Download or read book William H Pickering written by Douglas J. Mudgway and published by History Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biography of William H. Pickering, 1910-2004 On the first day of February 1958, three men held aloft a model of Explorer 1, America's first Earth satellite, for the press photographers. That image of William Pickering, Wernher von Braun, and James Van Allen became an icon for America's response to the Sputnik challenge. Von Braun and Van Allen were well known, but who was Pickering? From humble beginnings in a remote country town in New Zealand, Pickering came to California in 1928 and quickly established himself as an outstanding student at the then-new California Institute of Technology (Caltech). At Caltech, Pickering worked under the famous physicist Robert Millikan on cosmic-ray experiments, at that time a relatively new field of physics. In 1944, when Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was developing rocket propulsion systems for the U.S. Army, Pickering joined the work-force as a technical manager. He quickly established himself as an outstanding leader, and 10 years later, Caltech named him Director of JPL. And then, suddenly, the world changed. In October 1957, the Sputnik satellite startled the world with its spectacular demonstration of Soviet supremacy in space. Pickering led an intense JPL effort that joined with the von Braun and Van Allen teams to answer the Soviet challenge. Eighty-three days later, on 31 January 1958, America's first satellite roared into Earth orbit. A few months after that, Pickering's decision to affiliate JPL with the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration set the basis for his subsequent career and the future of NASA's ambitious program for the exploration of the solar system. In the early days of the space program, failure followed failure as Pickering and his JPL team slowly ascended the learning curve. Eventually, however, NASA and JPL resolve paid off. First the Moon, then Venus, and then Mars yielded their scientific mysteries to JPL spacecraft of ever-increasing sophistication. Within its first decade, JPL-built spacecraft sent back the first close-up photographs of the lunar surface, while others journeyed far beyond the Moon to examine Venus and return the first close-up views of the surface of Mars. Later, even more complex space missions made successful soft-landings on the Moon and on Mars. Pickering's sudden death in March 2004 at the age of 93 was widely reported in the U.S. and overseas. As one NASA official eulogized him, His pioneering work formed the foundation upon which the current program for exploring our solar system was built. On this, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Space Age, it is proper to remind ourselves of the ordinary people who met the extraordinary challenge to make it happen. (most of this is from the left inside flap of the dust jacket) r
Download or read book Catchers of the Light written by Stefan Hughes and published by ArtDeCiel Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 1635 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Catchers of the Light' is a History of Astrophotography. It tells the true stories of the 46 pioneers who did most to master the art of celestial photography, as it was known during its early days; and whose efforts have made it possible for us to see the many magnificent pictures of the Universe featured in books, magazines and on the internet. In its TWO magnificent volumes is contained an unbelievable collection of tales of adventure, adversity and ultimate triumph and tells the uplifting stories of this small band of ordinary men and women, who did such extraordinary things; overcoming obstacles as diverse as war, poverty, cholera, death, very unfriendly cannibal natives and even exploding donkeys. It has been written with a no specific audience in mind - it is a book for anybody in fact - astronomers, photographers, historians, genealogists, art dealers, students, artists, doctors, farmers, builders, teachers & many more. If you like to read about the lives of special people - those who never give up - no matter what - and who succeed in achieving the seemingly impossible - then this is the book for you. This book of 1600 or so pages, with 1800 or more photographs/illustrations and over 2000 references/notes - represents the FIRST fully detailed and professionally researched book on the subject; and tells of the incredible lives of the pioneers of Astrophotography, each with their own incredible story to tell - they were the ‘Catchers of the Light’. Catchers of the Light is divided into ten Parts (I-X), each covering a specific aspect of the subject- I: Origins of Astrophotography; II: Lunar Astrophotography; III: Solar Astrophotography; IV: Solar System Astrophography; V: Deep Space Astrophotography; VI: Photographic Astronomical Spectroscopy; VII: Photographic Sky Surveys; VIII: Astrographs; IX: Modern Digital Age; X: Appendices. The following men and women are to be found in the pages of the book; who are the 'Catchers of the Light': Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (1787-1851); Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833); Frederick Scott Archer (1814-1857); Richard Leach Maddox (1816-1902); John William Draper (1811-1882); Maurice Loewy (1833-1907); Pierre Henri Puiseux (1855-1928); William Henry Pickering (1858-1938); Armand Hippolyte Leon Fizeau (1819-1896); Jean Bernard Leon Foucault (1819-1868); Warren De La Rue (1815-1889); Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen (1824-1907); John Adams Whipple (1822-1891); William Usherwood (1821-1915); Pierre Paul Henry (1848-1905); Mathieu Prosper Henry (1849-1903); Maximillian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (1863-1932); William Cranch Bond (1789-1859); George Phillips Bond (1825 -1865); Benjamin Apthorp Gould (1824-1896); Henry Draper (1837-1882); Isaac Roberts (1829-1904); William Edward Wilson (1851-1908); James Edward Keeler (1857-1900); Edward Emerson Barnard (1857-1923); Williamina Paton Strevens Fleming (1857-1911); Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816-1892); Father Pietro Angelo Secchi (1818-1878); William Huggins (1824-1910); Margaret Lindsay Murray (1848-1915); Edward Charles Pickering (1846 - 1919); Hermann Vogel (1841-1907); Wilhelm Oswald Lohse (1845-1915); Julius Scheiner (1858-1913); Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953); Milton Lasell Humason (1891-1972); Amedee Ernest Barthelemy Mouchez (1821-1892); David Gill (1843-1914); William Parsons (1800-1867); Andrew Ainslie Common (1841-1903); George Willis Ritchey (1864 1945); Henri Chretien (1879-1956); Bernhard Voldemar Schmidt (1879-1935); . Eugen von Gothard (1857-1909); Alfred Rordame (1862-1931); Marcel De Kerolyr (1873-1969). If you have seen or read ‘Longitude’ the story of John Harrison, the country carpenter who built the first clock that could accurately tell the time at sea, and who also made ‘Del Boy’ a ‘millionaire’, then you will love the ‘Catchers of the Light’.
Download or read book Astronomy and Astro physics written by and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page 1012 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Journal for the History of Astronomy written by and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750 1900 written by Michael J. Crowe and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-05-04 with total page 724 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detailed, scholarly study examines the ideas that developed between 1750 and 1900 regarding the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, including those of Kant, Herschel, Voltaire, Lowell, many others. 16 illustrations.
Download or read book Report of the Committee of the Overseer Appointed to Visit the Observatory in the Year Together with the Report of the Director written by Harvard University. Board of Overseers and published by . This book was released on 1860 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Nature written by Sir Norman Lockyer and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Technical Report Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology written by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Civilized Life in the Universe written by George Basalla and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-19 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a selective and fascinating history of scientific speculation about intelligent extraterrestrial life. From Plutarch to Stephen Hawking, some of the most prominent western scientists have had quite detailed perceptions and misperceptions about alien civilizations: Johannes Kepler, fresh from transforming astronomy with his work on the shape of planetary orbits, was quite sure alien engineers on the moon were excavating circular pits to provide shelter; Christiaan Huygens, the most prominent physical scientist between Galileo and Newton, dismissed Kepler's speculations, but used the laws of probability to prove that "planetarians" on other worlds are much like humans, and had developed a sense of the visual arts; Carl Sagan sees clearly that Huygens is a biological chauvinist, but doesn't see as clearly that he, Sagan, may be a cultural/technological chauvinist when he assumes aliens have highly developed technology like ours, but better. Basalla traces the influence of one speculation on the next, showing an unbroken but twisting chain of ideas passed from one scientist to the next, and from science to popular culture. He even traces the influence of popular culture on science--Sagan always admitted how much E. R. Burroughs' Martian novels influenced his speculations about Mars. Throughout, Basalla weaves his theme that scientific belief in and search for extraterrestrial civilizations is a complex impulse, part secularized-religious, and part anthropomorphic. He questions the common modern scientific reasoning that life converges on intelligence, and intelligence converges on one science valid everywhere. He ends the book by agreeing with Stephen Hawking (usually a safe bet) that intelligence is overrated for survival in the universe, and that we are most likely alone.
Download or read book Nature written by and published by . This book was released on 1895 with total page 874 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Extraterrestrial Life written by NASA Scientific and Technical Information Facility and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Popular Astronomy written by and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mars and Its Mystery written by Edward Sylvester Morse and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-09-05 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Mars and Its Mystery" by Edward Sylvester Morse. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Download or read book Report of the Committee of the Overseers of Harvard College Appointed to Visit the Observatory in the Year written by Harvard University. Board of Overseers and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Poole s Index to Periodical Literature Fifth supplement January 1 1902 January 1 1907 written by William Frederick Poole and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 746 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Book of Popular Science written by and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
