Earth's moon, called Selene by the Greeks, is a gray, lifeless place, interesting geologically but perhaps a little disappointing to those of us looking for strange, colorful new worlds. But our moon is only one of more than 60 planetary satellites in the solar system, most of which are entirely unexplored. In Journey Beyond Selene, Jeffrey Kluger chronicles these unsung places and the heroes who explore them: the Jet Propulsion Lab's staff of dedicated adventurers, who build and fly sleek, unmanned spacecraft to investigate other moons. "When astronauts finally did reach the moon," Kluger writes, "the lean, fleet ships of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory had already gone elsewhere."
Why explore the satellites of other planets when the planets themselves remain mysterious? Kluger describes astronomers' first realization that in contrast to the lifeless gas giant Jupiter, its moons were a veritable scientific playground:
There were big moons and small moons, patterned moons and plain moons, brightly colored moons and pasty-pale moons.... There were moons that could have atmospheres, water, and even, perhaps, a spark of internal heat. Put them together, and you had moons that could, in theory, harbor life.
Journey Beyond Selene chronicles the history of a little-understood aspect of humanity's quest to discover new worlds. From the early Ranger orbiters through the incredible journeys of Voyager and Galileo, Kluger gives credit where credit is long overdue. They may not be astronauts, but these space jockeys have the right stuff. --Therese Littleton
From Publishers Weekly
Unmanned spaceships have investigated all the planets in our solar system except Pluto. More significant to NASA's search for extraterrestrial life, these spaceships have also beamed back vivid closeups of 63 moons. For it is on moons like Jupiter's ice-covered satellite Europa that scientists believe we may discover primitive forms of life. Kluger, a writer for Time magazine and coauthor of the bestselling Lost Moon, does a terrific job of tracing the history of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose scientists have directed the unmanned exploration of space from the first failed attempts to land on earth's moon (Selene) to the Pioneer and Voyager missions that captured the public's imagination with their color photos of giant gas planets and bizarre moons. Kluger wisely doesn't dwell on the bureaucracy and infighting always present in an institution as large as JPL, but he does portray enough of it for readers to appreciate how pressured the staff were to produce a spacecraft that could reach the moon and send back pictures. Kluger's explanations of the technical hurdles faced in guiding a tiny spaceship close to as many planets as possible without either hitting them or being set off course by their gravity can be followed easily by anyone with a general science background. His descriptions of our small galactic neighborhood convey scientists' excitement about what we may find when a probe lands on one of these strange worlds. An enticing narrative of scientific exploration, this book is strongly recommended to anyone interested in the search for life in space. 8-page color insert. Agent, Joy Harris. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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