more details. Also try the Wikipedia pages on Apollo and the LM for more info and links to additional details.
Hope that helps
EDIT:
If you want another website from which to access additional information, try the "Beyond Apollo" website, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/beyondapollo/
Also, look at these Youtube videos, which are actual NASA movies which describe different parts of the Apollo missions:
Lunar Orbit rendezvous, part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuA5xNfYUFo&feature=relmfu
Launch Windows for Apollo Lunar missions (i.e. why did they have to launch at specific times on specific dates?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzthaO29tNY&feature=relmfu
Apollo atmospheric re-entry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-6VQsVoc1I&feature=relmfu
I read about it in Packing for mars - very interesting book, and full of information about space travel/exploration just like this.
She's probably wishing she had a gravity-based toilet.
... damn you, Mary Roach, you've skewed my worldview towards the weird once again.
5.Amazon
You can start here.
When I took the intro course on spaceflight dynamics in college, it was either a 300 or 400 level course, but I don't remember it being really difficult. There are real textbooks on the subject should you want more information.
These were the 3 I picked up.
This one seems to be the most popular, probably because of it's publication timeframe, 1971. Not too early, not too late.
This is an earlier textbook and is considered a classic at this point. Still useful.
While less popular (and more expensive), I found this one to be my favorite. Hard to say why, some combination of layout, examples, and teaching style. The fact that it was also published in my lifetime, unlike the other 2, might have something to do with it as well in terms of language, etc.
But take /u/The_Mother_of_Robots advice and don't do it. This is a
slippery slopethick atmosphere in a deep gravity well. There is no Lagrange point, just the abyss.you should read the book; http://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet/dp/0684835509/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421005661&sr=8-2&keywords=the+case+for+mars
or at least watch the video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm34Muv6Lsg
This seems like a fine time to share this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sv5y6iHUM
It doesn't answer your question, but that was already answered.
Also there is book on the topic:
https://www.amazon.com/Project-Orion-Story-Atomic-Spaceship/dp/0805059857
Thank you :) If you're looking for some rabbit holes, and if it's not gauche to recommend my own work, I've written at length about a few different aspects of the Apollo program:
Going boldly: Behind the scenes at NASA’s hallowed Mission Control Center
Apollo Flight Controller 101: Every console explained
No, a “checklist error” did not almost derail the first moon landing
45 years after Apollo 13: Ars looks at what went wrong and why
How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 “moon rocket” engine back to life
Putting my own writing aside and focusing on real authoritative sources, there's also the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Between that and its companion site, the Apollo Flight Journal, you have a carefully annotated and curated collection of every transmission, photograph, spoken word, and artifact from the entire Apollo program. Warning: you can lose entire weeks of your life here, especially in the high-rez photo galleries (much of the photography was done on 70mm medium format Hasselblad cameras, and the restored and digitized images are astonishingly beautiful and detailed).
If you prefer your space facts in printed form, I very much recommend Woods' How Apollo Flew to the Moon as an excellent one-stop-shop for understanding everything that happened in the Apollo program.
There are two must-have books that completely and totally capture the human adventure that was Apollo. The first is Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, which focuses on the crews and the landings (and was used as the primary source for the excellent HBO mini, [From the Earth to the Moon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon_(miniseries), which everybody should watch because it's basically "Band of Brothers in space" and has awesome scenes like this). The second is Cox & Murray's Apollo: Race to the Moon, which focuses on Mission Control and the almost unbelievable amount of work that had to happen on the ground to make Apollo happen.
There are lots of other excellent Apollo books, but those two (Chaikin and Cox & Murray) are the two to buy if you want some absolutely mind-blowing reading.
Sorry to saturate you with links, but Apollo is kind of my thing :D
How Apollo Flew to the Moon by David Woods is a great look into the moon landings. The title makes it sound kind of like a kids book, but it's actually a really in-depth look into the technology and engineering behind the Apollo missions.
It depends on what you're interested in really. You can get the general explanation of Federal Reserve, Illuminati, 9/11, CIA, NSA, etc from just about any YouTube video. Some books that have recently opened my mind to other topics, however include:
The Source Field Investigations by David Wilcock - The best written and most well-sourced book I've read concerning alternative history, conspiracy theories, suppressed science, and a host of other topics. Main thesis being that consciousness is a nonlocal field.
Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock - Some of the best evidence out there for a lost civilization which fell out of power and memory sometime around the end of the ice age. A bit outdated, but a sequel is due this year.
Genesis Revisted by Zecharia Sitchin - Read this if you want to understand why some people think the Annunaki are a thing. Some interesting info, but I don't really buy into it that much.
Dark Mission by Richard Hoagland - Occult history of NASA, coverups of what was found on the Moon, Mars, and some suppressed science.
The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot - Exactly what it sounds like
Rather than reading about the same theories in different words over and over, these books gave me perspective on possible reasons why TPTB do what they do. And an idea on what some deeper purpose for their intensive consumerism propaganda might be for, other than profit. Additionaly they exposed me to new/old ideas on what the universe fundamentally is and how it works, with some good science to back it up. Highly recommend all of these books.
Following what poster Vimana states, a few specific cases of alleged bases and alien artefacts on the dark side of the moon (or the moon in general) are recounted by Ingo Swann, a psychic who was involved in the early development of remote viewing and its protocols. He 'discovered' a base on the dark side of the moon in one of his remote viewing exercises, that he wrote about in the following,
Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy.
Another account, that takes in a wider context, not only artefacts on the moon, is the co-authoured book 'Dark Mission', by Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara:
About 'Dark Mission' - A summary of the book,
Dark Mission: The Secret History of Nasa, and on Vimeo, Dark Mission: The secret History of Nasa.
Based on the information in these peoples work, there has been a definite conspiracy to conceal said information from the general public, while exploiting it for unknown and/or nefarious purposes (military, intelligence, economic, political etc).
None of the authors and researchers mentioned above are necessarily accepted as credible, by any legitimated insitution or in the scientific community at least (see Hoaglands wikipedia entry in particular, Richard c. Hoagland), "Hoagland has been described by James Oberg of The Space Review and Dr. Phil Plait of Badastronomy.com as a conspiracy theorist and fringe pseudoscientist".
Research and verify for oneself I'd say,"the truth is out there"!
Moon Lander - Thomas J Kelly
Is very similarly-styled book, where the author goes into great detail about the engineering challenges facing the construction of the Apollo lunar module. Not only the technical problems but also the problems with management and bureaucracy. Any type of engineer should enjoy reading this book.
