Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier (52 page)
Read Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier Online
Authors: Neil deGrasse Tyson,Avis Lang
CRDAs policy on transfer of, 304–6
energy conservation and, 96
engineering, 95
Industrial Revolution and, 95
information, 95
leadership and, 23
multiple disciplines and, 135–37
nonsectarian philosophies and, 206
predicting future of, 215–16
progress in, 218–19
space exploration and, 135
of
Star Trek,
179
US lag in, 21–22
telescopes, 71, 82, 85–86, 94, 141, 225
microwave, 91–92
radio, 91
ultraviolet, 93
Tereshkova, Valentina, 122
Texas, 6
Thompson, David, 221
three-body problem, 116–17
Three Gorges Dam, 22, 233
Three Mile Island meltdown, 168
Titan, 31
Huygens probe to, 138–39
methane on, 138–39
Today Show
(TV show), 210–11
Tonight Show
(TV show), 144–45
Toth, Viktor, 250
Townsend, W. W., 215–16
transportation, 95
Treasury Department, US, 328
Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, 310
Trojan asteroids, 117, 176
Truax, Robert C., 218
Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich, 153–54, 157
Tunguska River, 50
Turyshev, Slava, 250
2001: A Space Odyssey
(film), 35, 128–29, 194, 229
Tyrannosaurus rex,
51, 201
UFOs, 182–85
Ukraine, xiv, 168
ultraviolet light, 71, 90, 93
ultraviolet telescope, 93
Ulysses spacecraft, 168
UNESCO, 226
Unitary Wind Tunnel Plan Act of 1949, 272
United Kingdom, xiv, 7
United Nations, 86–87
United States, xiii, 202
bald eagle symbol of, 107–8
crumbling infrastructure of, 236–37, 253
educational system of, 58
first satellite of, 124–25
foreign students in, 21–22
maritime and territorial jurisdiction of, 309–10
reaction to Sputnik in, 122–24
scientific literacy in, 57–59
Soviet rivalry with, 5–6, 59, 79, 87, 121–27, 133, 192, 219
space budgets of,
306–9
space policy of, 60–61
transportation in, 95–96
universe, cosmic perspective and, 258–61
Uranus, 119, 157
discovery of, 247–48
US Space and Rocket Center, 220
V-2 rocket, 110–11, 114, 126, 153–54, 158, 217
van Leeuwenhoek, Antoni, 85, 92
Vega, 178
Venus (goddess), 227
Venus (planet), 115, 122, 167, 184, 225, 245
cratering on, 52
greenhouse phenomenon of, 39–40, 201, 227
orbit of, 115
Venus Equilateral
(Smith), 175
Verne, Jules, 170
Versailles Palace, 88
Vietnam War, 178–79
Viking program, 169
Viking 1, 168
Viking 2, 168
Vision for Space Exploration, 13–14, 16, 25, 59–60
von Braun, Wernher, 67, 95, 114, 126–27, 194
Voyager program, 27, 43, 168, 169, 198
Voyager 2, 112, 168
Voyager 6, 38
Wall Street
(film), 228
Wall Street Journal,
218
War of the Worlds
(film), 42
water, 28, 30, 49, 78, 92, 129
comets and, 48
extraterrestrial life and, 39–40
on Mars, 48, 134, 138, 201, 227
molecules of, 258
Webb, James, 67
see also
James Webb Space Telescope
weightlessness, 119
Weinberg, Steven, 10, 81
“What Are We Waiting For?” (
Collier’s
), 111
White, Edward B., 66
Wilkins, John, 21
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), 176
Wilson, Robert, 92
“Wind from the Sun, The” (Clarke), 166
Wise, Donald U., 10–11
Woods, Tiger, 114
Woolley, Richard van der Riet, 217–18
World War I, 217
World War II, 125, 224
Wright, Orville, 23, 97, 109–12, 215–16, 218–19
Wright, Wilbur, 23, 97, 109–10, 112, 215–19
Wright Flyer, 110, 196, 218–19
xenon gas, 159, 164–65
X-rays, 71, 90, 93–94, 96, 135, 139,
141
Yang Liwei, 7
Yeager, Charles E. “Chuck,” 109, 112
Yeah, I Said It
(Sykes), 17
“Zone of Avoidance,” 100
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
About the Author
Neil deGrasse Tyson
, an astrophysicist, was born and raised in New York City, where he was educated in the public schools clear through to his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. He earned his BA in physics from Harvard and his PhD in astrophysics from Columbia. Tyson has served on two presidential commissions—one in 2001 on the future of the US aerospace industry, and a second in 2004 on the future of NASA—and on NASA’s Advisory Council. Among his nine previous books are his memoir,
The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist
; the playful and informative
Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries
, which was a
New York Times
best seller; and
