Satellite Books

While this book covers all the significant technology in the area, it is a much better read for all those things you wondered about in Sci Fi Could they really do that? Also the policy issues are critical to our privacy rights and conversly national security.

Anyone who uses a mobile phone, relies upon oversees Internet connectivity, or worries about personal security should get acquainted with this book. Mr. Vacca has once again produced a very accessible yet easily readable tome on the dangers and promise of satellite encryption. Pick it up and you'll learn about or government policies regarding satellite communications management and security. By the time you put it down, you'll understand everything from pagers to the electronic battlefield. It's a must-read!

Great book - detailed and technical, but still a good read

As always, John Vacca provides an incredible level of detail in a readable manner. The Internet implications are particularly applicable to almost any reader. In our case, where the line-of-sight constraints of radio transmission in our wireless WANs are forcing us to look at satellite options, this book is an invaluable resource. And the tales told herein about encryption break-ins and techniques make fascinating reading in their own right.

Technical from orbit to chip, and immensely readable as well!

I think that the tittle of this book is a bit misleading. If one reads through all the enthusiastic reviews of the book one can actually get a clear picture of what it is about. It is a general overview of politics of encryption with some technical information included in between. I cannot understand the reason for more than one hundred pages of information about different types of military equipment. Yes, this book is interesting but it is not about cryptography and encryption. These subjects are only a small part of the book. I returned Satellite Encryption after very thorough consideration.

[A review of the SECOND EDITION, 2005.]

In the last 15 years, GPS has moved from an expensive and specialised application to a mass consumer market. There are numerous books on GPS; mostly directly at that mass readership. These typically concern how to use a device with a GPS receiver.

By contrast, this book is meant for the engineer who has to design such a device. It is a compendium of technical papers covering many aspects you are likely to need. And undoubtedly some you won't, which should be reassuring. Because it means that you do not have to read all of this book for it to be useful.

The sensitivity of the GPS satellites and the resultant GPS ground resolution is amazing, as can be appreciated from some of the papers in the book. Due mostly to the stability of the satellites' orbits and their onboard atomic clocks. Chapter 7 describes how GPS requires corrections due to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity! Not just Special Relativity. As a physicist, I found this fascinating. GPS is perhaps the first field where General Relativity is used, not to be tested, but as providing a necessary quantitative model for getting correct results. Akin to how Newton's Equations have been used for 300 years in ballistics. Granted, most readers will be engineers, who might find GR a trifle exotic.

The book also has good coverage of the Russian GLONASS system. Perhaps for those who also want to use this for redundancy. Or to combine the signals from this with GPS for enhanced resolution.

I've been an engineer and PM working with GPS and GPS systems since the inception of GPS in the mid-80s. While employed by a major DOD research lab I was fortunate enough not only to have access to practically every GPS book and article available, but I also had the opportunity to meet many of the key people responsible for the design and development of the system (many of whom contributed to this text). From system design to receiver architecture, this is by far the best general reference I have found on GPS.

If you are looking at the first edition, please note that the publisher plans to issue a second edition in December 2005.

This is a great book to read if you plan on developing any type of GPS tracking system. While the book covers the the basics, you'll need some further resources on interfacing GPS receivers and such hardware to real-world devices.

An interesting article entitled "Tracking a Vehicle With GPS" can be read at www.closerworlds.com

A lot of mobile solutions are soon to hit the market such as mobile phones using GSM or GPRS to track a person. This book will help to understand how it all fits together. It would have been nice if the book could have touched on how older communication systems like VHF radios can transmit GPS data. For that you'll have to visit www.closerworlds.com or some other website with such resources.

I'm an aerospace professional that is very close to the GPS system. This book is one of the best in depth references that I could recomend. I am not a novice and this text may intimidate some.

This book is a must have for anybody working in the broadcasting industry. I keep mine by my bedside and read snippets of it everyday and as a result my work is sooooooooo much better and my figures are up cos Valerie gives you all the tricks and tools of the trade you will ever need. If you are new to the industry or even if you have been in the industry for a while, this book is a must have cos it will show you ways of finding new ideas, staying on top of the game and it will stop you from going stale. it's a powerful radio bible that all educational & broadcasting institutions should encourage students & staff to read.

