From Sails to Satellites

From Sails to Satellites
Author: J. E. D. Williams
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 328
Release: 1992
Genre: History
ISBN:

A sweeping history of navigation, from astrolabes and sextants, to radar, lasers, and inertial guidance systems. Williams recounts the 200-year great pursuit of longitude, ranging from 1598 to the present--bringing the story completely up-to-the-moment with descriptions of radar, inertial navigation systems, lasers, and more. 120 line drawings. 30 halftones.

Understanding the Navstar

Understanding the Navstar
Author: Tom Logsdon
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1475769016

The Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) is being financed by military dollars, but the precise navigation signals it broadcasts are available free of charge to anyone, anywhere. Over the next ten years sponsors of Navstar navigation will be investing an estimated.

The Tuning of Place

The Tuning of Place
Author: Richard Coyne
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2010-03-26
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0262265621

How pervasive digital devices—smartphones, iPods, GPS navigation systems, and their networks—us formulate a sense of place and refine social relationships How do pervasive digital devices—smartphones, iPods, GPS navigation systems, and cameras, among others—influence the way we use spaces? In The Tuning of Place, Richard Coyne argues that these ubiquitous devices and the networks that support them become the means of making incremental adjustments within spaces—of tuning place. Pervasive media help us formulate a sense of place, writes Coyne, through their capacity to introduce small changes, in the same way that tuning a musical instrument invokes the subtle process of recalibration. Places are inhabited spaces, populated by people, their concerns, memories, stories, conversations, encounters, and artifacts. The tuning of place—whereby people use their devices in their interactions with one another—is also a tuning of social relations. The range of ubiquity is vast—from the familiar phones and hand-held devices through RFID tags, smart badges, dynamic signage, microprocessors in cars and kitchen appliances, wearable computing, and prosthetics, to devices still in development. Rather than catalog achievements and predictions, Coyne offers a theoretical framework for discussing pervasive media that can inform developers, designers, and users as they contemplate interventions into the environment. Processes of tuning can lead to consideration of themes highly relevant to pervasive computing: intervention, calibration, wedges, habits, rhythm, tags, taps, tactics, thresholds, aggregation, noise, and interference.

Living Off the Land in Space

Living Off the Land in Space
Author: C Bangs
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2007-08-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 038768316X

This book presents a visionary concept for future development of space travel. It describes the enabling technology for future propulsion concepts and demonstrates how mankind will ‘live off the land in space’ in migration from Earth. For the next few millennia at least (barring breakthroughs), the human frontier will include the solar system and the nearest stars. Will it be better to settle the Moon, Mars, or a nearby asteroid and what environments can we expect to find in the vicinity of nearby stars? These are questions that need to be answered if mankind is to migrate into space.

Small Satellites for Earth Observation

Small Satellites for Earth Observation
Author: Hans-Peter Röser
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2011-12-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 311091980X

The biennial IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation provides a forum for scientists, engineers and managers to exchange information about planned and on-going programs and missions, and present new ideas, covering small satellite mission objectives as well as technology and management aspects for dedicated earth observation satellites. This volume presents selected contributions of the 5th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation, April 4 - 8, 2005, organized by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), Paris, France, and hosted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Berlin, Germany.

Solar Sails

Solar Sails
Author: Giovanni Vulpetti
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2009-03-05
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0387685006

Solar sail technology is very close to becoming an engineering reality and it will soon be used in the exploration of the solar system and beyond. This fascinating book provides an accessible introduction to solar sails and details how they work and what they will be used for in the exploration of space. It also examines current plans for solar sails and how advanced technology, such as nanotechnology, might enhance their performance. Coverage shows how solar sail propulsion will make space exploration more affordable and demonstrates how access to destinations within (and beyond) the solar system will become within reach.

Solar Sails

Solar Sails
Author: Holly Duhig
Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1538213885

Solar sails use the sun’s energy to fly spacecraft, or “flight by light.” It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel. In fact, it is, first being mentioned in Jules Verne’s From Earth to the Moon in 1865. It's been used as a way for characters to travel through space in many other books and movies, including Tron in 1985. Today, solar sails are a reality, and readers learn how their technology works as well as how successful trials with solar sail apparatuses have been. Could light energy be the best way to move through space in the future? Readers find out for themselves.

Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2012-02-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0393082911

“A compelling appeal, at just the right time, for continuing to look up.”—Air & Space America’s space program is at a turning point. After decades of global primacy, NASA has ended the space-shuttle program, cutting off its access to space. No astronauts will be launched in an American craft, from American soil, until the 2020s, and NASA may soon find itself eclipsed by other countries’ space programs. With his signature wit and thought-provoking insights, Neil deGrasse Tyson—one of our foremost thinkers on all things space—illuminates the past, present, and future of space exploration and brilliantly reminds us why NASA matters now as much as ever. As Tyson reveals, exploring the space frontier can profoundly enrich many aspects of our daily lives, from education systems and the economy to national security and morale. For America to maintain its status as a global leader and a technological innovator, he explains, we must regain our enthusiasm and curiosity about what lies beyond our world. Provocative, humorous, and wonderfully readable, Space Chronicles represents the best of Tyson’s recent commentary, including a must-read prologue on NASA and partisan politics. Reflecting on topics that range from scientific literacy to space-travel missteps, Tyson gives us an urgent, clear-eyed, and ultimately inspiring vision for the future.