I work in the lab that is cited in your [3] reference. They actually cite the paper incorrectly. It should be Alberts, not Alperts. Check here for more and newer references. Be sure to check out the Ronca papers and the awesome NASA patch as well. The experiment found that the rat pups' vestibular systems did not develop properly. Once returned to earth, pups would not right themselves when dropped on their backs into an aquarium whereas pups not gestated in microgravity will roll before hitting the bottom. Mothers showed atrophy in muscles that are used to hold them off of the ground but, interestingly, had more muscle growth in areas that allowed them to turn at the core. Since every surface of the cage is essentially a floor they rotated along their longitudinal axis repeatedly. There were also neurological changes but I don't remember the details well enough to be able to elaborate without reading the papers again.
EDIT: This book is a pretty great read on a variety of "people in space" topics including, in part, the above experiments.
Well lets see. This year:
When did you last contribute anything sensible to anything?
You should read this book. It goes into every aspect of Mars settlement in detail.
It wasn't well worded. His point is that a great argument can be made that we have had both the technological and financial capability to start sending humans to Mars on the regular since the 1980's. What we've lacked is only the political and social will to do so.
NASA often comes up with fantastic new excuses for this, some more valid than others. "We need to learn more about the long term physiological effects" is valid, but is mostly invalidated by the tremendous amount of research that has already been done. When do we have, "enough"?
Saying we need this hibernation technology to do it is a lot like saying we need a better propulsion system to do it. We don't. Would it be nice? Sure. Is it an excuse for not going? Hell no.
For a much more in-depth analysis of this, and for a look at what is in many opinions a vastly superior way to do approach this, check out that book.
Amazon link.
Edit: As an added note, Elon Musk has a similar outlook. The implementation he's seeking is significantly different, but it has the same attitude. But unlike Zubrin, Musk had the capital to say, "screw it, I'll do it myself".
Unfortunately orbital mechanics gets really complex really quickly. Some good textbooks on the maths of spaceflight are
Keep in mind that all of the above are textbooks at the advanced undergrad/first-year grad level.
I'm not aware of simpler books about spaceflight. It would be grand to have something akin to Anderson's Introduction to Flight for space; if anyone's aware of such a book, I would be more than glad myself to discover it!
All the land is under the thumb of one government or another, so simply purchasing land will do you no good. The one possible exception is Somalia, but then you'll be just another warlord, and the guys already there have more practice than you. You'll need to create new land.
Start by donating to focusfusion.org. If it works out (and things are looking good so far) then in five years we have commercial small-scale non-radioactive fusion reactors producing power at 1/50 the price of coal. As a backup, invest in polywell fusion, which will be a bit slower to develop but still good. From there you can take two routes:
For an even more speculative project, fund experiments on the Woodward Effect, which, if Einstein and Mach were right, could reduce launch costs to almost nothing and get us to Mars in a couple days, and Saturn in a week.
Since you're proposing a massive land purchase, perhaps you have massive funds to do this sort of thing. You could get your libertarian nation without hassling with legacy governments, and incidentally, save the world.
If you don't have the massive funds yourself, start a foundation and get a big group of people together to do it.
The Millennial Project: Eight Easy Steps to Colonizing the Galaxy
I'm assuming you're looking for things geared toward a layman audience, and not textbooks. Here's a few of my personal favorites:
Sagan
Cosmos: You probably know what this is. If not, it is at once a history of science, an overview of the major paradigms of scientific investigation (with some considerable detail), and a discussion of the role of science in the development of human society and the role of humanity in the larger cosmos.
Pale Blue Dot: Similar themes, but with a more specifically astronomical focus.
Dawkins
The Greatest Show on Earth: Dawkins steers (mostly) clear of religious talk here, and sticks to what he really does best: lays out the ideas behind evolution in a manner that is easily digestible, but also highly detailed with a plethora of real-world evidence, and convincing to anyone with even a modicum of willingness to listen.
Hofstadter
Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid: It seems like I find myself recommending this book at least once a month, but it really does deserve it. It not only lays out an excruciatingly complex argument (Godel's Incompleteness Theorem) in as accessible a way as can be imagined, and explores its consequences in mathematics, computer science, and neuroscience, but is also probably the most entertainingly and clearly written work of non-fiction I've ever encountered.
Feynman
The Feynman Lectures on Physics: It's everything. Probably the most detailed discussion of physics concepts that you'll find on this list.
Burke
Connections: Not exactly what you were asking for, but I love it, so you might too. James Burke traces the history of a dozen or so modern inventions, from ancient times all the way up to the present. Focuses on the unpredictability of technological advancement, and how new developments in one area often unlock advancements in a seemingly separate discipline. There is also a documentary series that goes along with it, which I'd probably recommend over the book. James Burke is a tremendously charismatic narrator and it's one of the best few documentary series I've ever watched. It's available semi-officially on Youtube.
Try Pale Blue Dot. It's where that quote I posted up above came from. For a non-science person, the writing can be a bit dense at times, but it's workable for the most part. Even if it's still too dense, the book is filled with high-resolution pictures of space, so it's still decent if read as nothing but a picture book.
Yes you can. $11.56 and worth every penny. Check out Pale Blue Dot by Sagan as well. Here is an audiobook sample of Pale Blue Dot, read by Carl himself.
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by
Mary Roach is quite good. It follows the history of the manned space program, and the challenges to overcome before we send a mission to Mars.
In interviews with Mary Roach they most likely did not. There isn't enough privacy (or room for privacy in the shuttle).
After reading the sample and some of the reviews, I went ahead and made a purchase. I also bought 'Pale Blue Dot' from the same author.
Would you recommend Space Chronicles: Facing the Final Frontier by Neil deGrasse Tyson?
Neil Degrasse Tyson addresses #8 (#10?) in his book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier. He makes the point that truly cutting-edge exploration and the necessary technological advances it requires is far too risky of an enterprise to make it a sound business investment. However, those same advances go on to benefit private industry and society as a whole.
Edit: The second #8... Probably should be #10.
Here's a good one: the "Starflight Handbook" is a good popularization of a lot of starflight-relevant physics.
Nice info, but insufficient. Firstly, a debris shield ahead of your starship only shields against the additive energy of your velocity to the grains... helpful, but not comprehensive. So you still have to deal with grains coming at you from all angles at high speeds. Furthermore, if you're planning the flip your ship around to decellerate, your front shield is going to have to move around... and now deal with the fact your exhaust is hitting it from behind. Even if you carry a shield all around you and leave a small window for exahust, you still leave yourself vulnerable to that small window of entry.
