Frizzle were a physics student of Stephen Hawking, she might have written THE UNIVERSE IN YOUR HAND, a wild tour through the reaches of time and space, from the interior of a proton to the Big Bang to the rough suburbs of a black hole. It's friendly, excitable, erudite, and cosmic."—Jordan Ellenberg, New York Times besteselling author of How Not To Be WrongQuantum physics, black holes, string theory, the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, parallel universes: even if we are interested in these fundamental concepts of our world, their language is the language of math. Which means that despite our best intentions of finally grasping, say, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, most of us are quickly brought up short by a snarl of nasty equations or an incomprehensible graph.Christophe Galfard's mission in life is to spread modern scientific ideas to the general public in entertaining ways. Using his considerable skills as a brilliant theoretical physicist and successful young adult author, The Universe in Your Hand employs the immediacy of simple, direct language to show us, not explain to us, the theories that underpin everything we know about our universe. To understand what happens to a dying star, we are asked to picture ourselves floating in space in front of it. To get acquainted with the quantum world, we are shrunk to the size of an atom and then taken on a journey. Employing everyday similes and metaphors, addressing the reader directly, and writing stories rather than equations renders these astoundingly complex ideas in an immediate and visceral way.Utterly captivating and entirely unique, The Universe in Your Hand will find its place among other classics in the field.

    Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

    But during celebrations on humanity’s new Homeworld, the legendary Captain Pantillo of the battle carrier Phoenix is court-martialed then killed, and his deputy, Lieutenant Commander Erik Debogande, the heir to humanity’s most powerful industrial family, is framed with his murder. Assisted by Phoenix’s marine commander Trace Thakur, Erik and Phoenix are forced to go on the run, as they seek to unravel the conspiracy behind their Captain’s demise, pursued to the death by their own Fleet. What they discover, about the truth behind the wars and the nature of humanity’s ancient alien allies, will shake the sentient galaxy to its core.

    NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia was the most advanced flying machine ever built – the high watermark of post-war aviation development. A direct descendant of the record-breaking X-planes the likes of which Chuck Yeager had tested in the skies over the Mojave Desert, Columbia was a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, capable of flying to space and back before being made ready to fly again. She was the world’s first real spaceship.On board were men with the Right Stuff. The Shuttle’s Commander, moonwalker John Young, was already a veteran of five spaceflights. Alongside him, Pilot Bob Crippen was making his first, but Crip, taken in by the space agency after the cancellation of a top secret military space station programme in 1969, had worked on the Shuttle’s development for a decade. Never before had a crew been so well prepared for their mission.Yet less than an hour after Young and Crippen’s spectacular departure from the Cape it was clear that all was not well. Tiles designed to protect Columbia from the blowtorch burn of re-entry were missing from the heatshield. If the damage to their ship was too great the astronauts would be unable to return safely to earth. But neither they nor mission control possessed any way of knowing. Instead, NASA turned to the National Reconnaissance Office, a spy agency hidden deep inside the Pentagon whose very existence was classified. To help, the NRO would attempt something that had never been done before. Success would require skill, pinpoint timing and luck …Drawing on brand new interviews with astronauts and engineers, archive material and newly declassified documents, Rowland White, bestselling author of Vulcan 607, has pieced together the dramatic untold story of the mission for the first time. Into the Black is a thrilling race against time; a gripping high stakes cold-war story, and a celebration of a beyond the state-of-the-art machine that, hailed as one of the seven new wonders of the world, rekindled our passion for spaceflight.*With a foreword by Astronaut Richard Truly*‘Beautifully researched and written, Into the Black tells the true, complete story of the Space Shuttle better than it’s ever been told before.’ Colonel Chris Hadfield, former Astronaut and Space Station Commander‘Brilliantly revealed, Into the Black is the finely tuned true story of the first flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Rowland White has magnificently laid bare the unknown dangers and unseen hazards of that first mission … Once read, not forgotten.’Clive Cussler

    With a little help from her fairy godrobot, Cinderella is going to the ball--but when the prince's ship has mechanical trouble, someone will have to zoom to the rescue! Readers will thank their lucky stars for this irrepressible fairy tale retelling, its independent heroine, and its stellar happy ending.

    Born in Pisa, Italy, in the sixteenth century, Galileo contributed to the era's great rebirth of knowledge. He invented a telescope to observe the heavens. From there, not even the sky was the limit! He turned long-held notions about the universe topsy turvy with his support of a sun-centric solar system. Patricia Brennan Demuth offers a sympathetic portrait of a brilliant man who lived in a time when speaking scientific truth to those in power was still a dangerous proposition.

    So it comes as a surprise to Jon to be wished a Merry Christmas on what he otherwise thinks is just another day. As his grip on the day starts to unravel, he's confronted with a crew expecting him to know what is going on. After all, it is his ship, and they think he's the captain, so he must know everything. Jon wishes that were so. As his day lurches from one thing to another, it seems that only Santa knows the whole plan. Join Jon, Jane, and the Alpha team for Christmas day in space. This is a short story, set sometime around the end of Hire a Hero, and the beginning of Hero to the Rescue. The Hunter Legacy series: Part One: 1. Hero at Large 2. Hunted Hero Hunting 3. Send in the Hero 4. Make or Break the Hero 5. Hail the Hero End of Part 1 6. Burnside's Killer (An Interlude Novella between Parts 1 & 2) Part Two: 7. Hire a Hero Jane's Christmas (A short story) 8. Hero to the Rescue ***forthcoming***

    Sazo's an artificial intelligence. He's saved her from captivity and torture, but he's also put her in the middle of a conflict, leaving Rose with her loyalties divided.Captain Dav Jallan doesn't know why he and his crew have stumbled across an almost legendary Class 5 battleship, but he's not going to complain. The only problem is, all its crew are dead, all except for one strange, new alien being.She calls herself Rose. She seems small and harmless, but less and less about her story is adding up, and Dav has a bad feeling his crew, and maybe even the four planets, are in jeopardy. The Class 5's owners, the Tecran, look set to start a war to get it back and Dav suspects Rose isn't the only alien being who survived what happened on the Class 5. And whatever else is out there is playing its own games.In this race for the truth, he's going to have to go against his leaders and trust the dark horse.Winner of a SFR Galaxy Award 2016 and the Prism Award 2016 for Best Futuristic.

