James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.75 (887 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1587297957 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 396 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-02-05 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The best book on James Van Allen, unfortunately that is not saying much Roger D. Launius In 2007 each of the three principals that launched the first U.S. satellite into orbit—Wernher von Braun, William H. Pickering, and James A. Van Allen—had biographies published about their lives. This was entirely appropriate at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the space age. All three deserve excellent, well-researched and written biographies that seek not so much to glorify. Julia Byerly said I've read this book several times, but the fact. I've read this book several times, but the fact that my family is associated with Dr. Van Allen on a personal level also has something to do with that! And the fact that I wanted to be an astronomer, but ended up being and art teacher. (Still not sure how that happened).My aunt was his private secretary and my uncle worked with him on communication satellites and other early projects.. Three Stars Mark Lincoln A good read for anyone interested in the beginnings of space science and the Aerobee sounding rocket.
Drawing on Van Allen’s correspondence and publications, years of interviews with him as well as with more than a hundred other people, and declassified documents from such archives as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Kennedy Space Center, and the Applied Physics Laboratory, Foerstner describes Van Allen’s life from his Iowa childhood to his first experiments at White Sands to the years of Explorer I until his death in 2006. Now Abigail Foerstner blends space science drama, military agendas, cold war politics, and the events of Van Allen’s lengthy career to create the first biography of this highly influential physicist. Often called the father of space science, James Van Allen led the way to mapping a new solar system based on the solar wind, massive solar storms, and cosmic rays. Pioneer 10 alone sent him more than thirty years of readings that helped push our recognition of the boundary of the solar system billions of miles past Pluto. Although he retired as a University of Iowa professor of physics and astronomy in 1985, he remained an active researcher, using his campus office to monitor data from Pioneer 10—on course to reach the edge of the solar system when its signal was lost in 2003—until a short time before his death at the age of ninety-on
From Publishers Weekly The name Van Allen (1914–2006) is known primarily today through the eponymous belt of radiation discovered in 1958 by equipment he placed on America's first satellite. Van Allen went on to design experiments for early missions to Venus and Mars that determined these planets do not have magnetic fields. 52 photos. (Nov.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. . Foerstner portrays Van Allen as a wheeler-dealer, knowledgeable in t