Eno Eruotor
Broadcast Journalist
BBC Radio Manchester

Creating Powerful Radio is a must-read/must-live-by for anyone who wants to succeed in art of talk radio. I live and breathe the spirit and direction of Valerie Geller's dead-on insight every day with my own show, and in programming each of the stations and networks I have directed. When I interview job candidates, I *always* ask if they have read Creating Powerful Radio, AND the companion producer's workbook. If the answer is 'no,' I will kindly ask them to come back and have a chat when they have. What Valerie shares between the covers of these books is a critical road map to understanding how to build a relationship with listeners and avoid the pitfalls that so many talk show hosts suffer from. Do you want to be a WINNER in talk radio? You're taking an important step in that direction when you not only read Creating Powerful Radio, but when you live, eat, drink, sleep and personify the concepts Ms. Geller has so generously shared for creative, entertaining people to be at the top of their game!

John McMullen
Chief Programming Officer
GAYBC Radio Network

Valerie Geller has a gift for breaking down the basics of broadcasting. While being on the radio seems like it is an easy task, Valerie Geller explains very important techniques for helping the beginner all the way up to the most seasoned pro. It is a way to think about radio as a larger medium, how to use the airways as a canvas, as an art. I highly recommend this and all of Valerie's books to anyone interested in radio broadcasting. These books should be in all broadcast schools and radio stations, no matter how large the radio station is. We all need reminding of how to create powerful radio.

"Creating Powerful Radio" is the most comprehensive work I have read on how to win in radio, and a potent weapon in any radio broadcaster's arsenal. It is well written and brimming with practical, real-world ideas that are easy to understand and implement. Its wisdom spans the nut-and-bolts to profound critical thinking rarely encountered in business today. For anyone who works, or aspires to work, in today's competitive radio landscape, Geller's essential intellingence should be required reading; if I had known in the late-1960s what I know now from reading "Creating Powerful Radio," KFRC in San Francisco would probably still be a top 40 station with a 30-share.

Not only have I heard Valerie speak, I'd follow her around with a tape recorder if I were you!!! This book and the workbook are the best! I would recommend this to the beginner as well as the seasoned radio personality!! Way to go Valerie!
Denise Pagano
WXXQ-Rockford's Country Q98.5
Morning show/Music Director

The National Geographic Satellite Atlas of the World, is a must own for anyone with any amount of interest in geography.

Satellite imagery itself is still relatively new, and so the imediate impact of these pictures on a viewer is overwhelming. To look at these images and realize that this one of the many views from space is mystifying. But thats not the only reason to look at these pictures.

National Geographic selected an excellent assortment of images for this atlas. From natural phenomenon (such as a three part image of Mt. St. Helens before, during, and after eruption or the beautiful image of Hurricane Fran) to social phenomenon (the Mexico-California border, and the three part image of the construction and land reclamation of Singapores Changi Airport)this atlas adds to the value of a traditional atlas because the relationships it does show expand on the story that is geography.

Also, it is far worth the cost, in that the paper stock is very high quality, the image resolution is amazing, and the color printing is excellent.

There has to be something wrong with it you say? Well, merely the same problem with every hard cover book that has a paper dust jacket. The jacket is fragile.

Satellite photos let us see the lands as they really look like. However, the coloring of the pictures may be artificial or real, depending on whether they have been tempered with. Artficial coloring is sometimes done deliberately (like for the purpose of contrast), of course.

This atlas is too short. We can use far more detailed photographs. For instance, California alone requires a whole chapter unto itself. Also, it's been five years since publication, and far more powerful satellites are now being used for cartography.

Still, this book is a good start, and the quality is excellent. For those of us who aren't planning wars, we don't need photos of the Predator or the Global Hawk quality. This will do.

Shows the world in all its glory. Get a full color birdseye of pollution, urbanization, natural/industrial disasters, and many amazing natural phenomena.

Really excellent.

As a child, I was always fascinated by maps, and fascinated by astronomy. In many ways, this book combines those fascinations in one truly remarkable text. Every page is a full-colour plate, showing satellite-produced images of the entire world in multiple respects.