    With his twin sexy bodyguards, Jonathon seeks to come to grips with station life in a suddenly hostile universe.Celebrity, gratitude, sudden attacks, and a mysterious prophecy are more than most 18 year old's can handle.A reluctant hero, Jonathon is on a journey, seemingly out of his time, but always in time.Meet Jon Hunter as he starts a 2 year journey to prophecy, with his AI sidekick, and mostly female mercenary team.

    But it had tremendous costs. The Battleship Avenger and her fleets had vanished being drawn into a great white vortex at the moment of victory. For over four years, the mystery of what had happened to the Avenger had haunted the Federation. The last two survivors of the Special Five have built a powerful exploration cruiser to go off in search of the lost fleets. They are convinced that the fleets have survived and are trapped in another galaxy. What they find in their search will be a threat to the Federation far greater than the AIs and the Hocklyns had ever been. The fate of thousands of worlds will depend on the Distant Horizon finding those that were lost and stopping this new and dangerous menace.

     For fifty years, Earth has received mysterious data transmissions from random locations in deep space. The streams include advanced technology, allowing Humans to achieve faster-than-light travel virtually overnight. As we prepare to take our first, tentative steps into interstellar space, we know almost nothing about our alien benefactors, and their motivations remain unexplained. While completing their shakedown cruise, Captain Tom Prescott and the crew of the first Terran Fleet Command starship, TFS Ingenuity, stumble into a first contact situation. They learn that Earth is not the first civilization granted access to the stars before their time – and how this Faustian gift has inevitably led to centuries of interstellar war. Humanity’s existence hangs in the balance as a powerful alliance assembles a preemptive military strike, believing it to be their only option to protect themselves … from us. Prescott and his small, initially unarmed starship must serve as our only line of defense. Ingenuity is our only hope.

    But she survives, thanks to a poisonous red-headed krait. The medical community is excited since there is no known cure for the virus, but Anna and her snake, Red, have a symbiotic relationship—containment, not cure. If she is ever separated from Red, she will die.Anna struggles through foster homes. As her krait becomes known and valuable throughout the three star empires as one of only a handful of such snakes, she fights off attempts to kill her and snatch Red. She even comes to wonder if her brilliance in school and eventually at deciphering code is somehow connected to her constant companion. When the Naval Intelligence Agency, the NIA, recruits her, her adventures grow beyond fending off thieves and killers to tracking down interstellar smugglers as part of an elite team, but the smuggling cartel are quick to fight back. In the midst of space battles and well-placed assassins, Anna is convinced that Red’s presence may make the difference in survival or death, not just for her but her entire NIA team.

    could not put it down ..." Join the Star Watch crew on their first mission to the planet of Trom, where hostile Pharlom invaders have appropriated high altitude cloud-ports as prisoner of war camps. As a fierce battle in space ensues, fragmented warships fall into Trom’s atmosphere and head right for a populated cloud-port.From best-selling author Mark Wayne McGinnis comes the highly anticipated Scrapyard Ship spin-off series, Star Watch.The Craing War is now over … the enemy defeated. As planetary systems around the galaxy try to bring normalcy back to their existence, one thing becomes crystal clear … without the Craing around to keep everyone in line, space has become a far more dangerous place. With tens of thousands of warships idle, along with hundreds of thousands of Allied crew personnel sitting on their hands, it’s up to Admiral Perry Reynolds whether or not to send the combatants home, and mothball most of the ships. But as more and more requests for prompt Allied assistance come in from the farthest reaches of outer space (i.e. for minor incursions into sovereign territory; or others, more serious—including barbaric planetary invasions), Admiral Reynolds is compelled to introduce a new stellar over-watch program. With his own career winding down, one of his final directives will be in the formation of a special intergalactic marshaling service … Star Watch. The admiral has the perfect ship lined up for the task—the most advanced warship in the known galaxy: the mile-long Caldurian vessel—the Minian. Next … he needs to outfit the ship with a captain and crew he can trust to get this far-range venture initiated properly. Across the galaxy, young Boomer, daughter of Captain Jason Reynolds, begins her training in the ancient fighting methods of the Kahill Callan, and prepares to battle against Lord Vikor Shakrim—leader of the dreaded Sahhrain warriors.

    Every topic is covered in depth and detail while remaining easy to understand at a glance.

    Hounded for his mixed blood and denied mastery in his craft, he leaps at the chance to join his father’s people in the Sky City of Newport.There, he learns he is the only heir of an ancient and noble line. His father’s name opens doors and gathers allies, but Erik must still struggle to understand both this strange new culture and his place within it.Fate will deny him a peaceful understanding, though, as the clouds of war gather – and his father’s enemies have laid their eyes upon his City in the Sky.

    Defying every expectation of what a book can be, this pop-up extravaganza transforms into six fully functional tools: a real working planetarium projecting the constellations, a musical instrument complete with strings for strumming, a geometric drawing generator, an infinite calendar, a message decoder, and even a speaker that amplifies sound. Artist Kelli Anderson contributes enlightening text alongside each pop-up, explaining the scientific principles at play in her constructions and creating an interactive experience that's as educational as it is extraordinary. Inspiring awe that lasts long after the initial pop, This Book Is a Planetarium leaves readers of all ages with a renewed appreciation for the way things work—and for the enduring magic of books.

