Description
Book SynopsisIn 1990, NASA began developing Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE), an initiative aimed at using satellites to study the planet's environment from space. MTPE's main goal was to better understand fundamental processes such as climate change. This book tells the remarkable story of this unprecedented convergence of science, technology, and policy.
Trade ReviewFor anyone interested in how America’s civilian space agency became a critical force in advancing earth science, including climate change research,
The View from Space is essential reading. The authors provide a comprehensive policy history of the evolution of NASA’s Earth Observing System and the politics that made it possible." - W. Henry Lambright, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
"As humanity grapples with its epochal impacts on the planetary environment, a network of NASA satellites beams down data about the wide-ranging effects of global climate change. This Earth Observing System (EOS), first envisioned in the 1980s, provides the critical view from space that Richard Leshner and Thor Hogan cover in this important study. Their detailed analysis of the policymaking process that culminated in NASA’s multibillion dollar EOS also provides a revealing view from Earth of the institutional players who worked hard on the ground—and will have to continue to do so-to ensure the United States invests in essential space-based environmental research." - James Spiller, author of
Frontiers for the American Century: Outer Space, Antarctica, and Cold War Nationalism "While most books on space exploration focus on NASA’s adventures on the moon, to Mars, and throughout deep space, Leshner and Hogan turn their tale back around toward Earth. They do this by bringing readers along on a historical investigation of Mission to Planet Earth, NASA’s most comprehensive attempt to deploy space technology and science to study and understand our own global environment.
The View from Space is thus a must-read for scientists, policymakers, politicians, and anyone from the general public who is concerned with our current climate crisis." - Neil M. Maher, author of
Apollo in the Age of Aquarius