The organisation of the book is basic, as any other atlas; the major sections include the World, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia/New Zealand, and Antarctica. In addition to these major sections, there are shorter pieces on satellites (both history of satellites and how satellites work), the future, and credits/index sections.

This is no simple book of maps. There are typical geopolitical maps, to be sure, as apart from the basic outlines, it is sometimes hard to tell what is being shown in the photographs. However, pride of place certainly belongs to the photographs, from both the visible light spectrum and non-visible (ultra-high and -low) spectrums. These show geological topography, physical features, vegetation, climate, oceans, population, constructed/built-up features, and more.

With regard to the oceans, there are different types of satellite images which show temperature variations, depth, underwater vegetation, geological fault lines, and even pollution. There is a fascinating section showing the seasonal variations of ocean temperature and motion due to El Nino effects.

Similarly, with population and developed areas, it is mesmerising to see the differences and similarities across the various continents. Cities look very much the same in many respects from space in the distant view; the dominant characteristics at ranges that cover tens of miles is often the contours and geological/natural formations that surround a city. However, when close-up ranges are shown, the human constructions become apparent, and the cities show their unique characters based on the population in connection with their environments. One particularly fun photograph is a composition photograph showing the lights at night around the world. This particular map shows dense population around cities, particularly coastal cities; however, this can be deceptive, as the more highly populated country of India puts out less light at night than the lesser populated but more technologically advanced North America and Europe.

This is a wonderful way to look at the world, to see the kinds of things that a traditional map with boundaries and countries would not show. Done with the quality photography and explanation that is the hallmark of National Geographic, this large-format book would look at home equally on the shelf of a student of any age as well as the coffee table of a well-appointed home.

This is a very different and interesting Atlas: you will have the feeling of looking at the ground from the space.
But I wanna say sth. bad: I think this map is not a good one if you want to expand your knowledge of countries, cities... And the satelite pictures are not well orgnized in the atlas. It will take time to identify where is a detailed map from, and the detailed maps (added together) cover only a very small part of the world. So in some sense, this is an "enjoyment" of satellite pictures other than a world atlas.
But overall, I rank this atlas a very good one.

WHAT?fS THE NEWS? WHAT?fS THE NEWS? This distinctly human obsession apparently dates all the way back to our original acquisition of the use of language itself. But the Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? presentation of that news that we are so used to today took us a bit longer to develop -- say, not till the middle of the nineteenth century -- as Stephens shows in this highly readable book.

Taking on the task of relating the entire history of news telling from its very beginnings lost in the prehistoric past all the way up to the cable television and Internet of today seems impossible; yet Stephens certainly makes a good try. He recreates the prehistoric period with sociological accounts of the vocal exchange of news in illiterate societies by the constant pestering of visitors from outside the village with ?gWhat?fs the news??h He uses the letters of Cicero, among others, to demonstrate the spread of news during the Roman Empire. He then goes on to the show the slow spread of the printing press, the development of, first, weekly newspapers, then dailies, and so on up to the instantaneous reporting of the Gulf War via CNN.

As he tells his tale, he leaps us from ancient Rome to ancient China and right back again so smoothly we hardly notice. Along the way he points out the vast changes that have taken place from the days our ancestors bemoaned the almost total lack of reliable news up to the present state in which we are constantly deluged with so much, we can?ft begin to keep up.

Still, I would have liked to see a more thorough description of the impact the instantaneousness of the telegraph had on news reporting, particularly as Stephens himself points out that it was the great cost of sending a single word over those erratic wires that led to the very precise reporting of news as every word now literally counted?DThough the description of the development of the news reporter as a profession he gives us instead (including the origin of the term ?gbeat?h reporter) is quite enlightening, it is also a bit longwinded. And contrary to the worldwide scope he gives us for the ancient period, for all practical purposes, from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards the title should read A History of AMERICAN News. Yet, these are only minor complaints about what is otherwise a very fine read.

. . . . and that being said about the read itself and so rated . . . .