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet
. Tyson is the recipient of fourteen honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by the agency to a nongovernment civilian. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid 13123 Tyson. On the lighter side, he was voted “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” by
People
magazine in 2000. Tyson is the first occupant of the Hayden Planetarium’s Frederick P. Rose directorship. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
About the Editor
Avis Lang
is a writer, a freelance editor, and a lecturer in English at the City University of New York. She also collaborates with Neil deGrasse Tyson. From 2002 through 2007, as a senior editor at
Natural History
magazine, she oversaw Tyson’s monthly column, “Universe.” Originally trained as an art historian, Lang has written many essays on art and curated several large group exhibitions. Before moving to New York from Vancouver in 1983, she lectured for fifteen years at universities and art colleges across Canada.
Copyright © 2012 by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Editor’s Note © copyright 2012 by Avis Lang
All rights reserved
First Edition
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,
write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact
W. W. Norton Special Sales at [email protected] or 800-233-4830
Book design by Judith Stagnitto Abbate / www.abbatedesign.com
Production manager: Devon Zahn
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tyson, Neil deGrasse.
Space chronicles : facing the ultimate frontier / Neil deGrasse Tyson ; edited by Avis Lang. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-393-08210-4 (hardcover)
1. Astronautics and state—United States. 2. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 3. Manned space flight—Forecasting. 4. Outer space—Exploration. I. Lang, Avis. II. Title.
TL789.8.U5T97 2012
629.40973—dc23
2011032481
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.
Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
*
Letter from Donald Wise, chief scientist and deputy director, Apollo Lunar Exploration Office, NASA, to Homer Newell, associate administrator, NASA, August 24, 1969. Reprinted in John M. Logsdon et al., eds.,
Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program
, vol. 5:
Exploring the Cosmos
, NASA SP-2001-4407 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2001), 185–86.
*
Adapted from “Exoplanet Earth,”
Natural History
, February 2006.
*
Adapted from “Why America Needs to Explore Space,”
Parade
, August 5, 2007.
*
Adapted from “Is Anybody (Like Us) Out There?”
Natural History
, September 1996, and from “The Search for Life in the Universe: An Overview of the Scientific and Cultural Implications of Finding Life in the Cosmos,” congressional testimony presented before the House Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, July 12, 2001, Washington, DC.
*
Adapted from interview with Sanjay Gupta,
Anderson Cooper 360°
, CNN, April 26, 2010.
*
Adapted from “Coming Attractions,”
Natural History
, September 1997.
*
Adapted from “The Conversation: Neil Tyson,”
The New York Times
video, conducted June 23, 2006, by Calvin Sims, produced by Matt Orr; posted online July 20, 2006, at
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/multimedia/conversation.html
.
*
Adapted from “Why Explore?” in Lonnie Jones Schorer (with a foreword by Buzz Aldrin),
Kids to Space: A Space Traveler’s Guide
(Burlington, Ontario: Collector’s Guide Publishing, 2006).
*
Adapted from “Wonder,” posted at abc.com, October 30, 2006.
*
First published in
NASA 50th Magazine: 50 Years of Exploration and Discovery,
2008.
*
Adapted from closing keynote speech at “50 Years of the Space Age,” a celebration sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation, UNESCO HQ, Paris, March 21, 2007.
*
Adapted from “Neil deGrasse Tyson and the Need for a Space Program,” interview with Massimo Pigliucci and Julia Galef of New York City Skeptics, for “Rationally Speaking: Exploring the Borderlands between Reason and Nonsense”; released March 28, 2010, at
http://www.rationallyspeakingpodcast.org
.