Customer Reviews

Robotic Exploration of the Solar System: Part I: The Golden Age 1957-1982 (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

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Robotic Exploration of the Solar System. Part 1.

The best book I read so far on space exploration.

The combination of Harlan the historian, and Ulivi the astronomer, which had already produced the excellent `lunar exploration' book made this an outstanding contribution.

First, this book describes the state of the kwowledge of the solar system just before space exploration beggins. Second, this book is comprehensive, in that it includes us, european and soviet/russian contributions.

They are many detailed descriptions, including all phases of a given mission, even those which were never realized, from planning, launch and the follow-up on results. All aspects are described, financial, political and technical.

The book contains many readeable line drawings, figures, good pictures, some of them quite rare, as well as many little known facts for the average reader, it is an excellent basis for those who are looking for a global view of this part of the history of science.

P. Haubrechts

I have enjoyed reading this book, it is written in a very clear and detailed style that is very easy to understand. The authors point out cases where something may have been done on one mission that had an effect on decisions made on future ones, like hardening future exploration of Jupiter after the scale of the radiation belts had been established.

It presents a chronology of all of the missions, even the ones that were eventually cancelled and gives a great insight into some of the missions that were imagined, but never eventuated, and how some evolved from an initial concept to the actual mission flown. The book is a great reference for anyone interested in the exploration of space.

This book is rich in the most minute details and yet also enormously readable. It and its companion volumes are hands down the definitive history of mankind's robotic exploration of the solar system. Highly recommended.