Being an officer in Barrayar's military wasn't easy. And being the leader of a force of spaceborne mercenaries while maintaining a secret identity wasn't easy—in fact it should have been impossible, to say nothing of being a capital offense on Barrayar. Not that impossibility or great danger would slow down young Miles Vorkosigan much.The Warrior's Apprentice 1Discharged from the Barrarayan academy after flunking the physical, a discouraged Miles (17) takes possession of a jumpship and becomes the leader of a mercenary force that expands to a fleet of treasonous proportions.The Mountains of Mourning 373Miles (20) is sent to a small mountain village to investigate the murder of an infant, killed because she had a physical defect. Miles must deal with deep-seated prejudice against “mutants” and uncover the real killer in this novella that won both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award.The Vor Game 465 Miles (20s) faces enormous challenges in this Hugo Award-winning novel as he leads a mutiny against his military commander's criminal orders, rejoins his Dendarii mercenaries, and attempts to rescue Emperor Gregor after Barrayar's royal scion has run off straight into trouble.

    These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century? Here, too, is a rare, private glimpse of Sagan's thoughts about love, death, and God as he struggled with fatal disease. Ever forward-looking and vibrant with the sparkle of his unquenchable curiosity, Billions & Billions is a testament to one of the great scientific minds of our day.

    Now, in everyday language, Stephen Hawking's Universe reveals step-by-step how we can all share his understanding of the cosmos, and our own place within it. Stargazing has never been the same since cosmologists discovered that galaxies are moving away from each other at an extraordinary speed. It was this understanding of the movement of galaxies that allowed scientists to develop a theory of how the universe was created—the Big Bang theory. Working with this theory, Stephen Hawking and other physicists felt challenged to come up with a scientific picture that would tackle the fundamental question: what is the nature of the universe? Stephen Hawking's Universe charts this work and provides simple explanations for phenomena that arouse our curiosity. This work is a voyage of discovery with an astonishing set of conclusions that will enable us to understand how matter can be produced from nothing at all and will provide us with an explanation for the basis of our existence and that of everything around us.

    Comic book adaptation!"To celebrate its quarter century and the legacy of Douglas Adams, this deluxe edition gathers never-before-collected photographs, original artwork, memorabilia (from the strange to the sublime), and wisdom gleaned from a first read or first encounter as Douglas's friends remember how the galaxy was forever changed a mere twenty-five years ago (not to mention the original text of the novel) into a one-of-a-kind Guide as stunning as two suns setting over Magrathea." Whether you are well versed in the antics of Arthur Dent, a mild mannered Earthman plucked from his planet seconds before it's demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, and Ford Perfect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy posing as an out-of-work actor, or are hitching a ride for the first time, this is the book that has everything you'll need to know about anything.

    Guth’s startling theory—widely regarded as one of the most important contributions to science during the twentieth century—states that the big bang was set into motion by a period of hyper-rapid “inflation,” lasting only a billion-trillion-billionth of a second. The Inflationary Universe is the passionate story of one leading scientist’s effort to look behind the cosmic veil and explain how the universe began.

    Timothy Ferris provides a clear, elegantly written overview of current research and a forecast of where cosmological theory is likely to go in the twenty-first century. He explores the questions that have occurred to even casual readers -- who are curious about nature on the largest scales: What does it mean to say that the universe is "expanding," or that space is "curved"? -- and sheds light on the possibility that our universe is only one among many universes, each with its own physical laws and prospects for the emergence of life.

    Lippard, one of America's most influential art writers, weaves together cultural studies, history, geography, photography, and contemporary public art to provide a fascinating exploration of our multiple senses of place. Expanding her reach far beyond the confines of the art world, she discusses community, land use, perceptions of natures, how we produce the landscape, and how the landscape affects our lives.

    . . . Roger Bilstein gracefully wends his way through a maze of technical documentation to reveal the important themes of this story. Rarely has such a nuts-and-bolts tale been so gracefully told."—Air University Review"Easily the best book of the NASA History Series. . . . Starting with the earliest rockets, Bilstein traces the development of the family of massive Saturn launch vehicles that carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon and boosted Skylab into orbit."—Technology and CultureA classic study of the development of the Saturn launch vehicle that took Americans to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, Stages to Saturn is one of the finest official histories ever produced. The Saturn rocket was developed as a means of accomplishing President John F. Kennedy's goal for the United States to reach the moon before the end of the decade. Without the Saturn V rocket, with its capability of sending as payload the Apollo Command and Lunar Modules--along with support equipment and three astronauts--more than a quarter of a million miles from earth, Kennedy's goal would have been unrealizable. Stages to Saturn not only tells the important story of the research and development of the Saturn rockets and the people who designed them but also recounts the stirring exploits of their operations, from orbital missions around earth testing Apollo equipment to their journeys to the moon and back.  Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the development of space flight in America and the course of modern technology, this reprint edition includes a new preface by the author providing a 21st-century perspective on the historic importance of the Saturn project.Roger E. Bilstein is professor emeritus of history at the University of Houston, Clear Lake. Regarded as one of the nation’s premier aerospace historians, he is the author of six books, including Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts and Testing Aircraft, Exploring Space: An Illustrated History of NACA and NASA.