Then you have to deal with the constant degradation of the shield. A few grams of TNT may not seem like much, but now imagine it going off every second of your multi-year journey and your shield ain't gonna last very long.
Finally, of course, you run the risk of larger grains (0.1 kg) which are much worse. And that's the issue... are you going to risk the trip to Alpha Centauri with a 10% chance you'll run into a larger grain and die?
If you want to educate yourself, please read up on the subject in The Starflight Handbook and stop downvoting me for giving you bad news.
The Case for Mars lays out a long term plan for terraforming Mars. Arguments can (and have) been made on if it will work, but someone has a plan.
And there has been a time in the past when argumentative, incorrectly informed, conservative douches were right although it doesn't mean that we aren't all screwed this time and it really is the doom of all life.
This is a good read for you.
The command module computer was much less powerful than a Game Boy, but then again it was physically integrated into every system on the ship and had the backing of serious computational stuff on the ground. The fascinating How Apollo Flew to the Moon mentions that at its peak the Apollo program was consuming half of the world's integrated circuit output.
Edit: fixed wording.
I'm almost done with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Lander-Developed-Smithsonian-Spaceflight/dp/1588342735
It's really interesting. Very detailed descriptions of the history, technical and managerial problems of building a human-rated spacecraft to land on the moon. Written by Thomas Kelly, Chief Engineer on the LEM project at Grumman
I got my space-loving husband the book Packing for Mars a couple of years ago and he flipped for it. Several days of "Did you know...?!?"
Moon Lander by Tom Kelly - The development process of the Apollo lunar lander from the point of view of a high ranking engineer. Just the right balance between technical and historical content.
As an engineer, the episode "Spider" (Apollo 9) is AWESOME!!
Much of it is based on this book, which is also awesome.
But, the whole series is great. Every episode has top notch production quality, excellent acting and directing (Apollo 8 has such a trippy launch montage).
This was one of my favorite classes and I thought it was a rather good book to learn from. That being said you can probably find it cheaper than this.
http://www.amazon.com/Orbital-Mechanics-Engineering-Students-Aerospace/dp/0123747783/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395292188&sr=8-2&keywords=orbital+mechanics+for+engineering+students
You will NEED to have a good grasp on the laws of motion and math/calculus. Otherwise you will just not be able to do this stuff.
There are several courses that ARO (usually) has, but ME exclusive program doesn't, such as Gas Dynamics, Low/High Speed Aerodynamics, Orbital Mechanics, Aircraft Stability, and Jet Propulsion. I based this statement from the school (CalPoly Pomona) that I went to. YMMV.
Book recommendations:
Aerospace is broad subject, you haven't specified whether you're interested in structures, aerodynamics, flight mechanics, or propulsion. I gave you a broad list of selection to reflect that, although I assume you are more inclined toward Astronautics (Space) part of Aerospace instead of Aeronautics (Air); hence you posted your question in /r/space.
The book The Millenial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps talks about a suit that is made from a material similar to lycra.
The anthology Armored has a bunch of stories about armored suits, and possible variations from those.
Imagine the suits to vary depending on mission and MOS. Infantry, navigation, logistics, engineering etc.
If we get all fancy, lets imagine that they are all made of smart matter, or quantum dots, or some sort of mix that allows high variability, adaptation, low weight, and lots of energy available to do the sort of stuff our hero would need doing.
Remember the utility fog in "Quantum Thief"? I imagine that these new suits would be pretty much like that, fast reaction times, not in the way unless needed, light, flexible and extremely expensive. Also, failure ought to be benign as to protect until rescued.
Titan is Saturn's moon, and yes, its ice volcanoes are one of the coolest tectonic events in our solar system.
As far as we know, there aren't any solid diamonds at the center of anything. Diamonds are much lighter than metals and other heavy elements, and would not sink to the center of a planetoid. Perhaps some pre-supernova planets, but those wouldn't have any of the heavy elements necessary to support life. Once we are traveling between stars, it's the biogenetic substances--like water and unrefined carbon--that will be the most valuable and useful to mine. With space colonization it becomes a matter of sustaining the continuing expansion of life, not space ships, that is most important. Fortunately there is a lot of ice on moons like Europa, and plenty of other valuable minerals and metals in the asteroid belt. There has always been a frontier: cyberspace has come and gone as the lastest frontier: next comes a space station! Once we've colonized out to the asteroid belt, perhaps interplanetary cyberspace will become still another metaphysical frontier to be explored?
I'm not sure where I was going with all of that. It trips me out.
Have you read The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps? I think it would be right in line with your interests. It is the most mind-blowing book I have ever read, making NASA look like a bunch of idiots and literally turning galactic colonization into a rather common-sensical eight easy steps, beautiful in their simplicity. If you have a scientific mind, this book will make you trip hard balls of intellectual goodness. There's even a website carrying on the book's legacy by updating the material as new scientific insights arise.
This picture is from the book The Millenial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps by Marshall T. Savage. Some of the calculations are wrong, but it is an interesting read. But you don't have to take my word for it.
The original Cosmos book by Sagan might be good here. If your friend likes that, follow up with The Pale Blue Dot.
If you want to to give your friend a taste, direct him to the Sagan Series, specifically, part 3: A reassuring Fable.
Your friend might also benefit from seeing Science Saved My Soul.
Totally get it. I have had these moments myself. The world IS huge but more important, we are tiny. Very very tiny. Read Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan. If you think you’re tiny compared to the Pacific, just imagine how tiny we are compared to the rest of our galaxy... or our universe!
Once we come to acceptance of our existence, we can come back down and live our life with a purpose to love and help each other. Think about how insignificant every war ever fought on earth is to the rest of the universe. But if we can help make each other’s lives better, that’s pretty cool.
If you'd like to learn more, I highly recommend Carl Sagan's second book Pale Blue Dot. He goes over this topic in some detail. Its a fascinating read.
EDIT: Added link.
by Martyn J. Fogg
Google will get you the rest. Enjoy!
The Case for God and The Bible: A Biography by Karen Armstrong are both good. The God Delusion is a simple breakdown and explanation of most major religious claims. Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World by the Dalai Llama is an interesting book on ethics. The Koran: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Cook is 150 funny and insightful pages on Islam. Under the Banner of Heaven is a shocking and fascinating account of fundamentalist Mormonism. The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan discusses religion, and Cosmos and Pale Blue Dot are my secular versions of holy books. And of course given the occasion, I can't leave out God is Not Great.