Why did this great read set me back a whopping $53.95 when the physical book it?fs been incarcerated in LITERALLY flops??? Hold it in one hand; FLOP!?@Grab it with both hands; FLOP! FLOP! Slam it to the floor in disgust; FLOP! FLOP! FLOP! Compared to this flopping flounder masquerading as a trade paperback, comic books are printed on vellum and bound in leather! And (FLOP!) believe (FLOP!) me (FLOP!) all (FLOP!) this (FLOP!) FLOP!ing (FLOP!) makes (FLOP!) it (FLOP!) very (FLOP!) difficult (FLOP!) to (FLOP!) con(FLOP!)cen(FLOP!)trate (FLOP!) on (FLOP!) the (FLOP!) read! FLOP! FLOP! FLOP!

If all this flopping were priced a reasonable ten to possibly twenty dollars, I could still have spent my hours reading it contentedly thinking, ?gYeah, this is just about the read I wanted, all right!?h But $53.95????@I angrily spent those hours fuming instead, ?gI paid THAT much for THIS????

So, to whoever decided on the flimsy packaging and ridiculous price of this fine read, I just want to say . . . (alas, all Ma Amazon?fs rules allow me is) . . . SHAME ON YOU!!!

Once you read this book, everything that the news media do will become clear to you. It turns out that, other than minor differences in grammar and presentation, the actual writing and distribution of news hasn't changed since the earliest days of news.

Telling example, from the book: arguably, the very first newspaper dates back to ancient Rome, where scribes copied it onto the back of the minutes of Senate meetings that were going to the various officals outside the city. Other than the mandatory government notices, what were the three "departments" of "Annals of the City of Rome"? Crime, sports, and celebrities.

Stephens gives example after example from over two thousand years of journalism to demonstrate what we mean when we call something "news," and why journalists write it up the way they do. The writing is a bit dry, and there were times when I was ready to concede his point but he kept hammering us with more examples, but it is seriously worth it to read this book.

If you want to understand the news that you read, and understand why and how it got to you looking like it does, you must read _A History of News_. (And then, while you're at it, go on to Noam Chomsky's _Manufacturing Consent_.)

Once you read this book, everything that the news media do will become clear to you. It turns out that, other than minor differences in grammar and presentation, the actual writing and distribution of news hasn't changed since the earliest days of news.

Telling example, from the book: arguably, the very first newspaper dates back to ancient Rome, where scribes copied it onto the back of the minutes of Senate meetings that were going to the various officals outside the city. Other than the mandatory government notices, what were the three "departments" of "Annals of the City of Rome"? Crime, sports, and celebrities.

Stephens gives example after example from over two thousand years of journalism to demonstrate what we mean when we call something "news," and why journalists write it up the way they do. The writing is a bit dry, and there were times when I was ready to concede his point but he kept hammering us with more examples, but it is seriously worth it to read this book.

If you want to understand the news that you read, and understand why and how it got to you looking like it does, you must read _A History of News_. (And then, while you're at it, go on to Noam Chomsky's _Manufacturing Consent_.)

But not in this case. This book is a fabulous journalistic quamire of slow witted old English types wondering why the news has been covering nothing but Joe Dimaggio and nothing about Stanley Kubrick's recent death.

My dog is named Coco. He likes to run away from home all the time. I keep a journal of his behavior. It is filled with instances of when I have given him dog biscuits and he ate them on my bed leaving crumbs all over the sheets.

This book is fun for whoever loves science.Its an example of applying science to data gathered from earth telescopes and space probes,mainly through the eyes of Hubble and Voyager. Attempts at explaining theoretical models behind possible chemical and physical processes at work on this moon are made.It would be interesting to compare the current thinking with what Cassini will actually reveal in a years time!

Rare is the work that meets the high publication standards within a given scientific discipline while being simultaneously accessible to the public at large. In particular, and notwithstanding its cachet and increasing multidisciplinary approach, the field of planetary sciences often offers up works that are either overspecialized to the point of alienating all but a very select readership or those works appealing to a broad audience but derisively dismissed by experts as popularizing and superficial. Bridging the wide chasm separating these two extremes requires talented writing. LIFTING TITAN'S VEIL: EXPLORING THE GIANT MOON OF SATURN, by Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton, is a book that accomplishes this with a professionally credible, yet highly readable, account of mankind's attempts to unravel the mysteries of Saturn's largest moon. Lorenz and Mitton succeed in this collaboration due in no small part to their highly impressive credentials. The former is one of today's most prolific planetary scientists, especially regarding the study of Titan, and also a participant in the current Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. The latter, with a Ph.D. in astrophysics, is a renowned science writer credited with authorship or co-authorship of sixteen astronomy-related works.

