Search results for ""Author Erik Seedhouse""
Springer International Publishing AG Virgin Galactic: The First Ten Years
Book SynopsisThirty years ago when Sir Richard Branson called up Boeing and asked if they had a spare 747, few would have predicted the brash entrepreneur would so radically transform the placid business of air travel. But today, Branson flies airlines on six continents, employs hundreds of jets and, in 2014, was predicting that his spaceship company – Virgin Galactic – would soon open the space frontier to commercial astronauts, payload specialists, scientists and space tourists. With more than 600 seats sold at $250,000 each, what started off as a dream to send people just for the excitement to look back and marvel at Earth, was on the cusp of finally being turned into a business. Then, on October 21, 2014, tragedy struck. SpaceShipTwo was on its most ambitious test flight to date. Seconds after firing its engine, Virgin Galactic’s spaceship was breaking through the sound barrier. In just the three seconds that it took for the vehicle to climb from Mach 0.94 to Mach 1.02, co-pilot Mike Alsbury made what many close to the event believe was a fatal mistake that led to his death and the disintegration of SpaceShipTwo. Miraculously, the pilot, Peter Siebold, survived the 16-km fall back to Earth. Soon after the event Branson vowed to continue his space tourism venture in spite of this. Already a second SpaceShipTwo is being built, and ticket-holders eagerly await the day when Virgin Galactic offers quick, routine and affordable access to the edge of space. This book explains the hurdles Virgin Galactic had and still has to overcome en route to developing suborbital space travel as a profitable economic entity, and describes the missions that will be flown on board SpaceShipTwo Mk II, including high-altitude science studies, astronomy, life sciences, and microgravity physics.Table of ContentsSuborbital Flight/: A Primer.- X-Prize.- SpaceShipOne.- Scaled Composites.- Spaceport in New Mexico.- Medical and Training Requirements.- Meet the Passengers.- Missions.- Beyond Suborbital Space.
£31.34
Springer Nature Switzerland AG SpaceX: Starship to Mars – The First 20 Years
Book SynopsisLearn about commercial spaceflight’s most successful startup in this fully updated book, which follows the extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement that have placed SpaceX at the forefront of the launch industry and positioned it as the most likely candidate for transporting humans to Mars. This second edition emphasizes SpaceX's much-hyped manned mission to the Red Planet. With a plethora of new material gathered from 2013 to the present, the text offers the most up-to-date portrait of the maverick band of scientists and engineers producing some of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the 21st century. Topics covered in this book include: all CRS flights, the challenges of developing retro-propulsion, and the pathway towards realizing the Falcon Heavy and BFR. In addition, the chapters describe SpaceX’s emphasis on simplicity, low-cost, and reliability, and the methods the company employs to reduce its costs while speeding up decision-making and delivery. Detailing the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, the book shows how SpaceX is able to offer a full spectrum of light, medium, and heavy lift launch capabilities to its customers and how it is able to deliver spacecraft into any inclination and altitude, from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions. This book is the perfect go-to guide on SpaceX for anybody working or interested in the commercial space arena.Table of Contents
£24.99
Springer International Publishing AG Survival and Sacrifice in Mars Exploration: What We Know from Polar Expeditions
Book SynopsisWith current technology, a voyage to Mars and back will take threeyears. That’s a lot of time for things to go wrong. But sooner or latera commercial enterprise will commit itself to sending humans to Mars.How will the astronauts survive? Some things to consider are:ith current technology, a voyage to Mars and back will take threeyears. That’s a lot of time for things to go wrong. But sooner or latera commercial enterprise will commit itself to sending humans to Mars.How will the astronauts survive? Some things to consider are:• Who decides what medical resources are used for whom?Who decides what medical resources are used for whom?• What is the relative weight of mission success and the health of thecrew?What is the relative weight of mission success and the health of thecrew?• Do we allow crewmembers to sacrifi ce their lives for the good of themission?Do we allow crewmembers to sacrifi ce their lives for the good of themission?• And what if a crewmember does perish? Do we store the body forreturn to Earth or give the member a burial in space?Questions like these, and hundreds of others, have been explored byscience fi ction, but scant attention has been paid by those designingmissions. Fortunately, the experience gained in polar exploration morethan 100 years ago provides crews and mission planners with a frameworkto deal with contingencies and it is this that forms the core of this book.Why the parallels between polar and space exploration? Because polarexploration offers a better analogy for a Mars mission today than thoseinvoked by the space community. Although astronauts are routinelycompared to Lewis and Clark, Mars-bound astronauts will be closer in theirroles to polar explorers. And, as much as space has been described as aNew Frontier, Mars bears greater similarity to the polar regions, which iswhy so much can be learned from those who ventured there.And what if a crewmember does perish? Do we store the body forreturn to Earth or give the member a burial in space?Questions like these, and hundreds of others, have been explored byscience fi ction, but scant attention has been paid by those designingmissions. Fortunately, the experience gained in polar exploration morethan 100 years ago provides crews and mission planners with a frameworkto deal with contingencies and it is this that forms the core of this book.Why the parallels between polar and space exploration? Because polarexploration offers a better analogy for a Mars mission today than thoseinvoked by the space community. Although astronauts are routinelycompared to Lewis and Clark, Mars-bound astronauts will be closer in theirroles to polar explorers. And, as much as space has been described as aNew Frontier, Mars bears greater similarity to the polar regions, which iswhy so much can be learned from those who ventured there.Table of ContentsExploration Mission Architectures.- Expedition Leadership.- Bioethics.- Launch and Outbound.- Approach and Landing.- Surviving.- Sacrifice and Death.- Inbound.- Return.
£27.99
