Fly Me to the Moon : : An Insider's Guide to the New Science of Space Travel / / Edward Belbruno.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Belbruno, Edward,
• TeilnehmendeR: Tyson, Neil deGrasse.
• MitwirkendeR: deGrasse Tyson, Neil,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2013]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (192 p.) :; 8 halftones. 39 line illus. 1 table.

When a leaf falls on a windy day, it drifts and tumbles, tossed every which way on the breeze. This is chaos in action. In Fly Me to the Moon, Edward Belbruno shows how to harness the same principle for low-fuel space travel--or, as he puts it, "surfing the gravitational field." Belbruno devised one of the most exciting concepts now being used in space flight, that of swinging through the cosmos on the subtle fluctuations of the planets' gravitational pulls. His idea was met with skepticism until 1991, when he used it to get a stray Japanese satellite back on course to the Moon. The successful rescue represented the first application of chaos to space travel and ushered in an emerging new field. Part memoir, part scientific adventure story, Fly Me to the Moon gives a gripping insider's account of that mission and of Belbruno's personal struggles with the science establishment. Along the way, Belbruno introduces readers to recent breathtaking advances in American space exploration. He discusses ways to capture and redirect asteroids; presents new research on the origin of the Moon; weighs in on discoveries like 2003 UB313 (now named Eris), a dwarf planet detected in the far outer reaches of our solar system--and much more. Grounded in Belbruno's own rigorous theoretical research but written for a general audience, Fly Me to the Moon is for anybody who has ever felt moved by the spirit of discovery.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter One. A Moment of Discovery -- Chapter Two. An Uncertain Start -- Chapter Three. Conventional Way to the Moon -- Chapter Four. A Question -- Chapter Five. Chaos and Surfing the Gravitational Field -- Chapter Six. Using Art to Find Chaotic Regions -- Chapter Eight. Getting to the WSB-Low Energy Transfers -- Chapter Nine. Rescue of a Lunar Mission -- Chapter Eleven. Salvage of HGS-1, and a Christmas Present -- Chapter Twelve. Other Space Missions and Low Energy Transfers -- Chapter Thirteen. Hopping Comets and Earth Collision -- Chapter Fourteen. The Creation of the Moon by Another World -- Chapter Fifteen. Beyond the Moon and to the Stars -- Chapter Sixteen. A Paradigm Shift and the Future -- Bibliography -- Index