Mission Jupiter : The Spectacular Journey of the Galileo Spacecraft [Hardcover]

Daniel Fischer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0387987649 | ISBN-13: 978-0387987644 | Publication Date: June 1, 2001 | Edition: 1

In this exciting story of the Galileo mission to investigate Jupiter, noted astronomer Daniel Fischer weaves together the many disparate facts learned about this most fascinating planet and its satellites.
Fischer tells the entire story of Galileo: a behind-the-scenes look at its difficult course from idea to reality; its launch; the problems it encountered early on and how these were resolved; and finally, what will become of the probe. Along the way, the author describes what we have learned about Jupiter, including what the Jovian atmosphere is really like, and the peculiar reality of the planets magnetic field.
The story of the journey to Jupiter is combined with interesting details about Galileos capacities and a graphic description of the solar system, with an episode on how Galileo would judge the chances of finding life on Earth. The book concludes with a look at the future, closing on the Cassini probe to Saturn. Beautifully illustrated and well written, Mission Jupiter shows us space exploration at its best and clearly and vividly conveys the essential science.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As the award-winning editor of a German astronomy journal, Fischer (Hubble Revisited: New Images from the Discovery Machine; etc.) possesses the expertise needed for an overview of NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and its moons, though because the mission is still underway, it is too soon yet for a definitive summing up. NASA has reserved its rights to the story, with publication expected sometime in 2003. In the meantime, Fischer's readable account is one of the few book-length treatments available. To date, most of the published material on Galileo has appeared in professional and popular science journals, one recent exception being David Harland's Jupiter Odyssey, which, like Fischer's book, is published under an imprint of Springer-Verlag. Fischer, who has covered Jupiter exploration extensively in his magazine, writes for a popular audience, handily guiding the reader through the first Pioneer and Voyager probes of the 1970s, the five-year exploration of the Jovian system and the Jupiter flyby of the Cassini space probe, headed to Saturn for explorations beginning in 2004. Throughout, he provides handy summary boxes of findings and scores of illustrations including more than 40 breathtaking full-color images of Jupiter, the volcanic landscape of the moon Io and, of course, the spectacular ice crusts of Europa. As an editor working in Germany (and in German), Fischer is reporting as an outsider to the American space program, which puts him at a disadvantage. But until Galileo's mission is completed and the histories and memoirs begin pouring out of NASA, this book will serve as a much-needed addition to the popular literature.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Originally published in German in 1998, Fischer's book tells the story of the Galileo space probe, which reached Jupiter in late 1995. The mission was hampered by political and technical problems, such as budget cuts that delayed its start and a high-gain antenna that never opened. Nonetheless, its successes were significant: amazing pictures, reams of data from onboard scientific instruments, and numerous discoveries about Jupiter and its unique moons. Astronomer Fischer, who edits a German astronomy journal and has written about the Hubble telescope, recounts the mission's history well, albeit from a decidedly German perspective (referring frequently to German companies that made parts on the space probe). The text contains new material that updates the original publication, but the translation is occasionally weak in its explanations of difficult technical matters. This book would be appropriate for large libraries, although David M. Harland's Jupiter Odyssey: The Story of NASA's Galileo Mission (Springer-Verlag, 2000) provides a clearer and more complete account of the mission. Jeffrey Beall, Univ. of Colorado at Denver Lib.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387987649
• ISBN-13: 978-0387987644
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,770,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, But Not For The Casual Reader, August 31, 2001

By 

Monty Manley - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mission Jupiter : The Spectacular Journey of the Galileo Spacecraft (Hardcover)

For planetary astronomy fans, the book is great: chock full of pictures and engineering detail. (The slipcover is also lovely -- I wish I had it as a poster!) The writing is workmanlike and shows that the author's first language is not English, but it does the job. For the casual reader, though, the technical detail may be too much.
One gripe: the paper is a glossy bond that smudges and holds fingerprints something awful. This would have been fine for the photo pages, but *all* the pages are like that.
All in all, a good book and a much-needed addition to any space-lover's bookshelf.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A planetary system inside a planetary system., October 30, 2001

By 

Joan Roch (Montréal, Qc Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mission Jupiter : The Spectacular Journey of the Galileo Spacecraft (Hardcover)

An interesting look at the space program from a non-american source, that gives the reader a text free of the usual "national" chauvinism (and a little bit a German-centric comments!).

But, most of all, it's an excellent source of information about the Galileo probe, from its 1970 original concepts to its long-delayed launch (which makes you wonder if NASA really cares about science). You will also find an excellent (and, of course, premature) synthesis of what we thought we knew about Jupiter and its moons, and what we think we now know...

Even though this english edition has been revised since the original 1998 German release, especially about Europa, you can expect most of its scientific content to be outdated in a few years from now... but, no, you shouldn't wait for another book, because the Viking probes, 25 years after their mission, are still giving up some secrets about Mars. So you can expect a few decades of data mining before having exhausted the information locked up in the Galileo database.

Enjoy your trip!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Readable book on a major NASA interplanetary mission, January 31, 2002

By 

Kevin W. Parker (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mission Jupiter : The Spectacular Journey of the Galileo Spacecraft (Hardcover)

Galileo is probably one of the most significant NASA missions since the Voyager pair. Here, Fischer covers both the background and the latest findings (as of presstime, anyway) of the mission.

The background is copious but appropriate, covering prior missions such as Pioneers 10 and 11 and the aforementioned Voyagers, as well as a brief history of Jupiter astronomy, going clear back to Galileo himself and his discovery of the moons of Jupiter.

The history of the mission is covered in detail, from conception through to execution with all its trials and tribulations. Bumps in the road such as the mission rescoping following the Challenger disaster and the failure of the primary antenna are covered thoroughly with no punches pulled.

Findings are covered, fortunately, in topical order rather than in chronological, with sections devoted to each of the major moons as well as Jupiter itself.

The book is translated from the German, though despite this it's consistently clear and easy to follow. There are at least two occasions when a wrong word is clearly used, however, once where "degrees" is used instead of "astronomical units," and another I simply didn't understand. But this is just one of my necessary quibbles, and overall the book is impressively readable. I strongly recommend it for those interested in the subject