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Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto
by Alan Stern
The up close, inside story of the greatest space exploration project of our time, New Horizons' mission to Pluto, as shared with David Grinspoon by mission leader Alan Stern and other key players.
On July 14, 2015, something amazing happened. More than 3 billion miles from Earth, a small NASA spacecraft called New Horizons screamed past Pluto at more than 32,000 miles per hour, focusing its instruments on the long mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, and then, just as quickly, continued on its journey out into the beyond.
Nothing like this has occurred in a generation - a raw exploration of new worlds unparalleled since NASA's Voyager missions to Uranus and Neptune - and nothing quite like it is planned to happen ever again. The photos that New Horizons sent back to Earth graced the front pages of newspapers on all 7 continents, and NASA's website for the mission received more than 2 billion hits in the days surrounding the flyby. At a time when so many think that our most historic achievements are in the past, the most distant planetary exploration ever attempted not only succeeded in 2015 but made history and captured the world's imagination.
How did this happen? Chasing New Horizons is the story of the men and women behind this amazing mission: of their decades-long commitment and persistence; of the political fights within and outside of NASA; of the sheer human ingenuity it took to design, build, and fly the mission; and of the plans for New Horizons' next encounter, 1 billion miles past Pluto in 2019. Told from the insider's perspective of mission leader Dr. Alan Stern and others on New Horizons, Chasing New Horizons is a riveting story of scientific discovery, and of how much we humans can achieve when people focused on a dream work together toward their incredible goal.
"Starred Review. his is a future classic of popular science, full of twists and turns and unexpected heroes (a teenager's passion for Pluto helped influence NASA administrators at a crucial moment), with a dramatic and profound payoff." - Publishers Weekly
"When the New Horizons spacecraft flew from here to Pluto and beyond, the pictures and data forever changed the way we view our Solar System and our place within it. Stern and Grinspoon show us what NASA can do when the United States brings its best. New Horizons is still flying, and for us Plutophiles it's the adventure of a lifetime." - Bill Nye, science educator, CEO the Planetary Society
"Here is the exciting, moment-by-moment account of how a dream becomes a successful mission to another planet. Chasing New Horizons is a cliff-hanger, a page-turner, a spine-tingler, and, ultimately, a reason to stand up and cheer. Readers are 'Go!' for Pluto and beyond." - Dava Soberl, New York Times bestselling author of Galileo's Daughter and The Glass Universe
"Alan Stern and David Grinspoon take the reader to Pluto on a historic odyssey from its inception to its conclusion." - Capt. James Lovell, commander, Apollo 13
"To Pluto and beyond! This is a thrilling and very human account of one of the greatest scientific adventures of our generation." - Brian May, astrophysicist and lead guitarist of Queen
"A compelling account of one of the most ambitious space exploration missions ever conducted. A visionary of exploration, Alan Stern takes the reader through his lifetime journey of discovery culminating in the 3 billion mile trip to Pluto." - Capt. Mark Kelly, retired NASA space shuttle commander
This information about Chasing New Horizons was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dr. Alan Stern is principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, leading NASA's exploration of the Pluto system and the Kuiper Belt. A planetary scientist, space-program executive, aerospace consultant, and author, he has participated in over two dozen scientific space missions and has been involved at the highest levels in several aspects of American space exploration. Dr. Stern is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 Carl Sagan Memorial Award of the American Astronautical Society, and has twice been named to the Time 100. He lives in Colorado.
Dr. David Grinspoon is an astrobiologist, award-winning science communicator, and prize-winning author. In 2013 he was appointed the inaugural chair of astrobiology at the Library of Congress. He is a frequent advisor to NASA on space-exploration strategy, and is on the science teams for several interplanetary spacecraft missions. Grinspoon's previous books include Earth in Human Hands, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Scientific American, Los Angeles Times, and others. He lives in Washington, DC.
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In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.
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