Satellite Books

The book is an excellent guide to go inside petroleum exploration using remote sensing as a complementary tool.
The book covers basic knowledge and complementary information to applied remote sensing to exploration. It also has colorful pictures and examples of application on real cases around the world. It combines surface information and the link with subsurface geology. A perfect book for people who are looking for quickly information and directly application of remote sensors. Perfect for Geological engineer working in a oil company and academy for basic and applied courses.

The book is an excellent guide to go inside petroleum exploration using remote sensing as a complementary tool.
The book covers basic knowledge and complementary information to applied remote sensing to exploration. It also has colorful pictures and examples of application on real cases around the world. It combines surface information and the link with subsurface geology. A perfect book for people who are looking for quickly information and directly application of remote sensors. Perfect for Geological engineer working in a oil company and academy for basic and applied courses.

I bought this out of pure curiosity and found it very interesting. The money making ideas were rather interesting if for no other reason than learning the MANY ways satellite images are sold--including land and property that you probably live in or work with. It's really quite amazing how the technology itself operates and filled in a lot of blanks regarding everything from property tax assessments [wow!] to how this is used to find illegal drugs and much more. If you are an expert in this area then it is likely far to simple for you--but if you are just a curious novice like myself, this is incredible technology. Amazingly, it's everywhere but just rarely noticed. Great introduction book with information that you don't run across every day.

Satellite Imagery For The Masses: How To Use And Profit From The Satellite Revolution is a handy guide to using the technology of satellite photo interpretation for business or personal use. Chapters address how satellite imagery works and what it can do, means of making money off of the ability to extract in-depth visual information from satellite images, acquiring satellite imagery, picking the right system for one's needs, and much more. From uses as evidence in court, a reliable locator of pollution, building video games that show what it's like to fly over the earth with uncanny accuracy, choosing where best to plan private or public real estate development, and much more, the profitable uses of satellite imagery abound an Satellite Imagery For The Masses uses no-nonsense, easy-to-understand terms to explain just how anyone can take advantage.

This book is not really for the casual reader. On the contrary; this book is rather technical. The first four chapters deal with geological subjects like planet formation, satellite formation, accretional heating, radiogenic heating, tidal heating, partial melting, icy volcanism etc. etc. etc., and describes the Voyager and Galileo space probes. Then follows a description of (only) the bigger satellites.

In describing the "world in their own right", the writer puts them into the following categories:

DEAD WORLD:
Callisto (11 pages), Rhea, Iapetus, Mimas, Oberon and Umbriël (all 2-3 pages each).

RECENTLY ACTIVE WORLDS:
Ganymede (13½ pages), Miranda (8½ pages), Ariël (8½ pages), Dione (6 pages), Tethys (4½ pages), Titania 1½ pages).

ACTIVE WORLDS :
Io (18½ pages), Europa (17½ pages), Triton (12 pages) and Enceladus (6 pages).

UNSEEN WORLDS :
Titan en Pluto/Charon (3½ pages each).

Each moon is visualised with photograps (circa 95 photographs in total, of which nine in color), "shaded relief maps" (a total of 16) and plenty diagrams/drawings etc.

If the emphasis on geology in this book does not appeal to you, I advise you to leave the book alone. If, for instance, you only want really impressive photographs then buy a book like "Beyond: Visions Of The Interplanetary Probes". That book has much nicer photographs.

If on the other hand you really want to dig into the subject of how these "world in their own right" came to be and if you want to understand what you see on photographs of these moons, then this is your book!
The writing style is clear and understandable. You don't have to be a geologist already. This book will offer you many hours of enjoyable reading!

Though the number of pages in this book may seem a bit small to provide a good explanation the geological processes that shaped and are still shaping the moons of the outer planets, the author does an excellent job of doing just that. Excluding the Moon and the two small satellites of Mars, this book covers all the planetary satellites (moons) of our solar system. The book does include the latest findings (as of 1999) from the Galileo space probe.

The first quarter of the book describes in quite some detail, at least for the non-geologist, the different theories that have been used to classify these planetary bodies. The remainder of the book, excluding the conclusion section, is divided into three parts: dead worlds, recently active worlds and active worlds. Each of the moons falls into one of these categories and a detailed description of each moon is provided in its corresponding section. Each section also includes high resolution Voyager and Galileo photographs and shade relief maps.

After finishing this book, I came away with the idea the solar system is a very geologically diverse place and there is a lot we don't know. Even the author, in several places was willing to admit to that.

This is a wonderful book for anyone who is interested in both the U.S. and Soviet space programs. It has many tid-bits of obscure information that will suprise almost anyone.
Anyone interested in the history of two countries' space program will not be disappointed with this book.

The Space Almanac should be rated a 100,000 star book. It has info on everything space and astronomy related.

A reprint of this book is long overdue because I know several people who have a crumpled photocopy of the original addition and many others who have searched for a used copy without success. This book is a must read for anyone with more than a passing interest in astrodynamics and especially gravity field modeling.

