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Discovering the Cosmos with Small Spacecraft

The American Explorer Program

Brian Harvey author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Springer International Publishing AG

Published:8th Dec '17

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Discovering the Cosmos with Small Spacecraft cover

Explorer was the original American space program and Explorer 1 its first satellite, launched in 1958. Sixty years later, it is the longest continuously running space program in the world, demonstrating to the world how we can explore the cosmos with small spacecraft. Almost a hundred Explorers have already been launched. 

Explorers have made some of the fundamental discoveries of the Space Age. Explorer 1 discovered Earth’s radiation belts. Later Explorers surveyed the Sun, the X-ray and ultraviolet universes, black holes, magnetars and gamma ray bursts. An Explorer found the remnant of the Big Bang. One Explorer chased and was the first to intercept a comet.

The program went through a period of few launches during the crisis of funding for space science in the 1980s. However, with the era of ‘faster, cheaper, better,’ the program was reinvented, and new exiting missions began to take shape, like Swift and the asteroid hunter WISE. 

Discovering the Cosmos with Small Spacecraft gives an account of each mission and its discoveries. It breaks down the program into its main periods of activity and examines the politics and debate on the role of small spacecraft in space science.  It introduces the launchers (Juno, Thor, etc.), the launch centers, the ground centers and key personalities like James Van Allen who helped develop and run the spacecraft’s exciting programs.

“Harvey’s book is the story of small spacecraft exploring the edges of near-Earth space; of the space between Earth and Moon. It is a comprehensive history and encyclopedic collection of facts and anecdotes … . What is surprising though, is that by both organic content, as well as excellent writing, the arc of Explorer stories is breathtaking.” (Jon C. Cawley, Quest, Vol. 26 (3), 2019)

“This is a most fascinating book, rich at two levels. It gives a complete rundown of the series of nearly 100 small-sized space missions that constituted — and continue to constitute … . this is a history thatneeded to be told. Harvey does so in a very readable manner, and his book deserves wide popularity with professionals, students, and lay citizens alike.” (Elizabeth Griffin, The Observatory, Vol. 138 (1267), December, 2

ISBN: 9783319681382

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

284 pages

1st ed. 2018