    Battered and mourning tremendous losses, the once fractious peoples of enemy nations must work together to rebuild their shattered world—and prevent the possibility of their attackers’ return. What they don’t know is that a new, deadlier enemy unlike anything they’ve ever faced will usher in the dawn of another war.Captain Morgan Passer commands the Rogue Class destroyer Autolycus, charged with an interstellar recon mission to detect traces of the repelled enemy while gathering information for the fortification of Earth’s defenses. What the expedition finds instead is a deeply disturbing mystery: a discovery that redefines everything they thought they knew about Earth’s place in the galaxy…and reveals deadly new horrors. In this original story set in the Odyssey One world, former enemies unite for their own survival, and Passer and his intrepid crew seek answers to help them save their people. Instead, they find that the invasion may be over, but the danger is just beginning.

    The fantastic journey began in 1977, before the first episode of Cosmos aired. The mission was planned as a grand tour beyond the moon; beyond Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; and maybe even into interstellar space. The fact that it actually happened makes this humanity's greatest space mission.In The Interstellar Age, award-winning planetary scientist Jim Bell reveals what drove and continues to drive the members of this extraordinary team, including Ed Stone, Voyager's chief scientist and the one-time head of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab; Charley Kohlhase, an orbital dynamics engineer who helped to design many of the critical slingshot maneuvers around planets that enabled the Voyagers to travel so far; and the geologist whose Earth-bound experience would prove of little help in interpreting the strange new landscapes revealed in the Voyagers' astoundingly clear images of moons and planets.Speeding through space at a mind-bending eleven miles a second, Voyager 1 is now beyond our solar system's planets. It carries with it artifacts of human civilization. By the time Voyager passes its first star in about 40,000 years, the gold record on the spacecraft, containing various music and images including Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," will still be playable.

    This book is full of genuine facts, and answers a range of space-related questions. Find out how long it would take to travel to the sun's nearest star, if it's possible to escape from a black hole, and more! With easy to understand, pictorial info-graphics which break facts up into bit-sized chunks.

    America is racing the Soviet Union to land men on the Moon, a war is raging, and a pivotal presidential election looms on the horizon. A child of the early space age, Lieutenant Scott Ourecky joined the Air Force with aspirations of going to flight school. A brilliant engineer, he repeatedly fails the aptitude test to become a pilot but is selected to work on a highly classified military space program—the innocuously named Aerospace Support Project—in which Air Force astronauts are slated to fly missions to intercept and destroy suspect Soviet satellites. When one of the astronauts in training abruptly falls out of the project, Ourecky is asked to fill in for the two-man simulated missions and survival training only, serving with a headstrong and abrasive test pilot, Major Drew Carson, until another astronaut can be assigned. By far the most proficient pilot assigned to the project, Carson has a dangerous propensity to engage in “pick-up” dog fighting sessions while on cross-country training flights. And although Ourecky was only a temporary “place holder,” not destined to fly in space, he soon finds himself much more involved than he ever anticipated—and in deepest peril.Based on a real secret space program, Blue Gemini combines high-altitude action with edge-of-your-seat storytelling to create a modern Cold War thriller.

    Two of them, Porter and Macos have been available on Amazon as stand-alone stories in the past, but readers complained that they were too short to justify Amazon’s minimum $0.99 price. Thus, I removed Porter and Macos from Amazon, extensively rewrote them and then compiled them with some new short stories in order to provide a better value. If you already purchased and read Porter and Macos when they were available as stand-alone stories you may be disappointed, but they only make up 34% of the total and the price for all six stories is still just $0.99. The book consists of six stories (65K words – same length as the novel “Quicker”). 1. Sander (Novelette - 8K words) – a story about growing up in the asteroid belt and encountering a man who‘s a complex mixture of good and evil 2. Exceltor (Novella - 19K words) – a story considering how warfare might work in a future where wormholes allow sudden bridging of large distances in space 3. Macos (Short Story - 8K words) – a coming of age story wherein a young man finds his father is a completely different man than he had always imagined 4. Porter (Novelette - 14K words) – a young girl can open small portals from one location to another with her mind but—to her father’s great disappointment—she just wants to play guitar 5. Billy Benoit (Novelette - 12K words) – a man who thinks it would be awesome to go back in time, finds out it isn’t as cool as he’d hoped – not at all… 6. Guitar Girl (Short Story - 4K words) – a cover band at a beach bar invites a pretty girl with a guitar to play a set with them – having no idea who she really is…

    On the 25th anniversary of its launch into low-earth orbit, TASCHEN celebrates its most breathtaking deep space images both as scientific feats and as photographic masterpieces. Ultra high-resolution and taken with almost no background light, these pictures have answered some of the most compelling questions of time and space, while also revealing new mysteries, like the strange “dark energy” that sees the universe expanding at an ever-accelerated rate. In generous square format with several foldouts, the pictures mesmerize in their iridescent colors, intricate textures, and vast, fragile forms.The collection is accompanied by an essay from photography critic Owen Edwards and an interview with Zoltan Levay, who explains how the pictures are composed. Veteran Hubble astronauts Charles F. Bolden, Jr. and John Mace Grunsfeld also offer their insights on Hubble’s legacy and future space exploration.