    Stardance: Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance. Starseed: Years later, another dancer of genius faced the end of her career when her body failed her, and Rain McLeod followed Shara into space. If she joined with a symbiotic lifeform that would let her live without artificial protection in the vacuum of space, she would take a quantum leap in human evolution. Starmind: Rand Porter has been offered the job of a lifetime, as a shaper of visual effects and music for the world's most famous zero-gravity dance company in High Orbit. But his beloved novelist wife Rhea Paixao has her roots sunk deep in the Earth, in her beloved Cape Cod. And as they wrestle with their private dilemma, bizarre things-small miracles-are beginning to occur everywhere on Earth and throughout the entire Solar System. The human race-and its evolutionary successors, the space-dwelling Stardancers-find themselves approaching the terrifying cusp of their shared destiny, an appointment made for them a million years ago, a make-or-break point beyond which nothing, anywhere, can ever be the same again.

    Arp's book is a frontal assault on the standard model of the universe, replete with anecdotes and illustrations, including 8 pages of colour plates.

    This edition contains a wealth of new photographs from ground based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope, along with the best images from nearly four decades of robotic exploration of the planets.

    It was to be a routine mission, the 4th of seven trips to Mir that NASA astronauts would take as dress rehearsals for the two countries' partnership in a new Intern'l Space Station they were building back on Earth. But there'd been bad omens: a Moscow psychic who predicted a mysterious disaster; a Russian doctor who warned that the crew was psychologically incompatible. Within two weeks the omens were borne out, as the three were suddenly forced to fight the worst fire in space history. This was only the beginning of what became the most dangerous mission in the 36-year history of manned space travel--a 6-month misadventure that would climax in the most harrowing accident faced in space since Apollo 13. In Dragonfly, bestselling author Burrough tells the story of how a joint Russian-American crew narrowly survived almost every trauma imaginable: fire, power blackouts, chemical leaks, docking failures, nail-biting spacewalks & constant mechanical breakdowns, all climaxing in a dramatic midspace collision that left all on board scrambling for their lives. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the cosmonauts, astronauts, ground controllers, psychologists & scientists involved, Dragonfly is the saga of a mission as fraught with political & bureaucratic intrigues as any DC potboiler. Using never-before-released internal NASA memoranda, flight logs & debriefings, Burrough portrays a US space program in which many astronauts refuse to raise safety concerns for fear they'll be frozen out of future missions. It offers an unprecedented look inside the rattletrap Russian space program, where the desperate thirst for hard currency leads to safety shortcuts as exhausted, puppetlike cosmonauts endure inhuman pressures from their unfeeling, all-powerful masters on the ground. In Dragonfly, the American astronauts who journeyed to Mir speak out about the failings of the program, from the rigors of training at Russia's Star City military base to the slapdash experiments they were required to perform. Yet thru it all the men & women of the two space programs persevered, forging friendships that will serve them well as the two countries prepare for the 1st launches of the Intern'l Space Station in late 1998. Theirs is a story of a triumph over adversity, destined to be one of the most enduring & widely celebrated adventure stories of our time.

    This book has to be on the shelf of everyspace buff. --James Lovell, Commander, Apollo 13.Get the inside story on outer space from three-time shuttleastronaut R. Mike Mullane.A fascinating collection of honest, factual, from-the-heartanswers to the most often asked questions about spaceflight andspacefliers. Required reading for all who aspire to travel inspace. --Kathy Thornton, 4-mission Shuttle Astronaut, World RecordHolder for Spacewalks by a Woman.A brilliant addition to the understanding of space flight. Only aman who has been there--outer space--and done that--fly the SpaceShuttle--could render the complexities of flying in space solucidly. --Walter J. Boyne, Colonel, USAF (Ret.), Former Director, National Air and Space Museum.A highly informative inside view of what astronauts reallyexperience in space. --Ed Buckbee, Former Director, U.S. Space& Rocket and U.S. Space Camp.All astronauts have been peppered with great questions. MikeMullane has great answers. --Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, U.S.Navy (Ret.), Columbia 1981, Challenger 1983, NASA Administrator1989-1992.

    It now includes a comprehensive set of software programs that complement the text with problems and design analyses. Software topics included are atmosphere programs, quasi-one-dimensional flow programs (ideal constant-area heat interaction, adiabatic constant-area flow with friction, rocket nozzle performance, normal shock waves, oblique shock waves), gas turbine programs (engine cycle analysis and engine off-design performance), and rocket combustion programs (Tc and PC given, He and PC given, isentropic expansion).