The book begins with a concise description of the earth's gravity field in terms of potential theory. After a quick refresher on matrices and orbital elements, Kaula proceeds to describe the motion of an artificial satellite. In particular, he provides a detailed analysis of gravity field perturbations upon the evolution of the orbital elements including secular effects and resonance effects. The final chapters are concerned with modeling observations used to track satellites, using the observations to estimate the true motion of the satellite, and estimating geodetic information from the motion of the satellite.

Although first published in 1966, this book remains one of the best volumes available on satellite theory and geodesy. It is still used as a reference and textbook by many if not most experts in the field. However, the work is certainly not perfect. Kaula gives a concise and complete coverage of the subject, but it comes at the cost of loads of equations with little explanatory text. This can make it somewhat difficult to follow. It is certainly not written as a popular guide for the general public. Nevertheless, many astrodynamicists are delighted to have this volume available from the good folks at Dover.

I studied with Bill Kaula from 1964-66 at UCLA and used this text extensively at that time and later while doing research in satellite geodesy. Numerical methods are now much more accurate, but if you want insight into satellite orbit mechanics, this is the book to read. The first addition contained many typos and other errors, which have been corrected in the Dover edition. The book provides an outstanding entry into the field of satellite geodesy.

Bruce C. Douglas

Do you want to know what it's like to be on the front lines of a planetary mission? If you do, then this book is for you! Authors Ralph Lorenz and Jacqueline Mitton, have written an outstanding book that describes the most recent episodes in the unfolding story of the exploration of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

Lorenz and Mitton, begin by describing the dropping in of the Huygens probe on the surface of Titan. Then, they examine the state of knowledge about Titan at the time when Cassini and Huygens arrived in the Saturn system. Next, the authors discuss the arrival of Cassini in the Saturn system on July 1, 2004 after a very long trek from earth. They continue by focusing on the last speculations the science teams had about Titan, getting to work on the first results from Cassini's initial approach and the Titan flyby. In addition, the authors also discuss the probe's decent onto Titan on January 14, 2005.
They also describe the Cassini flyby events in chronological order. Finally, the authors discuss the 16th flyby of Titan that took place on July 22, 2006; as well as, present and future mission objectives.

The authors of this most excellent book give prominence to two investigations: First, the surface of Titan and its interaction with the atmosphere have been the most mysterious; and second, the Huygens probe and the RADAR instrument on the Cassini orbiter. More importantly, the authors believe that the atmosphere and the surface of Titan in particular, will interest general readers the most.

PAS-8 Mongolian C-band DownLink Beam.? PAS-8 East Asia Beam.? Pas-8 Central Asia Beam.?

This book is an excellent reference for SATCOM systems engineers, and for RF, controls and mechanical designers working on earth station antenna systems. I have found no other book that has as much technical depth in the area of antenna positioning systems. Note that this book is not for someone looking for an introduction to satellite communications.

This is a fun book to collect or just read for fun. It was written in 1958, and it is fun to compare what is written to how far we have come in our knowledge of space and our ability to travel in space.

My favorite chapter was, "The Riddle of Mars", which discusses the question of is there life on Mars and if so, what kind of life. It discusses the white polar caps melting and also the changes in seasons similar to that of earth, and Dr. Gerald Kuiper's studies on the "reflections of sunlight from the green areas of Mars and comparing it to the reflection from mountainsides covered with green foliage here on earth." (p. 146)....."from these studies, he has concluded that eh vegetation on Mars consists only of such lowly forms as mosses and lichens." (p. 146)..."Many astronomers feel that Mars is a dying world which has lost most of it's oxygen and water vapor and so is slowly drying up." (p. 147)...."The big questions is whether intelligent beings ever lived on the planet and, if so, whether or not they have survived. It has been suggested that the inhabitants of mars may live in underground cities. These are questions which must wait until a space ship lands on the red planet." (p. 147).

The chapters are:
1. Dawn of the space age
2. the ocean of air
3. the viking rocket
4. from fireworks to satellites
5. project orbiter
6. project vanguard
7. scientific satellites
8. the russian sputnicks
9. the moon messenger
10. space medicine
11. passenger-carrying rockets
12. the space station
13. the lunar space ship
14. exploring the moon
15. the atomic space ship
16. the riddle of mars
17. the solar system
18. into the milky way

The ending words for the final chapter are: "The first artificial satellites were launched in 1957. The Age of Space Travel has only begun." (page 189)

It's a fun book to read, and a lot of the information is still correct, but seen from a 1950's perspective.

Dr. Jeffrey Richelson has been a staple in the field of watching US military space systems. This book, America's Secret Eyes in Space, is one of the best overviews into US reconnaissance/surveillance satellites ever written outside of the doors of the National Reconnaissance Office. Coverage of some systems are out-of-date due to recent declassification, but that does not detract from the overall book - and if you're like me, you'll pencil what Richelson got wrong or double check what he got *right*. This book is also an excellent companion to William Burrows' "Deep Black" - where Mr. Burrows covers system histories and overviews of the "big picture", Richelson gives the nitty-gritty on the satellite, launch vehicle, mission and more.

This book had a limited run on its original printing and is very hard to find at a decent price (I paid $80 for my used copy, and I don't regret a dime of it) - if you can find it for a good price, get it. Copies are few and far between, but reside on the desks and libraries of some individuals who work on these systems. Now what does *that* tell you? ;-)