    It is a lonely job, and a thankless one for the most part. Until something goes wrong. Until a ship is in distress. In the 23rd century, this job has moved into outer space. A network of beacons allows ships to travel across the Milky Way at many times the speed of light. These beacons are built to be robust. They never break down. They never fail. At least, they aren't supposed to.

    can't wait for the next one." From author, Mark Wayne McGinnis, who brought you the hit series, Scrapyard Ship and Tapped In, comes a new and exciting new science fiction saga and the rise of the most unlikely new hero. Seventeen-year-old Collin Frost, the kicker for the Lone Stars high school football team, was not enjoying the bus ride back to the school after a game that hadn’t gone so well. The ride was made worse for him when Bubba, the team’s defensive tackle, decided Collin should sit in the aisle instead of the seat next to him. That’s why when the bus pulled to a stop at a railway crossing in a small town in Middleton Texas, Collin didn’t actually see what the bus driver, the cheerleaders, and his teammates saw … a hovering, goliath-sized space ship. And here the journey of the Lone Star Renegades begins. Abducted into the belly of a sim rover collector ship, sent from a distant galaxy, the Lone Stars must find a way to survive long enough to escape their deathly confines. When that escape finally does come, the teenagers find themselves twenty-three light years from Earth and smack dap in the middle of an interstellar war. Young and irreverent, the Lone Stars must bargain with the Brotherhood forces for passage back to Earth—a bargain that would require them to complete a military basic training program and inevitably have them fight against Brotherhood's enemies for the duration of one year.

    Wizardry to take it past light speed. A crew to give it a soul.The Mobius is a cobbled-together ship with a matching crew. Captain Carl Ramsey is an ex-Earth Navy pilot whose crew won’t let him fly his own ship. The pilot is his ex-wife, the mechanic is a drunk, and the chief of security is from a predatory species. Instead of a star-drive to travel through the astral space between worlds, the ship’s wizard does it by hand.Mission 1: Salvage TroubleA salvage mission turns into a rescue, and no good deed goes unpunished. With two refugees onboard, the Mobius crew is hounded by bounty hunters, border partols, and corporate enforcers.Mission 2: A Smuggler’s Conscience“Don’t open the package.” It’s the smuggler’s credo for good reason. When the Mobius crew takes a peek at their illicit cargo, the entire job takes an about-face.Mission 3: Poets and PiracyThe Mobius crew gets caught in a turf war between a pirate fleet and a galactic criminal syndicate. The trick is getting everyone out alive (and maybe getting paid in the process).Mission 4: To Err is AzrinSometimes you can’t go home again. When a job takes the crew to their security chief’s homeworld, she gets dragged into a familial power struggle. Can the rest of the crew bail her out of an old feud gone horribly wrong?Bonus Short Story: Guardian of the Plundered Tomes (Black Ocean #4.5)Mordecai The Brown has been on the run from the Convocation for decades. How does a respectable wizard with a wife and two kids end up crisscrossing the galaxy in the company of outlaws?

    The first book is The Coming of the Prophet. A strange alien calling himself the Prophet has appeared in orbit above Earth and the planet’s most powerful weapons have proved useless against his ship’s defenses. To make matters worse, the Prophet tells mankind that Earth will soon be invaded and destroyed if the nations don’t learn how to live in peace and start building to meet the coming enemy. Failure to change humanity’s warlike ways will lead to its destruction. This Death Prophecy isn’t initially believed but when the Prophet starts sending a series of recordings of planets conquered by the Traugh, mankind is forced to reevaluate how to live together. The Death Prophecy appears to be real and inescapable. Humanity has never been able to live in peace and time is running out. Mankind turns to the only human the Prophet has declared sane but he refuses the role being forced on him. Will he make the difference? First, he has to believe he can. Excerpt: The Coming of the Prophet Col. Brighton looked up at the young officer standing at the door to his office, “Yes, Captain.” “I’ve received word from the head scientists operating the Mount Graham, Lick Observatory, Palomar, and the Hawaii Observatory that they have discovered something they feel we should be aware of. “What is that?” “Something located about three thousand miles above Earth in stationary orbit is blocking the view of stars behind it.” Col. Brighton stared at Captain Connor and his eyes narrowed, “I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying, Captain. Isn’t it impossible for something to remain in stationary orbit without being pulled in by Earth’s gravity?” “Whatever it is, Earth’s gravity is not having any effect on it.” Connor opened a folder and began laying photographic images on the Colonel’s desk. Tony looked at the images and shook his head slightly, “What am I looking for?” Essay took another folder and began placing other photos above each of the ones he first put on the desk, “The top row is what the sky looked like five months ago when the telescopes looked at that place above Earth. The bottom row is the same image taken over the last four months.” Tony looked from the top row to the bottom as he moved across the rows of images. He looked up and said, “There is a black shadow or something that is blocking the stars behind it in the bottom row of images.” Connor nodded. “What could be causing this?” Connor blew out a breath and said, “It’s not a natural phenomenon.” “Why not?” “It doesn’t reflect any light from the planet and it remains pitch black in every image. Something is blocking light from being reflected or coming through it.” “Have they been able to determine its size?” “Six hundred feet long and about a hundred feet wide.” Tony stared at Connor with wide eyes and stared at the two rows of pictures. He picked up the telephone on his desk. He pressed a three-digit code and after a moment started speaking, “Admiral, I have evidence that there is something above the planet that is a possible danger to us.” After a moment, Tony said, “I’ll be there momentarily. I’m bringing the officer that brought this information to me.” Tony hung up and said, “Let’s go.” Kam stared at his scanner’s images and leaned back in his command chair on the large Traugh Warship as he listened to the exchange.