    Included in this deluxe, slipcased set are all three of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition graphic-novel adaptations. Thrill to the adventures of Luke and Leia, Han and Chewbacca, and the faithful droids Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio Witness the horror of Darth Vader, Jabba the Hurt, Boba Fett, and the Emperor And prepare yourself for the next installment of the greatest battle the galaxy has ever seen

    Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with many of the key participants, and important declassified material, such as the National Security Council's first policy paper on space, McDougall examines U.S., European, and Soviet space programs and their politics. Opening with a short account of Nikolai Kibalchich, a late nineteenth-century Russian rocketry theoretician, McDougall argues that the Soviet Union made its way into space first because it was the world's first "technocracy"—which he defines as "the institutionalization of technological change for state purpose." He also explores the growth of a political economy of technology in both the Soviet Union and the United States.

    Launius and Howard McCurdy maintain that         the nation's presidency had become imperial by the mid-1970s and that         supporters of the space program had grown to find relief in such a presidency,         which they believed could help them obtain greater political support and         funding. Subsequent chapters explore the roles and political leadership,         vis-à-vis government policy, of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy,         Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan.

    Carl Sagan. His presentation evoked the sane tenets and mysteries offered in his immensely popular PBS series, "Cosmos", and his bestselling book, "The Dragons of Eden". These cassettes also include many of the world's leading religious and political leaders. Posthumously, Dr. Sagan's novel, "Contact", is now a major motion picture starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConnaugh.

    Then, in 1989, American scientists launched Magellan—the spacecraft that would revolutionize our vision of this mysterious planet. Venus Revealed is the first book to explain the breathtaking results of this mission, which unveiled a Venusian world of active volcanoes, shining mountains, and river valleys carved by torrents of flowing lava. At one time, Venus may have even had a wet, temperate climate, much like Earth's. What happened to turn it into a hostile, burning acid world? The answer could very well help us solve some of our most pressing environmental problems—from global warming to acid rain. In Venus Revealed, David Grinspoon eloquently argues that studying our exotic twin will inevitable teach us more about ourselves.

    Dora was a cavernous underground factory cut out of solid rock, where life was like a nightmarish scene from Dante: thousands of prisoners beaten, starved, killed, and living underground for weeks at a time. The purpose of all this brutality was to build the world's first operational rockets: the V-1 and V-2 missiles, Hitler's vengeance weapons.Some of Germany's most brilliant engineers were involved with production at Dora, including Werner von Braun, who after the war went on to become the father of the American space program. It was his Saturn V rocket, designed with the help of his wartime comrades, that put the first man on the moon; while the Saturn V project was headed by the same man who had been the director of slave labor in Dora. In fact, some of the very rockets built in Dora were packed up after the war and shipped to New Mexico to serve as the seeds of the U.S. space program. In a very real sense, the greatest technological achievement of the twentieth century had its origins in the enslavement and murder of thousands of innocent people, the down payment of a Faustian bargain that still tarnishes the foundation of our reach for the stars.

    Here are succinct definitions for the Big Bang theory, comets, eclipses, Magellanic Clouds, Mars, quasar, relativity, and variable stars. Entries on telescopes and other measuring devices, observatories, space missions, and recently named Solar System objects show how astronomers have explored the universe. The Dictionary also provides biographical entries on eminent astronomers from Copernicus to Edwin Hubble. A Dictionary of Astronomy opens a window on the universe for amateur astronomers everywhere.

    These new observations offer the possibility that some long-standing mysteries in cosmology might be answered, including such fundamental questions as the ultimate fate of the universe. descriptive introduction to the physical basis for modern cosmological theory, from the big bang to a distant future dominated by dark energy. This second edition includes the latest observational results and provides the detailed background material necessary to understand their implications, with a focus on the specific model supported by these observations, the concordance model. Consistent with the book's title, basics concepts of physics that underlie modern theories of relativity and cosmology; the importance of data and observations is stressed throughout. The book sketches the historical background of cosmology, and provides a review of special and general relativity are treated, before proceeding to an in-depth discussion of the big bang theory and physics of the early universe. The book includes current research areas, including dark matter and structure formation, dark energy, the inflationary universe, and quantum cosmology. The authors' website (http: //www astro.virginia.edu/ jh8h/Foundations) offers a wealth of supplemental information, including discoveries

    In this fascinating introduction to galaxies, stars, comets and more, children will take a wonderful voyage to each of the nine planets in the Solar System and beyond.

    Working in their spare time (because they couldn't initially get offical permission), Dale Reed and his team of engineers demonstrated the potential of the design that led to the space shuttle. This volume takes the reader behind the scenes with a blend of techinical information and fascinating detail. The flying bathtub, itself, is finding new life as the proposed escape-pod for the Space Station.