I recommend avoiding authors like Lee Strobel and Deepak Chopra. Both are essentially liars for their causes, either inventing evidence, or deliberately being incredibly misleading in how they use terms. Popularity in those cases definitely doesn't indicate quality.
Audio Books are your friend, like seriously pick up something to listen to.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene
The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration by Michio Kaku
Einstein's Cosmos: How Albert Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time: Great Discoveries by Michio Kaku
The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind (This one I recommend on the highest degree, personally I have read it 3 times)
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe by Stephen W. Hawking
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan
Contact by Carl Sagan
Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan
All these books I've listened to or read, and I recommend all of them some more then others, I have tons more about Quantum Mechanics, Physics, Biology, Cosmology, Astronomy, Math etc. But I'm to lazy to list all of them here.
...and honestly, this looks kinda idiotic when I spell it out like that... I'm not sure I want that kind of insight into my psyche.:-/
Not sure which version of the TV series you are getting, but on my DVD copy, at the end of each episode they have either Carl or Anne Druyan (his wife) giving an "Update Since Cosmos Was Aired". These were filmed somewhere close to 94 when he passed, so they're still a bit out of date from today, but still nice to see him realize some of the fascinating discoveries since.
Edit: If you enjoyed Cosmos, I'd highly recommend Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. It's pretty much a sequel to Cosmos, where Sagan contemplates the far future, and some of the possible means for mankind to explore the universe.
Yes, Mary Roach actually wrote a book called [Packing For Mars] (http://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life/dp/0393068471) where she interviewed a few astronauts and it turns out it's actually very possible. Let's say you are working on something and not really paying attention and your body will kind of reassess where "down" is. So when you turn around and don't see yourself oriented the way you thought you were it makes you feel like you are up-sidedown.
Read Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. She does a great job explaining the difficulty of surviving space flight, including the lessons learned from the Challenger explosion.
Radiation is the largest concern. The Earth's magnetic field shielded the Apollo astronauts from the worst of the solar radiation, but in between the Earth and Mars no such protection exists. And interesting book on the theory behind space travel and how hard it can be to put it into practice is Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. You should check it out.
http://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life/dp/0393068471
I haven't read too many that would fit the bill, but the first ones that come to mind are:
If anything else comes to mind, I'll make sure to post it.
Indeed, but it's actually from Neil deGrasse Tyson's new book: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier. It's really good, but I'm only a quarter of the way through.
well you can read course curriculums, hell you can take all of MIT's aerospace engineering courses online for free im sure. they have lectures and exams available.
high level textbooks...after the calculus/physics ones?
http://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Structures-Dover-Aeronautical-Engineering/dp/0486485803
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Space-Dynamics-Aeronautical-Engineering/dp/0486651134/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=514GSwPXTEL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR101%2C160_&refRID=1Z881GSF57615HXRYT1N
http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Aerodynamics-5th-John-Anderson/dp/0073398101/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463955973&sr=1-2&keywords=aerodynamics
http://www.amazon.com/Gas-Dynamics-3rd-James-John/dp/0131206680/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463956004&sr=1-1&keywords=gas+dynamics
important math is just calculus, differential equations, linear algebra. arguably algebra and trigonometry are the most used and needed to master.
no knowledge of any engineering is required for engineering students coming in.
btw astronomy is basically useless unless you want to do planetary science...orbital mechanics is a separate field
Well, you shouldn't be 100% sure there's 'no' weight, either. Because gravitational fields go as 1/r^2 so even in deep space there are small, but non-zero gravitational forces acting on masses. Which means those masses have small but non-zero weight.
If you're curious about the details of how rockets work, a better source for information than flat-earth blogs would be books on rockets. And rockets are super interesting. The basics of rocket motion are mathematically fairly straightforward (though still not exactly easy: variational-mass problems are a bit tricky and require a bit of practice with calculus.) But then the details of rockets, from an engineering standpoint, and controlling 3-dimensional motion in a precise way is super complicated. So is long-distance space flight-path dynamics because of the motion of the planets. Things like sling-shotting around Jupiter for a gravitational assist.
So if it's something you're interested in, you can really get super deep into it and never run out of things to learn. Something like this might be a nice start, assuming you have a reasonable mathematical background.
Have fun!
Sure!
This first one is the one I like the best:
Fundamentals of Astrodynamics
Spaceflight Dynamics: Third Edition
Introduction to Space Dynamics
They're all heavy on equations and there's a lot of overlap among them. I found the first one, Fundamentals of Astrodynamics, to be the most approachable.
A bit longer, but all are solid suggestions, and although I could add two dozen more, I'm sure others will take up the cause.
God is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens
> we're so far from an awesome Mars colony....
> I won't see it in my lifetime
You should read The Case For Mars next.
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet/dp/0684835509/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266988147&sr=8-1
I did an ethics report on terraforming using this book:
The Case For Mars by Robert Zubrin
Some of the detail went a little over me, but his research makes it sound very possible.
A great relevant book from the guy narrating this:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Hunt-Zero-Point-Antigravity/dp/0767906284
There is also a very good book about it by George Dyson who is Freeman Dyson's son.
https://www.amazon.com/Project-Orion-Story-Atomic-Spaceship/dp/0805059857
It is actually a plausible way to travel to another Star quickly.
The Case for Mars is a good plan for how to settle Mars.
Project Orion by George Dyson is about the nuclear rocket program.
He's a neat guy. I really enjoyed Project Orion.
George Dyson talks about his Dad, Freeman's work on the Orion also His book on project Orion
Freeman Dyson's 1968 paper detailing the Orion Nuclear Ramjet
"Our plan was to send [manned] ships to Mars and Venus at a fraction of the cost of the Apollo program".
There would have been 150 people in a project Orion ship.
If we had utilised this technology we would have colonised Mars and the Moon by 1980.
Interview with Freeman Dyson about the Orion
Humanity will not become a space-faring species with chemical rockets alone.
This could have been the gateway to a real extra-terrestrial future for humanity
He's known as GIThruster and Ron Stahl on NSF. Both banned. A Woodward crony. His MO is to plug pseudoscience books on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Making-Starships-Stargates-Interstellar-Transport/dp/1461456223
He completely blew up EmDrive thread 1.
Thanks !
Astroynamics - I really like Battin's introduction to astro ( amzn.to/2Iu6Jhz ), and based my series on the 2-body problem on chapter 3 in that book. It's a lot like a math textbook so BMW's Fundamentals of Astro ( amzn.to/2zJBWe3 ) would be a gentler, on both the wallet and mathematical rigor, text.
Numerical methods - I've learned numerical methods from a bunch of different places so I don't really have a go to textbook.