    Thanks to advances in technology and clever new uses of existing data, now we know that planetary systems and possibly even a new Earth can be found throughout galaxies near and far.We are living during a new golden age of planetary discovery, with the prospect of finding many worlds like Earth. Most of the thousands of planets we've detected can't be imaged directly, but researchers are able to use subtle clues obtained in ingenious ways to assemble an astonishing picture of planetary systems far different from our own. We are in the midst of an astronomical revolution, comparable to the Copernican revolution that established our current view of the solar system - and we invite you to take part.Embark on this unrivaled adventure in 24 lectures by a veteran planet hunter. Designed for everyone from armchair explorers to serious skywatchers, The Search for Exoplanets follows the numerous twists and turns in the hunt for exoplanets - the false starts, the sudden breakthroughs, and the extraordinary discoveries. Explore systems containing super-Earths, mini-Neptunes, lava worlds, and even stranger worlds. You also get behind-the-scenes information on the techniques astronomers used to find evidence of planets at mind-boggling distances from our home base. Learn how astronomers determine how many planets are in a system as well as how large they are and the characteristics of their atmospheres. You will feel like Dr. Watson in the presence of Sherlock Holmes as Professor Winn extracts a wealth of information from a spectrum, a light graph, a diffraction pattern, and other subtle clues.©2015 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2015 The Great Courses

    Relive key moments in the monumental Hubble story, from launch through major new instrumentation to the promise of discoveries to come. With more than 150 photographs including Hubble All-Stars—the most famous of all the noteworthy images—The Hubble Cosmos shows how this telescope is revolutionizing our understanding of the universe.

    The advent of faster-than-light travel has opened up hundreds of habitable planets for colonization, and humans have exploited the virtually limitless space and resources for hundreds of years with impunity. So complacent have they become with the overabundance that armed conflict is a thing of the past, and their machines of war are obsolete and decrepit. What would happen if they were suddenly threatened by a terrifying new enemy? Would humanity fold and surrender, or would they return to their evolutionary roots and meet force with force? One ship—and one captain—will soon be faced with this very choice. Against incredible odds, Jackson Wolfe is determined to save humanity–and in the process, might end up saving himself.

    The captain tells a horrific story. Earth has been invaded, and the defensive fleets in orbit have been annihilated.For decades, humans have been exploring farther and farther away from Earth and Newton searching for signs of intelligent life. Now that intelligent life has found them and it comes as an invader.The enemy is ruthless, powerful, and has a disdain for human life. Admiral Vickers has his small fleet taskforce and is hopelessly outnumbered. However, even in darkness there is light and Admiral Vickers will do whatever is necessary to free Earth from the invaders, even if he has to travel to the worst hellhole in the galaxy to do it.

    . . and into the future. Each chapter builds the story of the universe piece by piece, highlighting groundbreaking discoveries in physics from the likes of Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Peter Higgs, with fun and enlightening sidebars throughout.

    J. Daugherty, author of NIGHT SCHOOLSix girls, six boys. Each in the two separate bays of a single spaceship. They have six minutes each week to seduce and to make their choices, under the unblinking eye of the on-board cameras. They are the contenders in the Genesis programme, the world's craziest speed-dating show ever, aimed at creating the first human colony on Mars.Leonor, an 18 year old orphan, is one of the chosen ones. She has signed up for glory.She has signed up for love.She has signed up for a one-way ticket.Even if the dream turns to a nightmare, it is too late for regrets.

    Commander Aden Pendar, son of a Hyrathian Duke. Poised to secure his own command and marriage to the queen’s daughter, he’ll stop at nothing to achieve his goals.But when the Alliance denies Hyrath’s claim on the planet of Kavil and declares war on their world, Aden finds his plans in disarray. Entrenched in battle and told he won’t make captain, Aden’s world begins to collapse. How will he salvage his career and future during Hyrath’s darkest hour?One chance remains–the Dragon. Lost many years prior, the legendary ship’s unique weapon is Hyrath’s only hope. Can Aden find the Dragon, save his people, and prove he’s capable of commanding his own ship?

    But among the talented men (and later women) who worked in mission control, the room located on the third floor of Building 30—at what is now Johnson Space Center—would become known by many as “The Cathedral.” These members of the space program were the brightest of their generations, making split-second decisions that determined the success or failure of a mission. The flight controllers, each supported by a staff of specialists, were the most visible part of the operation, running the missions, talking to the heavens, troubleshooting issues on board, and, ultimately, attempting to bring everyone safely back home. None of NASA’s storied accomplishments would have been possible without these people. Interviews with dozens of individuals who worked in the historic third-floor mission control room bring the compelling stories to life. Go, Flight! is a real-world reminder of where we have been and where we could go again given the right political and social climate.

    Lara Simmons can handle difficult surgeries on the battlefield of a war-torn planet. She can even handle her capture by rebels who need her skills to save the life of an important figure-head. But she wasn't prepared for being stuck out in the wilderness with Blade Vengeance, the fierce tattooed rebel warrior with antiquated views of gender roles and corporal punishment. Dominant and unyielding, he doesn't hesitate to take her in hand when she disobeys his rules. Yet he also delivers pleasure--with a passion she's never before experienced.Blade finds the doctor from Earth sexy as hell, especially when she's giving him attitude, but once he delivers her safely to headquarters, he pulls back from her allure. Known for single-handedly starting the revolution and freeing many of his people, his life is one of hardship, slavery and war. Going soft on a woman isn't part of his plan, especially with the final strike of the revolution so close. But when he sends Lara back to Earth to keep her safe during the upcoming battle, he inadvertently delivers her into enemy hands. Can he find and save her from the revolution he caused?Publishers Note: This power exchange story contains dominance and submission, spanking and explicit sex scenes. If such subject matter offends, do not buy this book.

