Robotic Exploration of the Solar System: Part I: The Golden Age 1957-1982

by Paolo Ulivi, David M. Harland

Paolo Ulivi and David Harland provide in Robotic Exploration of the Solar System a detailed history of unmanned missions of exploration of our Solar System. As in their previous book Lunar Exploration, the subject will be treated wherever possible from an engineering and scientific standpoint. Technical descriptions of the spacecraft, of their mission designs and of instrumentations will be provided. Scientific results will be discussed in considerable depth, together with details of mission management. The book will be comprehensive, covering missions and results from the 1950s until the present day, and some of the latest missions and their results will appear in a popular science book for the first time. The authors will also cover many unflown missions, providing an indication of the ideas that proved to be unfulfilled at the time but which may still be proven and useful in the future.  The project will deliver three volumes totaling over 1000 pages, providing comprehensive coverage of the topic.

Genres: Space, Nonfiction, Science

600 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Avi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing comprehensive overview of the early years of space exploration from a management, technical and historical perspective. More technical than your standard pop-science book but not too technical so as to render it inaccessible. A must-read for anyone interested in Space

[Tanwen Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thorough look at the first 25 years of the Space Age. Whatever robotic mission you want to learn about in this era will be in this book in a reasonable amount of detail making this a great book to dip into. However, if you do that it can be a bit confusing. It jumps between missions, agencies and nomenclature without much warning making it a bit hard to work out where you are.

[Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesomely comprehensive book about early space probes to the planets, with each mission, its development, and its results recounted in intense detail. The focus here is information rather than narrative, so in places this can get pretty dry—but to me, for a book like this, that’s 100% fine.

[Dan Zarfati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it is a bit dry to read, the amount of information is considerable, and it is worthwile.