The Next Steps in Exploring Deep Space - Hardcover

Wes Huntress

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 8173716021 ISBN 13: 9788173716027

Publisher: Universities Press, 2008

Synopsis

Humankind has been drawn to space for a number of reasons the urge to expand beyond our boundaries and to explore the unknown; the desire of nations to compete for technological superiority; the desire to understand our natural world and the Universe around us. But today there is no single imperative sufficient to motivate the investments and national willpower required for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. The purpose of this book is to provide one possible vision for the scientific exploration of space in the first half of the 21st Century. It identifies a set of useful and achievable destinations first the Moon, then the Sun Earth Libration Point L2, Near-Earth Objects and finally Mars, the ultimate destination for humans in the next 50 years. This stepping-stone approach will gradually build the required capabilities and maintain interest and support by achieving important scientific discoveries at every step. The study that formed the basis for this book was chartered by the International Academy of Astronautics and conducted on a volunteer basis by a small number of individuals, independent of any government space agency. It is not a strategic implementation plan for any national space program; rather, it is intended to be a vision for the future that can be considered by interested space agencies, hopefully in the context of an international cooperative endeavor.

About this title

About the Author

Wes Huntress earned his B.S. in Chemistry at Brown University in 1964, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics at Stanford University in 1968. He is the recipient of a number of honors, including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. Huntress began his career at JPL as a National Research Council Resident Associate before joined the lab permanently in 1969 as a research scientist specializing in ion chemistry and planetary atmospheres. He and his group gained international recognition for their pioneering studies of chemical evolution in interstellar clouds, comets and planetary atmospheres. In 1990 Huntress was appointed NASA s Director of the Solar System Exploration Division, and in 1993 he became the Associate Administrator for Space Science where he was responsible for NASA's programs in Astrophysics, Planetary Exploration and Space Physics. Huntress is now the Director of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory.

Edition details

• Publisher: Universities Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 8173716021
• ISBN 13: 9788173716027
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 164