Moon Hunters: NASA's Remarkable Expeditions to the Ends of the Solar Systems - Softcover

Kluger, J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684865599 ISBN 13: 9780684865591

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2001

Synopsis

In Moon Hunters, bestselling author Jeffrey Kluger tells the thrilling story of some of the most remarkable heavenly bodies known -- the solar system's sixty-five moons -- and the extraordinary people who have explored them all. Chronicling lunar exploration from the first attempts by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to explore our own moon to the triumphant conquest of the outer planets, Moon Hunters is an adventure story full of drama, danger, and suspense. While taking the reader on a spellbinding journey to the eerie landscapes of the moons themselves, Moon Hunters offers a riveting account of the scientists and spacecraft responsible for unlocking the secrets of the cosmos -- and perhaps of life itself.

About this title

Product Description:

Moon Hunters: Nasa's Remarkable Expeditions To the Ends of the Solar Systems

Review:

Our moon is only one of more than 60 planetary satellites in the solar system, most of which are entirely unexplored. In Moon Hunters (published in hardcover as Journey Beyond Selene), Jeffrey Kluger chronicles these unsung places and the heroes who explore them: the Jet Propulsion Lab's staff of dedicated adventurers, who build and fly sleek, unmanned spacecraft to investigate other moons. "When astronauts finally did reach the moon", Kluger writes, "the lean, fleet ships of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory had already gone elsewhere".

Why explore the satellites of other planets when the planets themselves remain mysterious? Kluger describes astronomers' first realisation that in contrast to the lifeless gas giant Jupiter, its moons were a veritable scientific playground:

There were big moons and small moons, patterned moons and plain moons, brightly coloured moons and pasty-pale moons ... There were moons that could have atmospheres, water and even, perhaps, a spark of internal heat. Put them together, and you had moons that could, in theory, harbour life.

Moon Hunters chronicles the history of a little-understood aspect of humanity's quest to discover new worlds. From the early Ranger orbiters through the incredible journeys of Voyager and Galileo, Kluger gives credit where credit is long overdue. They may not be astronauts, but these space jockeys have the right stuff. --Therese Littleton

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0684865599
• ISBN 13: 9780684865591
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 314