Answering, in the most basic way, the "why" question that often accompanies any discussion of planetary exploration, the authors write, "More than anything else, planetary exploration gives us a sense of perspective, a notion of who we are, where we came from and what our destiny might be. We can learn from all worlds. Each planet and moon in the solar system has its own unique history. Each is an experiment with a different set of conditions..." More specifically, they note that Titan, with its orange-tinted, nitrogen-rich 1.5 bar atmosphere containing traces of hydrocarbons and other organics, might represent an analogue, albeit a cyrogenic one, of the prebiotic atmosphere surrounding early Earth. Considering that mankind has yet to demonstrate time travel, studying Titan may be the only way (outside of modelling and laboratory experiments, both of which have obvious limitations) to explore this critical phase in Earth's history. It goes without saying that studying Titan, especially in situ, is exploration at the cutting edge.

Coming at an especially propitious moment, the book provides a comprehensive synthesis of the body of Titan-related science, which is placed into historical context. Starting with the moon's discovery in 1655 by Christiaan Huygens, the Dutch astronomer, LIFTING TITAN'S VEIL spans a time frame of three and a half centuries of astronomical observations leading up to the modern era of spacecraft reconnaissance and exploration. The book is organized topically, with a distinct narrative style (e.g., the unique "Ralph's Log" feature), and runs the gamut from astronomy to meterology to geology to speculation about future Titan exploration. I highly recommend LIFTING TITAN'S VEIL to all readers. Anyone interested in Titan, this "pale orange dot," will, I think, find something of worth in this work. Indeed, I personally feel that Chapter 3, "Titan's puzzling atmosphere," is alone worth the price of the book.

The authors do a good job in this book and it is a good read. What is interesting is how much we do not know about this amazing satellite. We have no idea about what the surface is like. In less than 5 years the Cassini mission w/ the Huygens lander will make this book obsolete. You have to wonder why this book was written so close to Cassini's arrival. Until then this book should be standard text in any amatuer astronomers library. The authors give too much credit to Carl Sagan and not enough to the real scientists who have contributed to our limited knowledge on the subject. Besides that this book almost gets my highest rating.

In "Lifting Titan's Veil", Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton have written a lucid account of what we know about Titan, and how the Huygens probe which will parachute down to its surface in 2005 is designed to tell us more. As a research scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory whose doctoral thesis was on the topic, Ralph is well placed to sift through the various competing theories. In fact, he designed the probe's spear-like penetrometer which - if all goes to plan - will be the first human artefact to come into contact with this intriguing moon's surface. As an avid reader on the topic, I thoroughly recommend this book.

This is an exciting time for planetary exploration, when after the solar system has been reconnoitered by spacecraft (except Pluto) and now spacecraft are being sent to specific planets and moons, etc., for closer examination. LIFTING TITAN'S VEIL covers the Cassini mission to Saturn and it's large moon Titan, known to possess a thick atmosphere and perhaps a hydrocarbon ocean, due to insert itself into Saturnian orbit in July, 2004, the attached Huygens probe should enter Titan's atmosphere January, 2005.

The authors include a lot of science in this volume, including background information concerning moons and planets across the solar system. Most of this book covers Titan of course, what we know about it and how we came about that knowledge, from early times to the present. Titan's atmosphere and surface and sub-surface conditions recieve the most attention, with the chemistry of the atmosphere discussed at length. Also, the authors debate the possibility of an ethane/methane ocean existing on Titan as the surface temperature, according to available evidence, is close to the triple point of methane. All of this science can of course, as the authors point out, shed light on the formation and evolution of the solar system and in turn give us clues to our own origins in the misty past. As a chemist I especially enjoyed the information on the chemistry of Titan, and the space-buff in me enjoyed all of it. In addition, the Cassini spacecraft is detailed, and there are lots of illustrations, many in color.

