Description
Book SynopsisTells the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. Acclaimed scientist and sci-fi author John D. Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity.
Trade Review"This insider's account of the early years of rocketry captures the excitement of researching and developing technologies that lie outside the realm of computer science. While we're accustomed to think of technological progress in terms of Moore's law, in a few short years these engineers went from launching metal tubes small enough to hold in your hand to propelling a two ton metal capsule containing three humans all the way to the moon."— Inc., 9 Powerful Books Elon Musk Recommends
"A good book on rocket stuff...that's a really fun one." — Elon Musk
"Ignition! is a history of liquid rocket propellants, but it's also a history of cold war and the space race, told from a particular point of view....That humor helps the accessibility, and as long as you remember some high school chemistry you shouldn't have a problem with the science either."— Ars Technica
"
Ignition!, originally written in 1972, is back in print after a long hiatus. A classic book, it tells a rollicking story of an era when space was the frontier. An informative history, it reads like an adventure story."— Galveston County Daily News
"Read this book. You’ll find plenty about John and all the other sky-high crackpots who were in the field with him and you may even get (as I did) a glimpse of the heroic excitement that seemed to make it reasonable to cuddle with death every waking moment—to say nothing of learning a heck of a lot about the way in which the business of science is really conducted." — Issac Asimov, from the foreword
"Ignition! is a hard-to-get-your-hands-on account of early rocket science...Clark was an American chemist active in the development of rocket fuels back in the 1960s and 1970s, and the book is both an account of the growth of the field and an explainer of how the science works."
— Business Insider
Table of ContentsContents
In Re John D. Clark - foreword by Issac Asimov
Preface
1 How It Started
2 Peenemunde and JPL
3 The Hunting of the Hypergol . . .
4 . . . and Its Mate
5 Peroxide – Always a Bridesmaid
6 Halogens and Politics and Deep Space
7 Performance
8 Lox and Flox and Cryogenics in General
9 What Ivan Was Doing
10 “Exotics”
11 The Hopeful Monoprops
12 High Density and the Higher Foolishness
13 What Happens Next
Glossary
Index