Note: Those are amazon affiliate links to the mentioned books. Affiliate links are the main way I support the site (pay for hosting costs)
Haha... That applet is fun to play with!
First off, spiraling in or shooting way off are no the only options. You can orbit at many speeds and altitudes. In a perfect world, orbits are either ellipses with an eccentricity between 0 and 1, a parabola with a perfect eccentricity of 1, or a hyperbola with an eccentricity greater than 1. Wiki conic sections if you need more information of those shapes.
The ellipse is the orbit, obviously, and the Earth is at one of the focii? An ellipse will keep its shape without spiraling in. It will only stop unless near the perigee the distance between the orbit and focus is smaller than the radius of the earth (collision).
A parabola is the perfect eccentricity where the satellite will not come back, and basically will eventually fly away and stop somewhere, while a hyperbola will have some escape velocity that it will keep flying at.
The only problem with perfect conic section orbits are perturbations. One is atmospheric drag. Even at LEO orbits, drag affects orbits. The ISS falls a few feet a day, and requires frequent changes to keep it at altitude. Higher Geo-synchronous orbits have very negligible drag, but its affected by Moon's gravity more, as the moon has its own gravitational pull.
Humans cannot simply launch a perfect rocket from earth and have it just "land" in the perfect orbit that it was intended for (like shooting a 3 pointer from miles away). Until a satellite is where it needs to be, it requires small changes in direction and speed, but these usually aren't very large and usually take place when you get closer to the destination.
There are books and books of orbital equations. I am in my 2nd of 4 graduate level orbital determination classes, but a good starting point would be the wiki page on the vis-viva equation. Following Wiki around can give you a better understanding than I can in a comment.
If you really are fascinated by this information, and are a self learner, I would definitely go check out Orbital Mechanics. I used this book in my class and it explains it well enough to learn it without an instructor..
If you are okay with Calculus, I really liked Curtis' Orbital mechanics book. Real eye opener. The satellite paradox is especially cool.
Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students (Aerospace Engineering) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0123747783/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_VEqXCbFAMVQ27
The Millenial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps proposed that inverted buildings were the way to go so that we wouldn't be taking away from our parks and making our view claustrophobic.
The twist is that it proposed building the cities on the ocean, so the inverted buildings would be underwater where you could see something. The cities would be power generating plants, shipping power back to the mainland in the form of hydrogen. The cities would also be training grounds for future spacefarers.
The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps by Marshall T. Savage
http://www.amazon.com/Millennial-Project-Colonizing-Galaxy-Eight/dp/0316771635
2100-2150: Earth gets its first Skycycle...
(also known as 'Rotating skyhooks')
Hey, falingodingo, here is a book that might interest you, Colonizing the galaxy in eight easy steps. While it is outlandish in the extreme, it also has this impossible grandiose vision of easy space exploration. I do think that, if we humans wanted to go to space we would achieve it through fast innovations and cheap designs.
Even if it is not volunteer anything, even it is for profit, we could go spending these 150billion or 1 trillion or whatever. But since there is no need to go, no need to explore (sadly) there is no incentive.
Well, we can always go in the Chinese or Indian ships, many years from now.
That's not a "hyperloop." It's called a Mass Driver, and it is a trope of sci-fi for decades and also is extensively discussed in the Millennial Project by Marshall Savage.
If you think you are depressed by the Trump administration now, read this book and leave yourself feeling like you want to eat a shotgun blast over the things we should be doing and aren't.
The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps
IMHO nobody should call themselves a futurist until they have read this book.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bible_and_slavery
Are you sure about that?
Also have a read of this:
https://www.amazon.com/Pale-Blue-Dot-Vision-Future/dp/0345376595
I was raised Christian and went to a fundamentalist highschool. I started questioning things when I realized my faith required me to suspend my rationality. Read some books on the historical accuracy of religious claims. My thought was always, "Well if what all these people say is true, it should hold up to rational scientific inquiry." The more I dug, the more I realized that it never could. I fought and fought with myself. Christianity (especially of the fundamentalist flavor) has this built in mechanism to dissuade disbelief. You are constantly indoctrinated to see any doubt that enters your mind as evil, sinful and to simply "pray the doubt away". I'm sure you know of this. Keep fighting, let reason and logic be your guide.
Some books that helped me on my way to breaking free:
A History of God by Karen Armstrong
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
I also recommend this youtube series by user Evid3nc3.
Those should give you alot to think about.
Remember the most important thing is to decide for yourself. Question everything and never take something as truth from authority simply because they are an authority. See if it makes sense, find the documented evidence that backs up the claims. The light may hurt at first.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." -Carl Sagan
Excellent choice. Might I also recommend Pale Blue Dot, also by Sagan. It's my personal favorite of his.
excerpt
Amazon link
> No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.
Source
If you read Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot you would have known that Triton will eventually be destroyed in some way similarly to what is described in that article.
In addition to Guns, Germs, and Steel:
After looking through the Q&A on this thread, I noticed a trend in the type of questions asked. If the weird and often unspoken trivia of space travel interests you, I highly recommend reading Mary Roach's "Packing For Mars".
It is very nicely researched and you will probably find answers to many of the unanswered questions here. It is a New York Times best seller, and it is am amazing and amusing book.
If this it the type of question you have, then I highly recommend Packing For Mars which answers a lot of the simple human question of going to space.
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
Dr. Tyson - Are you doing a book tour to promote Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier?
If so, will the schedule be posted on the Hayden website?
If not, and at the risk of bombarding the Hayden Planetarium with mail, is there a proper channel in order to get your autograph on said book?
Like most Redditors, I'd love to get it in person, but NYC is a bit far from San Antonio.
My copy is being shipped to me as we speak and I hope to start reading it as soon as tomorrow!
I really liked The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking. It gives you a perspective of string theory, multiverse, tons of stuff about the universe, origins of the universe, and the philosophy of science that is ment for more entertainment and informing than dense physics literature.
If your looking more for space stuff there is Space Chronicles by Neal deGrasse Tyson
I suggest reading this for some answers. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393082105
So for Space colonization you really cannot go wrong with:
There are a lot of other books on colonising space, but these are the pair I have read and they are still entirely valid pieces of work (imo). An other you might want to check out is ['The Starflight Handbook' - By Eugene F. Mallove] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Starflight-Handbook-Pioneers-Interstellar-Editions/dp/0471619124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465674138&sr=8-1&keywords=starflight+handbook) which covers the maths behind conceivable interstellar propulsion methods. All very cool stuff.