On a personal note, I remember being at the space center as a visitor just a few days before the launch of Cassini, in October, 1997, and thinking that here is this spacecraft sitting out there on the pad just a few hundred yards from the Atlantic beach, I wondered then, will Huygens, at the end of it's journey, find another beach? Space travel is cool!

This book provides the most comprehensive and detailed account available of the trials, tribulations, failures, and successes in our efforts to access and use space. Often, the historical record has been biased by the competitive filter of the Cold War space race, but Dr. Gruntman provides an unbiased, accurate, and enlightening historical record. This is both a compelling read and useful reference for the space enthusiast, space engineer, and space scientist.

Mike Gruntman, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Southern California, has written what can only be characterized as an encyclopedic history of rocketry. It covers the period between rocketry's origins more than 1,000 years ago in Asia and the middle part of the twentieth century when the technology proliferated in the West for both peaceful and military purposes. As such, this work will probably become a favored textbook in courses relating to the evolution of the technology.

The book, in eighteen chronological chapters, takes the reader through a succession of ideas, experiments, and applications. Gruntman expends more than 100 pages before reaching the twentieth century, something unusual for most surveys with its emphasis on the earliest years of rocketry, and then proceeds to lay the groundwork for later developments by discussing "great pioneers" who paved way the toward spaceflight. These include the usual suspects--the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovskiy, the German Hermann Oberth, and the American Robert Goddard--but Gruntman also adds the Frenchman Robert Esnault-Pelterie, members of various rocket societies, and others to his list.

The "first modern rocket," in Gruntman's narrative, was the German V-2 built by Wernher von Braun's rocket team during World War II. It is at this point that events compound, advances in technology proliferate, and moral dilemmas arise. Simply put, many of those working in rocket programs wanted to develop the technology necessary to move beyond Earth, but their technology was used for destructive rather than peaceful purposes. As a classic example, Gruntman points out that Wernher von Braun served Hitler's Germany by developing the first ballistic missile, was a major in the SS, and used the horrific concentration camp labor system of [...] Germany to build V-2s. But he foresaw the potential of human spaceflight while working as little more than an arms merchant who developed brutal weapons of mass destruction. Von Braun never expressed any hesitancy about the morality of using scientific and technical knowledge to kill as many people and destroy as much as possible. In the 1960s, as the United States was involved in a race with the Soviet Union to see who could land a human on the Moon first, humorist Tom Lehrer wrote a song about von Braun's pragmatic approach to serving whoever would let him build rockets regardless of their purpose. "Don't say that he's hypocritical, say rather that he's apolitical," Lehrer wrote. "`Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun." Lehrer's biting satire captured well the ambivalence of von Braun's attitude on moral questions associated with the use of rocket technology.

Indeed, it was because they could be used as weapons carriers that rocket development received the government largesse necessary to reach space in the 1950s. Spurnik, the first space satellite, was launched on a Soviet ballistic missile, as was the first American satellite, Explorer 1. Moreover, it was because of the cold war that such programs as Apollo, which landed Americans on the Moon in 1969, received any funding whatsoever.

At the conclusion of the volume Mike Gruntman takes us on a whirlwind tour of developments worldwide and closes with an assessment of the 1,000+ years of rocketry.

There is much to praise in this volume. It provides for the first time a modern, comprehensive overview of the subject. It also offers the best discussions available about some of the key breakthroughs in early twentieth century rocketry. There are also numerous sidebars explaining the technology and discussing the individuals who made it fly.

But for all of the book's positive attributes, it is very much a history written for engineers. This is especially true because of the author's concern with the linear process of rocket technology to the very great exclusion of any social or cultural factors that might have influenced the engineers.

As only one example, Gruntman expends virtually no effort asking the question--why rocketry for spaceflight?--when other possibilities existed. We know that Robert Goddard explored many possibilities for access to space--shooting a capsule from a large cannon, atomic power, high altitude balloons to the edge of space, etc.--before deciding that rockets were the only practical means. There have been others who question the method of rocketry for reaching space since then, and such concepts as the space elevator are modern reconceptualizations of the problem. Unfortunately, Gruntman expends little effort in exploring alternative possibilities and conveying the richness of the subject by emphasizing the relentless march of progress he views in rocket technology.

