Eccentric Orbits

Author: John Bloom
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802192823
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 604

Book Description
“Good corporate drama . . . an enlightening narrative of how new communications infrastructures often come about.” —The Economist, “A Book of the Year 2016” In the early 1990s, Motorola developed a revolutionary satellite system called Iridium that promised to be its crowning achievement. Its constellation of 66 satellites in polar orbit was a mind-boggling technical accomplishment, surely the future of communication. The only problem was that Iridium the company was a commercial disaster. Only months after launching service, it was $11 billion in debt, burning through $100 million a month and crippled by baroque rate plans and agreements that forced calls through Moscow, Beijing, Fucino, Italy, and elsewhere. Bankruptcy was inevitable—the largest to that point in American history. And when no real buyers seemed to materialize, it looked like Iridium would go down as just a “science experiment.” That is, until Dan Colussy got a wild idea. Colussy, a former head of Pan-Am now retired and working on his golf game in Palm Beach, heard about Motorola’s plans to “de-orbit” the system and decided he would buy Iridium and somehow turn around one of the biggest blunders in the history of business. Impeccably researched and wonderfully told, Eccentric Orbits is a rollicking, unforgettable tale of technological achievement, business failure, the military-industrial complex, and one of the greatest deals of all time. “Deep reporting put forward with epic intentions . . . a story that soars and jumps and dives and digresses . . . [A] big, gutsy, exciting book.” —The Wall Street Journal, “A Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2016” “Spellbinding . . . A tireless researcher, Bloom delivers a superlative history . . . A tour de force.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Frozen Orbit

Author: Patrick Chiles
Publisher: Baen Books
ISBN: 198212430X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 379

Book Description
THE BEGINNING OF LIFE AWAITS AT THE END OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. A FROZEN ANSWER AT THE EDGE OF PLANETARY SPACE Set to embark on NASA’s first expedition to the outer planets, the crew of the spacecraft Magellan learns someone else has beaten them by a few decades: a top-secret Soviet project codenamed Arkangel. Now during their long race to the Kuiper Belt, astronauts Jack Templeton and Traci Keene must unwind a decades-old mystery buried in the pages of a dead cosmonaut’s journal. The solution will challenge their beliefs about the nature of humanity, and will force the astronauts to confront the question of existence itself. And the final answer lies at the edge of the Solar System, waiting to change everything. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About Farside by Patrick Chiles: "The situations are realistic, the characters interesting, the perils harrowing, and the stakes could not be higher...The story is one of problem solving, adventure, survival, improvisation, and includes one of the most unusual episodes of space combat in all of science fiction. It would make a terrific movie."— John Walker, Ricochet.com "...a fast-paced and exciting story which bounces between the borders of technological thriller and science fiction...Farside is an impressive effort."—Mark Lardas, The Galveston County Daily News

Frontier

Author: Patrick Chiles
Publisher: Baen Books
ISBN: 1625798113
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Book Description
Marshall Hunter only wanted to fly: the faster, the higher, the better. But a life of rescuing wayward spacefarers and derelict satellites in the cislunar cruiser U.S.S. Borman is far from the adventure he’d imagined. But his fortunes change when a billionaire couple goes missing on their way to a near-Earth asteroid. Out of contact and on a course that will eventually send them crashing into Mars, the nuclear-powered Borman is dispatched on an audacious, high-speed interplanetary run to bring the couple home. As they approach the asteroid, however, the Borman itself becomes hopelessly disabled. With the Borman suddenly out of commission and far beyond reach, cislunar space begins falling into chaos as critical satellites fail and valuable lunar mineral shipments begin disappearing in transit. Nothing is as it seems, and Marshall Hunter and the rest of the crew suspect none of it is by coincidence. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About Frozen Orbit: “. . . hard science fiction and an entertaining and gripping plot. . . . Chiles nails the atmosphere of a NASA-run human spaceflight mission in the 21st century, the jargon of the mission controllers and astronauts, and the bureaucratic infighting characterizing today’s NASA. . . . The scenario and background . . . are the scaffolding on which a gripping tale is formed. Readers experience the wonder the astronauts feel on a remarkable voyage, groan as the Earth goes crazy as the expedition progresses, and thrill to a powerful conclusion . . . science fiction at its best.”—The Galveston County Daily News About Farside by Patrick Chiles: “The situations are realistic, the characters interesting, the perils harrowing, and the stakes could not be higher."— John Walker, Ricochet.com “. . . a fast-paced and exciting story that bounces between the borders of technological thriller and science fiction. . . . an impressive effort."—The Galveston County Daily News

Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students

Author: Howard D. Curtis
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080887848
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 740

Book Description
Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students, Second Edition, provides an introduction to the basic concepts of space mechanics. These include vector kinematics in three dimensions; Newton's laws of motion and gravitation; relative motion; the vector-based solution of the classical two-body problem; derivation of Kepler's equations; orbits in three dimensions; preliminary orbit determination; and orbital maneuvers. The book also covers relative motion and the two-impulse rendezvous problem; interplanetary mission design using patched conics; rigid-body dynamics used to characterize the attitude of a space vehicle; satellite attitude dynamics; and the characteristics and design of multi-stage launch vehicles. Each chapter begins with an outline of key concepts and concludes with problems that are based on the material covered. This text is written for undergraduates who are studying orbital mechanics for the first time and have completed courses in physics, dynamics, and mathematics, including differential equations and applied linear algebra. Graduate students, researchers, and experienced practitioners will also find useful review materials in the book. - NEW: Reorganized and improved discusions of coordinate systems, new discussion on perturbations and quarternions - NEW: Increased coverage of attitude dynamics, including new Matlab algorithms and examples in chapter 10 - New examples and homework problems

Satellites

Author: Michel Capderou
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 2287274693
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 558

Book Description
This useful resource deals with satellite orbits, showing how the wide range of available orbits can be used in communications, positioning, remote-sensing, meteorology, and astronomy.

Satellite Orbits

Author: Oliver Montenbruck
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642583512
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Book Description
This modern presentation guides readers through the theory and practice of satellite orbit prediction and determination. Starting from the basic principles of orbital mechanics, it covers elaborate force models as well as precise methods of satellite tracking. The accompanying CD-ROM includes source code in C++ and relevant data files for applications. The result is a powerful and unique spaceflight dynamics library, which allows users to easily create software extensions. An extensive collection of frequently updated Internet resources is provided through WWW hyperlinks.

An Introduction to the Mathematics and Methods of Astrodynamics

Author: Richard H. Battin
Publisher: AIAA
ISBN: 9781600860263
Category : Astrodynamics
Languages : en
Pages : 840

Book Description

The Copernican Revolution

Author: Thomas S. Kuhn
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674171039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
An account of the Copernican Revolution, focusing on the significance of the plurality of the revolution which encompassed not only mathematical astronomy, but also conceptual changes in cosmology, physics, philosophy, and religion.

The Birth of Science

Author: Alex Ely Kossovsky
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030517446
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
This book reveals the multi-generational process involved in humanity's first major scientific achievement, namely the discovery of modern physics, and examines the personal lives of six of the intellectual giants involved. It explores the profound revolution in the way of thinking, and in particular the successful refutation of the school of thought inherited from the Greeks, which focused on the perfection and immutability of the celestial world. In addition, the emergence of the scientific method and the adoption of mathematics as the central tool in scientific endeavors are discussed. The book then explores the delicate thread between pure philosophy, grand unifying theories, and verifiable real-life scientific facts. Lastly, it turns to Kepler’s crucial 3rd law and shows how it was derived from a mere six data points, corresponding to the six planets known at the time. Written in a straightforward and accessible style, the book will inform and fascinate all aficionados of science, history, philosophy, and, in particular, astronomy.

The Transits of Extrasolar Planets with Moons

Author: David M. Kipping
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642222692
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
Can we detect the moons of extrasolar planets? For two decades, astronomers have made enormous progress in the detection and characterisation of exoplanetary systems but the identification of an "exomoon" is notably absent. In this thesis, David Kipping shows how transiting planets may be used to infer the presence of exomoons through deviations in the time and duration of the planetary eclipses. A detailed account of the transit model, potential distortions, and timing techniques is covered before the analytic forms for the timing variations are derived. It is shown that habitable-zone exomoons above 0.2 Earth-masses are detectable with the Kepler space telescope using these new timing techniques.