Infinity beckoned : adventuring through the inner solar system, 1969-1989 / Jay Gallentine ; foreword by Bobak Ferdowsi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gallentine, Jay, author.

Ferdowsi, Bobak, author of introduction, etc.

Series:

Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight

Outward Odyssey, A People's History of Spaceflight

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Space probes--History--20th century.

Space probes.

Artificial satellites--History--20th century.

Artificial satellites.

Inner planets--Exploration--History--20th century.

Inner planets.

Astronautics--Biography.

Astronautics.

Astronautics--History--20th century.

Moon--Exploration--History--20th century.

Moon.

Outer space--Exploration--History--20th century.

Outer space.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (497 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln, Nebraska ; London, [England] : University of Nebraska Press, 2016.

Summary:

"Infinity Beckoned illuminates a critical period of space history when humans dared an expansive leap into the inner solar system. With an irreverent and engaging style, Jay Gallentine conveys the trials and triumphs of the people on the ground who conceived and engineered the missions that put robotic spacecraft on the heavenly bodies nearest our own. These dedicated space pioneers include such individuals as Soviet Russia's director of planetary missions, who hated his job but kept at it for fifteen years, enduring a paranoid bureaucracy where even the copy machines were strictly regulated. Based on numerous interviews, Gallentine delivers a rich variety of stories involving the men and women, American and Russian, responsible for such groundbreaking endeavors as the Mars Viking missions of the 1970s and the Soviet Venera flights to Venus in the 1980s. From the dreamers responsible for the Venus landing who discovered that dropping down through heavy clouds of sulfuric acid and 900-degree heat was best accomplished by surfing to the five-man teams puppeteering the Soviet moon rovers from a top-secret, off-the-map town without a name, the people who come to life in these pages persevered in often trying, thankless circumstances. Their legacy is our better understanding of our own planet and our place in the cosmos"-- Provided by publisher.

"Account of unmanned lunar and planetary exploration from the early 1970s to the early 1990s"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover ; Title Page ; Copyright Page ; Contents ; List of Illustrations; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Beach Brainstorm; 2. What If; 3. Dead at Birth; 4. Failure to Communicate; 5. Halt the Work, Destroy All Materials; 6. There and Back Again; 7. Sitting Cosmonauts; 8. Cauldron of Contradictions; 9. Buy- In; 10. "Prepared Area"; 11. Laying Eggs (Somehow); 12. How Low Can You Go?; 13. Three Mistakes; 14. Devil from Redondo; 15. The Boy to Be Beaten; 16. How to Buy a Computer That Does Not Exist; 17. Downsurfing; 18. Gulliver's Travels; 19. Too Much Too Soon; 20. Scientific Charity

21. Last Man Home22. Bonneville, Notch Rock, Double Squirt, Sudden Death; 23. Postmortem; 24. Sons of a Bitch; 25. The Sum of All Nations; 26. Hang Time; 27. The Rules of Resigning; 28. Wonders Never Cease; Sources; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780803285156

0803285159

9780803285170

0803285175

OCLC:

929857793