    It is a sequel to the Escape to Earth Series and the first book is titled, Searching for Death Feeders. The war with the Legends is over and the Alliance is at peace. Eighty years have passed since Hensel confronted the Legends and brought the war to an end. However, he knows the Death Feeder he killed vowed that his species would one day come and exterminate his civilization. The Alliance doesn’t know what they’re up against and scouts have been sent out to find the scope and power of the Feeder Civilization. What is discovered is beyond anything Hensel imagined. Earth has been destroyed once and it appears it can happen again. The action starts and doesn’t relent; Earth and its Allies will see that the worst thing they can do is go out Searching for Death Feeders. Excerpt from: Searching for Death Feeders “What’s going on?” “The defenders have learned that the Feeder Warships’ plan is to fight their way in close to their ships where the Feeder will consume them. They’ve learned to stay out of the Feeder’s psychic range.” “Do you know how far that is?” “About five miles.” “So what’s going to happen?” “Look at your monitor, it’s about to happen.” Kyle turned to his panel and looked at the monitor. “Everyone get out now!” Rangor felt the warship jerk multiple times as the escape shuttles blasted out of the large landing bay. He watched one of the huge enemy warships turn in his direction and he started pressing button on his panel activating every laser, missile and bomb on board his ship. He turned his ship nose on to the oncoming enemy ship and set the auto-pilot to lock on the oncoming monster. He hit the thruster controls and jumped out of his chair and ran off the bridge toward the rear of the large ship. He sprinted at his fastest speed and heard the vacuum ports slamming behind him as he ran through them. He smiled as he felt his mind being invaded by a powerful telepath. Then, he stopped and turned back toward the bridge. But each of the ports would have to be opened manually and there was no way that would be done in time to stop what was happening. The Feeder jumped up out of his chair, “EVADE THAT SHIP!! IT’S GOING TO RAM US!!!” The Feeder hit the stardrive control and waited for it to surround the ship. The large green warship came flashing in at incredible speed and all the Feeder Warship could do was to turn broadside to the oncoming ship coming at it. The stardrive finally activated just after the defender’s warship hit the giant dead center. The explosion ripped out and the shockwave blew into the giant transport that was passing the exploded Feeder Ship. It penetrated the transport’s force field and blew into the transports landing bay, exploding every lander and all the weapons on board them. The transport went up like a giant firecracker. The surviving Feeder Warship disappeared as two of the defender ships flashed in on it. Visit us on Facebook at saxonandrewsuniverse@facebook.com or at our Website: www.saxonandrewsuniverse.com You can contact me directly at saxonandrew@msn.com

    November 2015 is the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s discovery of the General Theory of Relativity.Levenson, head of MIT’s Science Writing Program, tells the captivating, unusual, and nearly-forgotten backstory behind Einstein’s invention of the Theory of Relativity, which completely changed the course of science forever. For over 50 years before Einstein developed his theory, the world’s top astronomers spent countless hours and energy searching for a planet, which came to be named Vulcan, that had to exist, it was thought, given Isaac Newton’s theories of gravity. Indeed, in the two centuries since Newton’s death, his theory had essentially become accepted as fact. It took Einstein’s genius to realize the mystery of the missing planet wasn’t a problem of measurements or math but of Newton’s theory of gravity itself. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity proved that Vulcan did not and could not exist, and that the decades-long search for it had merely been a quirk of operating under the wrong set of assumptions about the universe. Thomas Levenson tells this unique story, one of the strangest episodes in the history of science, with elegant simplicity, fast-paced drama, and lively characters sure to capture the attention of a wide group of readers.

    Recognizing a once in a lifetime opportunity to make first contact, Alex pulls off a daring maneuver to latch on to the derelict.Alex discovers the ship was attacked by an unknown craft, the first of its kind ever encountered. The mysterious silver ship's attack was both instant and deadly.What enfolds is a story of the descendants of two Earth colony ships, with very different histories, meeting 700 years after their founding and uniting to defend humanity from the silver ships.

    No ship can traverse the void without them. Only linesmen can work with them. But only Ean Lambert hears their song. And everyone thinks he’s crazy…Most slum kids never go far, certainly not becoming a level-ten linesman like Ean. Even if he’s part of a small, and unethical, cartel, and the other linesmen disdain his self-taught methods, he’s certified and working.Then a mysterious alien ship is discovered at the edges of the galaxy. Each of the major galactic powers is desperate to be the first to uncover the ship’s secrets, but all they’ve learned is that it has the familiar lines of energy—and a defense system that, once triggered, annihilates everything in a 200 kilometer radius.The vessel threatens any linesman who dares to approach it, except Ean. His unique talents may be the key to understanding this alarming new force—and reconfiguring the relationship between humans and the ships that serve them, forever.

     Even with our modern technology, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis cannot be treated or cured. I've been bed or chair bound since I was a kid. The advent of Virtual Reality technology has given me a chance for a new life. Or rather dozens of them. Heh. I'm an avid gamer, and I wouldn't have it any other way. In the games I could be what I wanted to be, who I wanted to be. A mighty warrior, a powerful spellcaster, the charming rogue. The crafter. The builder. All of those and more have helped to greatly alleviated my problems. But a new game is coming out; one with the power to change the world. It uses a brand new technology, based around the first ever deep immersion Dive Pod. With it there is no more game lag or graphical limits. It is being heralded as the greatest breakthrough in Virtual Reality technologies since its founding. And the first and only game for it: Universe Online. No longer will players be stuck on a single large world to explore. No longer will there a limit to what you can do, what you can be. Fly spaceships between the stars, conquer planets, create custom technology. Mine, Build, Destroy. Explore. Rule. This is my story, and my path in Universe Online.

    It almost got her court martialed. Now it has gotten her a new command in an obscure sector, with orders to ignite a new front in the eternal war.But her old nemesis, Imperial Admiral Emmerich Wachturm, stands in her way.Worlds will fall before their feud ends, but only if she can forge her crew of strangers into a weapon. Otherwise, disaster looms.

    Space is a perennially fascinating subject for very young children who will love learning about spacecraft and exploration — whilst the rich vocabularly will be invaluable when they start learning to read.