Human society developed from smelting iron to supercomputers in a few thousand years. Humans developed from domesticating animals to domesticating internet in a few ten thousand years. These were really fast developments. Now fast forward this just a little.
If we have a few thousand humans in space humans will, most pessimistic scenario, settle the moon and develop it for industry (and actually quite profitably so : http://www.scoop.it/t/space-versus-oil) in less than hundred years. Even using 1970s technology, and permutations of1970s technology we could have had a colony on the moon with millions of people living and working and consuming there in a few centuries. Mars would be next. In fact there's no reason humans would not be able to literally colonize and industrialize most of the solar system in just a thousand years. And it doesn't stop there. There are rocksolid arguments that creating habitable structures in space can turn asteroids and sunlight into millions of humans. Or billions of humans. In fact - there is easily enough minable raw material in the asteroid belt to turn in to thousands of earth's surface equivalent of rather plush, habitable colonial real estate. And that's just one solar system. This was described in great detail in these books
And mind you, this is with 1970s technology. We have better technology now in 2112 and we'll have even better technology in 2100. Or in the year 3000. (Provided we won't kill ourselves)..
There is no special technology needed to proceed to interstellar flight. We could do it today, if we had enough economic prowess. At turgid of 1% economic growth we easily have enough surplus economic power to conduct interstellar travel. Here's a book that describes a few dozen ways to do it.
It's an old book, a real classic, and while the technologies in the book are grotesque and brutal, they are old and tested. In some case 1950s technology.
The only conclusion is that human potential hasn't scratched the surface. There is a fair 50% that in a few thousand measly years humans wouldn't make the leap to the next star system. Now let's estimate low. Would a light year's travel time per light year be a fair estimate? Why exactly would the sphere of human influence stop at one star system? Humans (or whatever we'd evolve into) would not stop. Those who would stop would do so, others would take up the slack. Evolution in action right? So even when making a very pessimistic estimate - the high tech (posthuman) descendants of humanity should be able to leap a light year per century, and probably faster. These would not be single voyages, but a wave front of thousands and thousands of vessels, colonies, slow caravans or whatever. In case you were wondering that's an explosion of settlement flooding the galaxy in a few million years. If we assume technology we know - introduce FTL travel and it would be faster. Introduce posthuman robotic intelligence and it would be faster.
Now if we assume the universe is 13 billion years old, and there are hundreds or thousands (or more!) intelligent, tool using species out there some of them should be doing this, if only ever so modest. We are talking of industrial scale projects processing small moonlets and asteroids and capturing the emissions of stars at a hyper-efficient rate, and this happening in cycles of just a few million years. Yet we see nothing of that nature happening anywhere in the galaxy. Mind you, this should be happening if we make logical conclusions, but we do not. The galaxy is a very fertile place for industrial development and making hyper-technology colonies with alien robots and automated large mining facilities, and the emissions of such activity would radiate thousands of light years. Yet we see nothing of that nature. And as far as we can tell "they" haven't arrived here or left monoliths on the moon yet.
This is summarized in the "Fermi Paradox", or "The Great Silence". The question before us is "where the hell is everybody". A distant associate of mine did actually write an amazing paper on this topic (specifically - the filtering mechanism that weeds out technological, post-planetary civilizations) and you can find it here...
I've got that exact book and this sitting on my nightstand. More books are on my desk too
Your link got me to purchase the current version of that book and Introduction to Space Dynamics. I'm working through the latter, though, as I found Bate's book completely beyond me–though good reading for the bit I did. Intro to Space Dynamics is proving very difficult, but I'm at least making some progress and feel like I have a chance at understanding it.
In short, thank you!
> Meanwhile, we could be researching a technology right in front of us quickly that can benefit us now, help us better exploit resources we do have, help us get to that distant technology faster, and utilize that distant technology once it's time.
Arghh, this is indicitive of such a broken ideology. We can do both. America, alone, could do ALL OF IT if we cut the DoD budget by as little as 20%. And I'm not even suggesting that America does this alone.
I want those other things too, I want research on solutions to global warming and cancer and AIDS and dead puppies, but there's no reason we can't also colonize space.
Please, I'm begging you in solidarity as a fellow human being, do some reading.
Start here but keep following the references and allusions to other sources and, if you've got the fortitude for it, to hard research studies. I can point you in other directions if you like, but that's my personal favorite starting point when suggesting education.
And if you're too lazy to do that, at least look at the goddamn numbers.
I recommend you read this:
A case for mars
Basically, it will become feasible once the classic excuses are out of the way or overcome (money, risk/protection from radiation exposure, bone/muscle deterioration during the trip). Zubrin (the author) is THE dude.
I loved his book: The Case for Mars
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet/dp/0684835509
A little old, but this might be what you are looking for: The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
hijacking top comment to put in a shameless plug for Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars, an awesome discussion of why we need to go to Mars.
as /u/deanoyj says, it has all the things we need for an industrial civilisation, and also, due to a quirk of interplanetary mechanics, it doesn't cost much more fuel to go to Mars compared to going to the moon, just more time.
Mars has everything we need, is (relatively) easy to get to, and can act as a halfway station to the asteroid belt, a vast untapped wealth of raw metals and resources. Bonus: colonising mars will force the settlers to recycle everything, which will give them a strong incentive to invent things that would be very useful down here on earth.
Seriously, go buy the book, Zubrin explains all the issues in detail and so much better than I ever could. I went in thinking we should go to the moon, and came out convinced we need to go to Mars, and we can do it fairly cheaply, if we accept some modest risks.
'Distances' in space are odd, even though the distance between two points may be further than another trip, it may not take that much more effort to get there. The Moon is far closer than Mars, and takes a few days rather than a few months to arrive, but I hear you need about the same size of rocket. Distances can be measured in required Delta-V, or change in velocity. Heinlein, a mid 20th century science fiction author (Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land) said, “Reach low orbit and you’re halfway to anywhere in the Solar System.”
'The point of Heinlein’s maxim is that the same amount of energy it takes to go from Earth’s surface to Earth orbit is roughly equivalent to the energy required to travel from Earth orbit to the planets. The point is that if you can get to orbit, you have the capacity to also reach most of the solar system.' Source
So, the Moon isn't necessary any easier to get to than Mars is, barring problems with months of radiation exposure, low gravity exposure, and additional effort required to launch from a planet with a larger gravity well and atmosphere.
In The Case for Mars the author explains a few resources that Mars has which allow synthesis of fuel for both rockets and internal combustion engines, growth of food, and with a not-insignificant amount of planning/science/care, become self sustaining far easier than a moon colony could.