Even so, this is a massively impressive work that will be of real use to a large community of scholars. It will find use for years to come. I applaud Mike Gruntman for undertaking this effort and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for publishing it. "Blazing the Trail" offers an important consideration of the state of knowledge about this subject and will serve as a good starting point for further investigations.

The most complete history and encyclopedia of rocketry!

Being an engineer by education and with strong interest in the
subject I was immediately attracted by the sub-title.

It is very well written (eg reads well) and impresses by both -
the breadth and the depth of coverage.

It is a must for any professional specialising in the area, an
excellent reference book to keep on your bookshelf and a
wonderful introduction in the history of the subject for teens.

Strongly recommended for anyone with interests in rocketry, spacecraft, austronautics.

Dr Vladas Leonas, Fellow of the IEAust
Sydney, NSW, Australia

I am a Russian physicist with experience of some years working in Soviet/Russian aerospace R&D. The book "Blazing the Trail" is amazing at least due to two advantages. The first one is that I have never seen such an excellent description of the early Soviet space and rocket history, including in the Russian literature, and the second is that the style of writing is so lush that creates an attractive movie of rocketry development. Complementarily, the text is highly factual and technically detailed. It is like a review article in a scientific journal without any BS, as Americans would say. Having the history of rockets and space in all-around-a-world space capable countries in one book makes it very, very useful and convenient.

Great guide to all the inlets in Narragansett Bay and surrounding areas. The book has all the place we know of and we agree totally and we can't wait to try out the places we didn't know about.
Thank you for a great book.

Being very familiar with boating on Buzzards Bay i was drawn to expand my sea ventures. This book gave a great dipiction of the waters along the south coast of Mass and RI. I have already traveled to many of the destinations the book discussed. what a great service the author has done for the boating community

I always wondered what those old ruins were hidden on overgrown islands, the history of secluded anchorages.... Great naturalist, along the shore information. Excellent cruising guide!

I lived and sailed Narragansett Bay all my life and never knew the history behind all I was looking at. Excellent book and great fishing section!

This book provides an outstanding reference for the subject of satellite communications. Very thorough and extensive, covering much more than just link budget calculation considerations. Surprisingly easy to read and comprehend.

I was surprised not to see very many sample problems or homework sets at the end of the chapters, but the equations and information contained in the body of the text is more than enough to provide insight into most satellite communications problems. In addition, the authors frequently provide a conclusion section at the end of the chapters that gives some ideas on how to approach certain types of problems.

Highly recommended.

Looking for a detailed but straight forward way to learn about satellite communication systems? Maybe your a student looking for study support material on this subject? Well you just found the ultimate book!

Maral et al have put together an excellent step by step approach to understanding this complex subject. The space and ground segments get equal detailed treatment with system design methods and analysis of all the components. This leads to a walk through of link budget calculation including examples with specific technical objectives.

If I could only have one Satellite Comms book then this is it!

Satellite Communications Systems , I think that is an important for my work .

If you are really interested to understant the satellite systems, and this is the best of the books for you. The book give you a lot of in deep infomation of the satellite system and have a lot of calculation. The calculation is not easy to understand at all, so this book is not good for the beginner.

It is a technical term "non-expert audience." The editorial description of this book says that such is its target audience. A non-expert audience means that the intended reader does not have much -- perhaps next-to-no knowledge of the subject matter; HOWEVER, that same intended reader is used to going into depth and has similar or at least somewhat close level of expertise in some totally different area to what the author possesses about his/her subject. In short, one could say a "non-expert audience" reader is one who is very well educated, not afraid of depth and details, can concentrate well, but just so happens to know nothing of the subject matter he/she is about to read. Scientific American articles of the 70's and 80's are superb examples of writing to the "non-expert audience".

That being said, are you one who likes or hates concentrated reading? That can have a bearing on whether you should get this book.

However, if you are searching for a big compendium of facts -- in tables in many cases, this book would serve that one purpose admirably.

Do you want to know details of how Voyager accomplished what it did? Be careful what you wish for: this book has much on that topic. (But so does Burgess' book on Neptune.)

