JPL Authors: Print Books

Join Bonnie J. Buratti, a leading planetary astronomer, on this personal tour of NASA's latest discoveries. Moving through the Solar System from Mercury, Venus, Mars, past comets and asteroids and the moons of the giant planets, to Pluto, and on to exoplanets, she gives vivid descriptions of landforms that are similar to those found on Earth but that are more fantastic. Sulfur-rich volcanoes and lakes on Io, active gullies on Mars, huge ice plumes and tar-like deposits on the moons of Saturn, hydrocarbon rivers and lakes on Titan, and nitrogen glaciers on Pluto are just some of the marvels that await readers. Discover what it is like to be involved in a major scientific enterprise, with all its pitfalls and excitement, from the perspective of a female scientist. This engaging account of modern space exploration is written for non-specialist readers, from students in high school to enthusiasts of all ages.

Compiles recent advances in aerosols, clouds, and precipitation remote sensing from new satellite observations. The book examines a wide range of measurements from microwave (both active and passive), visible, and infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It also explores the recent launches of satellites that involve advanced active and passive remote sensing instruments, and the new opportunities and challenges they offer for exploring novel methods and applications, and, potentially, for further progressions

Discover the undiscovered with this jargon-free introduction to astrophysics

Astronomy is the study of what you see in the sky. Physics is the study of how things work. Astrophysics is the study of how things in the sky work, from large objects to tiny particles. Astrophysics For Dummies breaks it all down for you, making this difficult but fascinating topic accessible to anyone. Tracking the topics covered in a typical undergraduate astrophysics class, this book will teach you the essential pieces to understanding our universe. Get ready to launch into outer space with this ever-changing branch of science.

Discover the latest advances in the world of astrophysics
Understand how and why galaxies form and evolve
Find out the origins of cosmic rays
Get a standalone primer on the science or supplement your astrophysics course
Students in introductory astrophysics courses and would-be astronomy buffs who want to better understand the mechanics of the universe will love Astrophysics For Dummies.

Understand the fundamental basis of spaceflight with this cutting-edge guide. As spacecraft engineering continues to advance, so too do the propulsion methods by which humans explore the solar system and will seek out the stars. Electric rocket propulsion has been the subject of considerable innovation and application in recent years, with thousands of electric thrusters now operating in space. For professionals in spacecraft engineering and closely related fields, this book provides critical knowledge that can alter the future of space flight. Fundamentals of Electric Propulsion offers a thorough grounding in electric propulsion for spacecraft, particularly the features and mechanisms underlying electrostatic and electromagnetic thrusters. Updated in the light of rapidly expanding knowledge, the second edition of this essential guide covers thruster principles, plasma physics, and more. It reflects the significant accomplishments by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in this field, and promises to be a must-own volume for spacecraft engineering professionals.

This revised and expanded second edition of Spaceships includes sixty-four pages worth of the newest developments in space technology.

Inside the epic quest to find life on the water-rich moons at the outer reaches of the solar system. Where is the best place to find life beyond Earth? We often look to Mars as the most promising site in our solar system, but recent scientific missions have revealed that some of the most habitable real estate may actually lie farther away. Beneath the frozen crusts of several of the small, ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn lurk vast oceans that may have been in existence for as long as Earth, and together may contain more than fifty times its total volume of liquid water. Could there be organisms living in their depths? Alien Oceans reveals the science behind the thrilling quest to find out. Kevin Peter Hand is one of today's leading NASA scientists, and his pioneering research has taken him on expeditions around the world. In this captivating account of scientific discovery, he brings together insights from planetary science, biology, and the adventures of scientists like himself to explain how we know that oceans exist within moons of the outer solar system, like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus. He shows how the exploration of Earth's oceans is informing our understanding of the potential habitability of these icy moons, and draws lessons from what we have learned about the origins of life on our own planet to consider how life could arise on these distant worlds. Alien Oceans describes what lies ahead in our search for life in our solar system and beyond, setting the stage for the transformative discoveries that may await us.

In Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer, Rob Manning, the project's chief engineer, tells of bringing the groundbreaking spacecraft to life. Manning and his team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tasked with designing a lander many times larger and more complex than any before, faced technical setbacks, fights over inadequate resources, and the challenges of leading an army of brilliant, passionate, and often frustrated experts.

When darkness falls, storms rage, fog settles, or lights fail, pilots are forced to make "instrument landings," relying on technology and training to guide them through typically the most dangerous part of any flight. In this original study, Erik M. Conway recounts one of the most important stories in aviation history: the evolution of aircraft landing aids that make landing safe and routine in almost all weather conditions. Discussing technologies such as the Loth leader-cable system, the American National Bureau of Standards system, and, its descendants, the Instrument Landing System, the MIT-Army-Sperry Gyroscope microwave blind landing system, and the MIT Radiation Lab's radar-based Ground Controlled Approach system, Conway interweaves technological change, training innovation, and pilots' experiences to examine the evolution of blind landing technologies. He shows how systems originally intended to produce routine, all-weather blind landings gradually developed into routine instrument-guided approaches. Even so, after two decades of development and experience, pilots still did not want to place the most critical phase of flight, the landing, entirely in technology's invisible hand. By the end of World War II, the very concept of landing blind therefore had disappeared from the trade literature, a victim of human limitations.

Erik M. Conway traces the history of atmospheric science at NASA, from its beginnings in 1958, the International Geophysical Year, through to the present, focusing on NASA's programs and research in meteorology, stratospheric ozone depletion, and planetary climates and global warming. But the story expands beyond science. NASA's researchers operated within an often politically contentious environment. Although environmental issues garnered strong public and political support in the 1970s, in the following decades many Americans opposed environmentalism as a threat to free-market capitalism." "Atmospheric Science at NASA critically examines this politically influential science, dissecting the often convoluted roles, motives, and relationships of the various institutional actors involved - among them NASA, congressional appropriation committees, government weather and climate bureaus, and the military.

This insightful history focuses on the political and commercial factors responsible for the rise and fall of American supersonic transport research programs. Erik M. Conway charts commercial supersonic research efforts through the changing relationships between international and domestic politicians, government contractors, private investors, and environmentalists. He documents post-World War II efforts at the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics and the Defense Department to generate supersonic flight technologies, the attempts to commercialize these technologies by Britain and the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, environmental campaigns against SST technology in the 1970s, and subsequent attempts to revitalize supersonic technology at the end of the century." "High-Speed Dreams is a sophisticated study of politics, economics, nationalism, and the global pursuit of progress. Historians, along with participants in current aerospace research programs, will gain valuable perspective on the interaction of politics and technology.

This book has been praised- and attacked- around the world, for reasons easy to understand. This book tells, with 'brutal clarity', the disquieting story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades that link smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. It is the troubling story of how a cadre of influential scientists have clouded public understanding of scientific facts to advance a political and economic agenda. The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers. Remarkably, the same individuals surface repeatedly, some of the same figures who have claimed that the science of global warming is "not settled" denied the truth of studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. "Doubt is our product," wrote one tobacco executive. These "experts" supplied it. The authors, both historians of science, roll back the rug on this dark corner of the American scientific community, showing how ideology and corporate interests, aided by a too-compliant media, have skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era.

Deep-space communications and navigation series

This book contains the record of a magical experiment relating to the invocation of an elemental, the thereafter of the Goddess or Force called BABALON, and the results thereof.

Contents: The Book of Babalon
The Book of Antichrist
Analysis By a Master of the Temple