James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles

Bücher

Angebote / Angebote:

Astrophysicist and space pioneer James Van Allen (1914-2006), for whom the Van Allen radiation belts were named, was among the principal scientific investigators for twenty-four space missions, including" Explorer I" in 1958, the first successful U.S. satellite, "Mariner 2"'s 1962 flyby of Venus, the first successful mission to another planet, and the 1970s "Pioneer 10" and "Pioneer 11" missions that surveyed Jupiter and Saturn. Although he retired as a University of Iowa professor of physics and astronomy in 1985, he remained an active researcher, using his campus office to monitor data from "Pioneer 10"--on course to reach the edge of the solar system when its signal was lost in 2003--until a short time before his death at the age of ninety-one. Now Abigail Foerstner blends space science drama, military agendas, cold war politics, and the events of Van Allen's lengthy career to create the first biography of this highly influential physicist.