Also on the technical side, if you want some of the inspiration for the mission architecture, try The Case For Mars by Robert Zubrin. For an insightful critique of TCFM from 18 years later, try The International Mars Research Station by Shaun Moss.
Read "The Case For Mars." We totally have the tech, just politically can't get the budget. And the most expensive part of the budget is bringing someone back, nearly as healthy as they left. If you don't need to bring someone back, or even live very long once they're there, it's a lot cheaper.
Mars One is a company that is dedicated to doing just that. Also be sure to check out The Case For Mars.
>I never knew realized how intertwined UFO conspiracies are with ideas of
>white supremacy.
What, you don't know the theory that UFOs are Nazi man-made in origin?!?
Wake up, sheeple!
These type of craft have been around for decades in the black world. It’s called electromagnetic-gravitics, or EMGs. Reducing the mass of a craft increases both its fuel efficiency and its speed, as force = mass x acceleration. Think of it as creating a bubble of your own local space-time. You create the bubble around your craft and then control the direction of that bubble and fly around like Glenda the good witch of the north in the wizard of oz. Or more accurately, as it was done in the ‘80’s movie, “Explorers”, staring Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorers_(film)
For more on this subject I suggest reading, “The Hunt for Zero Point”, by Nick Cook.
https://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Zero-Point-Classified-Antigravity/dp/0767906284
There have been other types of craft similar to this postulated.
Dr. Paul LaViolette has claimed for years that a different type of mass reduction technology was/is employed on the B2 bomber. One that uses plasma induction around the crafts body to reduce its air resistance.
I recently read a book, titled, The Hunt for Zero Point that discusses Die Glocke. I wrote a review of the book, where I state that Nick Cook seemed to be a bit too ready to accept the claims of researcher Igor Witkowski. While, I think that Witkowski's research is interesting and merits study by anyone interested in this subject. I only wish that he (Witkowski) would find a way to provide the world with copies of the documents that he claims to have read that led him to the conclusions that he makes about Die Glocke.
As has been pointed out already, there really is no evidence to prove that such a device even existed. But the rumors of it are indeed intriguing. Put quite simply, we need more tangible evidence.
You might be interested in Project Orion and this book about it.
Some of the scientists who invented the atomic bomb, after that was done, worked on some wild ideas at General Atomics in San Diego. One of those ideas was for a spacecraft propelled by a series of small nuclear explosions. Seriously. A bunch of little atomic bombs going off in sequence in the back of the craft. They had the shielding all worked out, the required thrust, etc, in some detail. Could actually work for spacecraft leaving from earth orbit and provide a way to get to, say, Mars, and back in a relatively short time. George Dyson, the son of one of the scientists, wrote an interesting book (still available) about the project if you want to follow up on the details.
reading Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship by George Dyson this week.
>The improbable story of the wildest idea-a space craft powered by hydrogen bombs-to come out of the space race.
Fly Me to the Moon, about non standard spacecraft trajectories has been sitting on my shelf, think thats gonna be the next book I read.
Mary Roach writes great nonfiction, but it tends to be more biology/anthropology.
Project Orion, a book about proposed nuclear powered space craft was excellent as well.
Lunar Base Handbook is more just a collection of papers, but its fascinating.
Have you read George Dyson's book, Project Orion? They were serious. From what I read there, they demonstrated some of the important functions of making it work. Including having the blast pusher plate surviving the nuke blast. I believe it had become an engineering problem and no longer a "will it work case".
As others have pointed out, it won't work in space. But that doesn't mean they hadn't considered nuclear engines in space. Project Orion was a concept where atomic bomb explosions would be used to propel a spacecraft at incredible speeds. Famed physicist Freeman Dyson was a co-leader of the project. His son, George Dyson (a friend of mine) wrote a fascinating book about it called Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship.
Some crazy shit, man.
I thought it was around 20% c from the book for the Orion Project max speed. Did you read the book?
http://www.amazon.com/Project-Orion-Story-Atomic-Spaceship/dp/0805059857/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449250466&sr=1-1&keywords=orion+project
Looks like most websites reference 10% of c as the max speed. Wish I still had the book to look up what the scientists calculations were.
You will have to take my word for it. My library is a mess and I can't find my copy of "Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship"
Freeman Dyson explained how this result was exciting and started the line of research that started the design of this system. He indicated it created a stagnation layer that prevented the plasma from directly touching the metal. The only issue was radiative heat transfer and that was solved by making the plate a large heatsink and lowering the duty cycle of the impinging plasma.
I forgot to mention, but I live in Belgium. Even used, the cheapest I can find is over $100 :(
(That's amazon.de, they ship to Belgium too.)
Mandatory plug for the definitive book about the Apollo program:
W. David Woods’ “How Apollo Flew to the Moon”.
This is the best book i ever read:
How apollo flew to the moon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1441971785/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile
This is probably the 2nd time I've seen Woodward mentioned on reddit. It's about time he's got some exposure. If there's any chance of a breakthrough propulsion scheme that actually works, then my money is on Woodward.
He also wrote a book recently, if anyone is interested in the details of his propulsion scheme: Making Starships and Stargates
There is a whole chapter in here about pooping in space. It is interesting and hilarious. There is also a whole chapter about sexing in space too.
It would seriously try the most sane of minds. Try locking yourself in a trailer with nothing but yourself for years on end with no internet, no way to go outside, no way to socialize with others outside of a two or three other people. These are the kinds of conditions that make for great horror films where people end up hallucinating and everyone ends up murdered with blunt objects. We are not designed for that kind of existence. The book Packing for Mars touches the topic of the psychology of the trip and NASA indicates that it is one of the biggest challenges we face.
Here is the book if you’re interested:
https://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life/dp/1469235919
It’s surprisingly funny. Also I stretched the point a bit by making the post about air force vs. civilians. It’s more about personality type and how the person responds to stress.
Mary Roach touched on it in her book packing for mars. If you haven't read it I'd recommend it. Very entertaining and well researched.
In short, the answer is no. It came close to happening though.
http://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life/dp/1469235919
Diverses méthodes pour calculer, une fois les conditions initiales données, où un engin spatial sera après un temps t. Ou si on sait qu'il doit aller d'un point P1 à un point P2 en un temps t, quel est son trajet. Et comment optimiser un trajet dans le système solaire. En bref, de l'astrodynamique
I can surely suggest you some books which cover a vast field of rocket science.
These are the same books which Elon musk used for self learning Rocket science.
source: http://qr.ae/TUGfdA
Moon Lander by Thomas J. Kelly is about the development of the Apollo Lunar Module.