    The weirdly alien notion of a space-time abyss from which nothing escapes—not even light—seemed to confound all logic. This engrossing book tells the story of the fierce black hole debates and the contributions of Einstein and Hawking and other leading thinkers who completely altered our view of the universe. Renowned science writer Marcia Bartusiak shows how the black hole helped revive Einstein’s greatest achievement, the general theory of relativity, after decades during which it had been pushed into the shadows. Not until astronomers discovered such surprising new phenomena as neutron stars and black holes did the once-sedate universe transform into an Einsteinian cosmos, filled with sources of titanic energy that can be understood only in the light of relativity. This book celebrates the hundredth anniversary of general relativity, uncovers how the black hole really got its name, and recounts the scientists’ frustrating, exhilarating, and at times humorous battles over the acceptance of one of history’s most dazzling ideas.

    On April 12, 1961, the USSR launched cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on a one-orbit flight, making him the first human in space. Three weeks later, American astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. flew 116 miles above Earth before splashing down in the Bahamas. Over the next twenty years astronauts emerged as national heroes.This book tells the story of the people and events of Projects Mercury and Gemini with hundreds of unpublished and rare photographs--both color and black-and-white. Unlike other publications, which illustrate the space race with well-known and easily accessible images, this history draws from the authors' private library of over one hundred thousand (and growing) high-quality photos of the early U.S. manned-space program. Collected over a lifetime from public and private sources--including NASA archives, fellow collectors, retired NASA and news photographers, and auction houses--the images document American space missions of the Cold War era more comprehensively than ever before. Devoting a chapter to each flight, the authors also include detailed descriptions, providing new insight into one of America's greatest triumphs.

    Perfect for the youngest astronomers.

    But someone wants to stop him from pursuing it. Meanwhile on Earth, a monk of the Citadel discovers a strange ancient artwork. Could it lead to truth of the myth of the Moon Men? Finding out the truth could kill him.

    When Deshryt Seht, blood prince of Skeldhor, saved the dying boy's life, it set off a contest of wills as strong as the call of their blood. Unfortunately Aubrey has one more secret that severs their relationship before it can truly begin. Though years and an ocean of stars separate the prince from the prisoner he saved, neither the prince nor the Moribund Company will let him escape. What was Lost will be found, winner take all.Victorious StarVictoria Stark is an Imperial Navigations Pilot known among the sentient battleships as the Victorious Star--for sacrificing her captains to save her ships. Strong-willed and resourceful, she has never lost a ship she's flown--and never serviced a captain she's had. Captain Ravnos of the Mercenary dreadnaught Hellsbreath rules his crew with an iron will. First Officer Seht is a skeldh iprince whose specialty is erotic discipline. They're on a mission, and in need of a nav-pilot.Kidnapped into service on the Hellsbreath, Victoria is caught between two very different men locked in their own private and erotic power struggle. And then there's the mission. The Moribund Company has captured the Imperial Dreadnaught Arcane, and intends to auction the sentient ship to the highest bidder. Unfortunately, Moribund himself is attending the auction and Ravnos is forced to remain onboard the Hellsbreath for Moribund has a personal vendetta against the handsome captain. It is up to Victoria and First Officer Seht to go deep undercover at the Mordred Space Station to rescue the Arcane. To complete the mission and return to her duties as an Imperial Officer, Victoria must become Prince Seht's rehkyt--a pet, literally and figuratively. Not allowed on the furniture and kept at the end of a leash, Victoria discovers that there are worse things than servicing your captain. Or are there?Fallen StarIsabeau Fallon, the “Fallen Star”, is one of the finest thieves on Dyson’s Ring station--until she’s caught by the Skeldhi hunter, Sobehk, who captures her and makes her a sex-pet. Trapped and altered into a skeldhi-human hybrid known as a rehkyt, her past is a closed door--until it literally comes back to haunt her in the form of a E’sey Khan. E'sey is a Skeldhi Lord Officer intent on taking Fallon, the Moribund Company’s prize code-cracker, away from Sobehk, the one man he ever loved, and making her his very own. Seemingly random accidents and hidden programs converge to prove that there is more going on than the capture of a not-so-simple thief. There is a conspiracy afoot...and the small thief from Dyson’s Ring station is in it up to her collared throat.Fortune’s StarIn the heart of the Imperial Stars, past and future collide, as ghosts converge in battle for a fortune-teller’s soul...on Port Destiny Station.Luxi Emery was perfectly happy with her position as the receptionist for Armored Media Corp. Then her hidden talent for seeing the future awakened--and exposed a black-mailing con-artist haunted by a malevolent ghost. It was a lose-lose situation, and Luxi had only a single shred of hope. Her future awaits on Port Destiny Station. A future intertwined with Amun, the handsome diplomatic telepath, and Leto, a ghost-haunted cyborg with very human carnal appetites. If they can resolve a few...intimate...details. Yet a darker future is chases Luxi: they are not alone, and Leto’s is not the only hungry ghost.Publisher's Note: All books in the Interstellar Service & Discipline series were previously released as individual stories but have been compiled into one volume.

    Descriptions of early operations include a harrowing account of the heroic efforts of pad workers during the Apollo 1 fire. A companion to the author’s book Countdown to a Moon Launch: Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey, this explores every facet of the facilities that served as the base for the Apollo/Saturn missions. Hundreds of illustrations complement the firsthand accounts of more than 70 Apollo program managers and engineers. The era of the Apollo/Saturn missions was perhaps the most exciting period in American space exploration history. Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center were buzzing with activity. Thousands of workers came to town to build the facilities and launch the missions needed to put an American on the Moon before the end of the decade. Work at KSC involved much more than just launching rockets. It was a place like none other on Earth. Technicians performed intricate operations, and hazards abounded everywhere, including lightning, fire, highly-toxic fuels, snakes, heat, explosives, LOX spills, and even plutonium. The reward for months of 7-day workweeks under intense pressure was witnessing a Saturn V at liftoff.For anyone who ever wished they had worked at Kennedy Space Center during the Apollo era, this book is the next best thing. The only thing missing is the smell of rocket fuel in the morning.

