Space Exploration

Overview

From an award-winning science writer and astronomer comes a lively global history of space exploration

Humanity has always looked to the stars, but it hasn’t been until relatively recently that we have managed to travel into space. Carolyn Collins Petersen takes us on a journey from the first space pioneers and their work, through the First World Warled technological advances in rocketry that formed the basis for the Space Age, to the increasing corporate interest in space. This detailed examination of our steps into space is viewed from our potential future there – on Mars to be exact – and considers how we will reach that point.The author concludes with our current advances and our immediate ambitions in space exploration. The future and its scientific possibilities are enthralling: who will be the first to step on Mars? Will matter/antimatter annihilations take us to the Kuiper Belt, or will it be ion propulsion? What is the Alcubierre Warp Drive? Will it take us to the stars?

Reviews

"[An] illuminating collection of essays…this well-researched volume will surely be a handy reference for space fans and professionals alike."—Publishers Weekly

"Carolyn Collins Petersen has written a superb book...this book offers some tantalizing glimpses of what could be."—Inside Outer Space  

Author Biography

Carolyn Collins Petersen is a writer and producer with extensive experience in a variety of media. Her award-winning work has appeared in seven books and a number of magazine articles, three major exhibit projects, Web-based science and technology venues, and more than two dozen documentary scripts for fulldome theaters. Carolyn is also CEO of Loch Ness Productions, an innovative production company. She provides outreach consultation, writing, editing, and other professional services to observatories, museums, planetariums, private companies, and research institutions.