Zubrin has a new book coming out in May: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Space-Revolution-Spaceflight-Possibility/dp/1633885348/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1549522994&sr=8-3&keywords=the+case+for+space
This AMA is now over.
The mod team would like to thank Dr. Zubrin for his insights and inspiring words. And thank the Mars Society team for making this exchange possible along with everyone who participated asking well thought out stimulating questions.
To those showing up too late to ask questions, hopefully you'll find some of the many questions Dr. Zubrin has answered (for over 3 hours!) to be relevant. If not, there is a good chance he has already answered your question in The Case for Mars or The Case for Space. So if you haven't read them yet, check them out.
If you're interested in the Mars Society, be sure to check them out on Youtube, here on reddit or their site. Special shoutout to /u/EdwardHeisler and /u/Marsonaut for acting as our Reddit - Mars Society liaisons (even if it cost them event tickets!).
I love reading books and I think you would love to read this and this by Mary Roach.
A good book on the subject
https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Lander-Developed-Smithsonian-Spaceflight/dp/1588342735/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535831761&sr=1-1&keywords=moon+lander
Mary Roach talks about this in her book Packing For Mars which I'd really recommend if this is the kind of thing you are curious about!
> taking the 2000 year figure, that's getting awfully close to the KJV (1611AD).
So taking "the 2000 year figure" to go from alleged composition to the first manuscript is comparable to the distance from the composition of the gospels to a popular English translation of a Latin translation of the original Greek how?
>You'll need a source for that, every contemporary historian agrees the earliest scroll dates to at least 30 years, and most claim it's more like 60.
Well I was thinking of 7Q5, which was in an area abandoned in 68 and dated by papyrologists to the first half of the first century, but it's a small fragment and not without controversy. There's a more recent (c. 2012) find that has been dated by one paleographer to the second half of the first century, but apparently hasn't been sufficiently examined by others... I've neither seen it discredited or publicized as confirmed.
Since those are both "iffy" sources, I don't mind sticking to 30 instead of 10-20 ... considering paper lasts several hundred years properly cared for, I don't think 30 years is long enough to require a whole lot of copying distance from the originals. I mean ... I have books on my shelf written on cheap wood pulp that are closer to a century than a half-century old (and that haven't been considered holy) and if I wanted to copy them I could; I'm not sure why it's expected that a copy 50-100 years from the originals would have had time to pick up a lot of errors... that doesn't make sense to me.
But why does it matter to you? If you are acknowledging that it's reasonable to care whether it's 10-20 vs. 30-60, then aren't you implicitly saying that it's not intellectually dishonest to consider provenance dates as a reason to believe one document over another?
>To pretend that 2000 years of closely preserved mnemonics will somehow specifically crumble Krishna's resurrection account is not only silly, but entirely unfounded.
If you want to disagree that oral tradition (even with "closely preserved mnemonics") is just as reliable as having a written copy of something and copying it letter for letter, then it's your prerogative to have that opinion... even if we think each other "silly" I don't think that leaves either of us in a position to accuse the other of intellectual dishonesty... just poor reasons for (honestly) believing or disbelieving things, right?
And I haven't seen a response to the idea that oral tradition shouldn't be considered as trustworthy as written copies, but regardless of that, in the 2500 years before the mnemonics began, from there to when the events supposedly happened, is also a big enough gap. Most info I've seen place him at around 3000 BC, if it took from then to 500 for the account of his life to be recorded, that's 2500 years of time for exaggeration to slip in... again, multiple orders of magnitude different from the gospel accounts.
>And again, this is just 1 of the 13 gods I've mentioned resurrecting themselves.
So are you saying that you recognize at least for this one that there are legitimate, non-intellectually-dishonest reasons to trust the New Testament over the Vedas, and you want to move on to the other 12 now? This is why from the get-go I was more interested in discussing the fact that different texts are different levels of trustworthiness for a number of different reasons. Could be the details, could be the provenance, could be the intended audience or the interest of those promoting it.
I can give you a dozen books about people going to the moon, from Jules Verne's 1865 From the Earth to the Moon to the fantastic North Korean story of Kim Jong Il's heroic conquest of the moon as told by the North Korean propaganda ministry, to the Bernstain Bears on the Moon, to Michael Chaikin's A Man on the Moon: Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. Are Kim's and Chaikin's going to be equally credible because they both describe physical possibilities? Is Chaikin's story unbelievable just because Verne's, Kim's, and Bernstain's are incredible for various reasons? Should we discount Chaikin because of this book that says it was a hoax? Or should we believe it just because it's possible?
Edit: fixed a link
There are many books that the government did 9/11 too or that we didn't land on the moon but that doesn't make those claims true or the people who don't accept baseless claims, with no real evidence, in denial, it just means that morons will buy anything.
The alternative to the theory that we never went there is that they went and found all kinds of alien stuff up there and went to extreme lengths to hide it, same as is happening now with Mars.
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Mission-History-Enlarged-Revised/dp/1932595481/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485769328&sr=1-1&keywords=dark+mission
I've been reading Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module. Incredibly fascinating book. Covers everything about the Lunar Module from design to manufacturing to the actual flights. What I enjoy most about it is how personal the book feels. Since the author is narrating the book through his own experiences, you not only get a sense of the type of thinking that led to the creation of the numerous systems, but also the kind of people these engineers, technicians, designers, etc. were.
To add, to this, one of the ways for humanity to harness Sun's energy is a Dyson sphere. However, there are A LOT of technical challenges to overcome. A good book I read about some of the challenges and possible solutions to harvesting energy from the Sun is The Millenial Project.
If you haven't yet y'all should read this.
Read Packing For Mars
Also quite possibly flying saucers and time travel. If you like Nazi conspiracies, this book is a must-have:
http://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Zero-Point-Classified-Antigravity/dp/0767906284/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408152228&sr=1-1&keywords=hunt+for+zero+point
Written by an editor for Jane's Defense Weekly.
Few will read this but I highly recommend reading 8 steps to colonize the Galaxy.
The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316771635/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ZWAPBbT92H2SG
What you're suggesting is more advanced engineering than a lunar lander.
-Aerospace Engineer
EDIT: This book is really good at explaining the development of the lunar lander and it's really not that complex. (The book is slightly technical so a background will help you understand better). http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Lander-Developed-Smithsonian-Spaceflight/dp/1588342735
https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Landing-Hoax-Eagle-Landed/dp/1906512477
Read some books, you muppet
You’ve been brainwashed