The book has much about Voyager's experiences and results at Jupiter. A very nice bonus. Jupiter is not at all covered skimpily. In fact, the book's title is nearly inaccurate as perhaps 40% of the book is about Jupiter and it's moons.

For the scientific methodology / teamwork interested person there is plenty of that. What I found intriguing was how they discovered that a cause of blur in Neptune pictures was the starting and stopping of the digital tape recorder reels (needed due to low bit-rate required of the faint [how faint: seeing a penlight flashlight on Earth while standing on the moon!] signal from as far away as Neptune). The tape recorder reel starting and braking would torque the Voyager spacecraft! (A command was sent to fire thruster a few milliseconds every time recorder would start or stop.)

If all you want is pictures, there are good ones, but better you get Burgess' book -- or Seymour Simon's children series -- or Asimov's series if all you want are pictures.

For this book, you have to enjoy either lots of details -- content details and/or methodology details -- or having tabulations of facts (such as for all the Jupiter and Neptune moons). If neither of these appeals to you but you want more than a childrens book, get the Burgess book "Far Encounter".

Neptune, the 8th planet in our Solar System. I won't say there are little books write on a single planet, however, books which write simply on Neptune, you can count. Apart from the technical masterpiece "Neptune and Triton" published by Arizona University Press, this Praxis publication is the best book on Neptune ever had.

I remembered when this book was first published, I bought it immediately. Firstly, it is because this is one in the excellent Springer-Praxis book series, I always love the books published by Praxis. Secondly, "Neptune" is a special book, in early years; Miner also published a very good book "Uranus" for Praxis. Therefore, I didn't think buy bought a copy of "Neptune".

When I not yet started my reading, and found that only the second half of book talk about Neptunian atmosphere, interior, ring etc, but used the first half to talk about the Voyagers and the pre-Neptune discoveries, I thought that that it was traveling out of scope.

However, when I started my reading, it is not the case.

Miner was one of scientists in-charging the Voyager mission to Neptune, his personally experience cannot be replaced by others. His writings are to point, no dummy words, everything he wrote are related to the Neptune findings. Even for those he mentioned for the Voyager findings on Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, are all concise and it's important for the story of Neptune discoveries. It is totally different from my first impression.

More, Miner described the history of Neptune, the telescopic understanding of Neptune before Voyager; the story of Voyager, its beginning, preparation for the Neptune encounter, the detail sequence of events during the encounter as well as the in-depth Neptune sciences. From his firsthand experience, you can see how NASA's daily operation, and the details of Voyager mission, these are already worthwhile for the book.

The only weakness of this book is the coverage of Triton is too little. Since Triton is a very important moon in the solar system, persaonlly I think there should be a whole chapter dedicated for Triton.

This book is a great reading for those who love space exploration and the Solar System. This book is not too difficult nor too easy, so I suggest this book to those who have basic knowledge of the Solar System and planetary exploration.

I highly recommend this book!

Neptune is the eighth planet in the solar system, the last gas giant and the last planet of any real size. Due to its great distance from the sun, everything that we knew about this planet, until Voyager 2 visited it in 1989, was determined by telescopic observation. In this book, the authors, who both worked on the Voyager science team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, summarize the discoveries made by the spacecraft, the spacecraft's design and the discoveries made by telescopic observations. As with all the books published in the Springer-Praxis, Astronomy and Space Sciences series, there are numerous high quality photographs, line drawings and graphs in this book. Other than a few children's books, I believe that this is the only text, which covers Neptune in any detail.

The first quarter of the books examines the pre-Voyager findings from Galileo's possible sighting, to its modern discovery that was determined by mathematical methods and its possible origins. The next portion of the book, which is also approximately one quarter of the book, covers the development of the Voyager probes and their subsequent discoveries at Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus (Voyager 2 only). The remainder of the book focuses on the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune in 1989 from the long-range pre-encounter observations to the post encounters studies. In this large section of the book there are discussions on everything from, rings and satellite discoveries, radio science, the moons, the moon Triton and its atmosphere, cloud structure and much more.

A few final thoughts. First, if you don't have a great summary the Voyager mission, this book definitely provides it. Secondly, even though I have a technical background, I found some sections, especially the chapter of the magnetic fields a bit too technical. With that said, this book is definitive text about the planet Neptune.