    In this image-packed book, kids will learn all about these objects hurtling through space—and into our atmosphere. This level 3 reader is written in an easy-to-grasp style to encourage the scientists and explorers of tomorrow!

    The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this landmark book, John Gribbin—one of the best-known science writers of the past thirty years—presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified “Theory of Everything” that combines these ideas into one mathematical package, a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt, containing the answer to life, the Universe, and everything. With his inimitable mixture of science, history, and biography, Gribbin shows how—despite skepticism among many physicists—these two great theories are very compatible, and point to a deep truth about the nature of our existence. The answer lies, intriguingly, with the age of the universe: 13.8 billion years.

    L. Pickering's extraordinary book of rare photographs from the Mercury and Gemini missions, the authors now present the rest of the Golden Age of US manned space flight with a photographic history of Project Apollo.Beginning in 1967, Moonshots and Snapshots of Project Apollo chronicles the program's twelve missions and its two follow-ons, Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The authors draw from rarely seen NASA, industry, and news media images, taking readers to the Moon, on months-long odysseys above Earth, and finally on the first international manned space flight in 1975.The book pairs many previously unpublished images from Pickering's unmatched collection of Cold War-era space photographs with extended captions--identifying many NASA, military, and contract workers and participants for the first time--to provide comprehensive background information about the exciting climax and conclusion of the Space Race.

    Astonishing images of Earth from above, the phenomena of our solar system, and the celestial bodies of deep space will captivate readers and photography lovers with an interest in science, astronomy, and the great beyond. Each extraordinary photograph from the legendary space agency is paired with explanatory text that contextualizes its place in the cosmic ballet of planets, stars, dust, and matter—from Earth's limb to solar flares, the Jellyfish Nebula to Pandora's Cluster. Featuring a preface by Bill Nye, this engaging volume offers up-close views of our remarkable cosmos, and sparks wonder at the marvels of Earth and space.

    The future of mankind, its ideological and technological advances are at stake, as the world's super powers race to discover what lies on the dark side of the moon.Who will get there first, and at what cost?*****Want to see the space race continue? Sign up for Salvador Mercer's newsletter and tell him to make it happen! Join Rock and his NASA crew on their journey to restore American Space Superiority.Direct link to sign up for Salvador Mercer's newsletter: http://eepurl.com/benueb

    Someone with his talents and training is not soon forgotten or left alone. Ten months of peace and quiet are about to come to an end, starting with a bar fight and a visit from a special operations officer with orders to bring him back into the fold. He swore he would never go back but when the opportunity came knocking in the form of a beautiful commanding officer he didn't think twice about signing up. With a slight twist, this time he would do things his way. Friend or foe they are all the same to him. **Warning** This book contains adult situations, violence to aliens and humans alike and foul language.

    Finally get to grips with these difficult concepts by reading Ben Gilliland's unique take on them.Science But Not As We Know It takes complex scientific ideas and breaks them down for the non-scientist, from explaining the size of the Universe, to how black holes work, Schroedinger's cat and the Higgs boson. Difficult ideas and theories are compared to everyday things we are familiar with - forces become armies and electrons have personalities.This book will have you saying 'I get it now!' over and over again. You no longer have to be a rocket scientist to understand rocket science.

    Part-robot, part-human. Even now, with our pacemakers, our holographic eyewear, our cybernetic limbs, it is difficult to deny that we are approaching an age when the line between humankind and machine is beginning to blur.In this latest title in the acclaimed Future Chronicles series of speculative fiction anthologies, twelve authors face the question: In the age of the cybernetic organism, in a world where electro-mechanical components are beginning to take the place of biological limbs, what is the measure of a man?The Cyborg Chronicles features stories by Hugo Award-winner Ken Liu (The Grace of Kings), USA Today bestselling author and Alfie Award-winner Annie Bellet (Twenty-Sided Sorceress) and ten more of today's top speculative fiction writers.

    An Exciting Middle Grade Series PETER BAKER has a dream of being the youngest boy scientist by producing his own documentary show called Dinosaur Planet (and getting famous). Which shouldn't be hard because his parents are dinosaur hunters, and he's been working on dinosaur digs ever since he can remember. But his plans get ruined when his father takes a job at a museum and his mother leaves for Africa. Now, he will not get to work on a dinosaur dig this summer, and must keep an eye on his younger sister every day, too. Then he meets Casey Tucker, and his zoologist aunt. Here is a boy whose responsibility is to entertain a monkey from NASA (vacationing at the zoo) for several hours a day. But Casey's secret mission is to search for a legendary scientist that went missing years before, while working on a classified space project. At first, it's only fun and games. But it isn't long before the friends discover... How dangerous some games really are.

    The Universe. Everything. The human race has always revealed an insatiable hunger to search "to infinity and beyond". In this truly mind-blowing book, partners in science Stuart Lowe and Chris North use cutting edge infographics to illuminate - in a new and unique way - the most amazing places and objects that modern science has laid bare. Featuring innovative, inspirational and original designs by leading authors in their field, COSMOS: THE INFOGRAPHIC BOOK OF SPACE delves into a truly international subject and will appeal to stargazers and space enthusiasts of all ages.Including the Big Bang itself, COSMOS: THE INFOGRAPHIC BOOK OF SPACE:Explores the secret lives of galaxies and starsExamines the thousand new planets now discovered beyond the Solar System, checking out their viability for alien lifeChronicles the incredible instruments and machines that are discovering the hidden secrets of the Universe, from 'telescopes' atop the highest mountains to robotic explorers on distant worlds...Investigates the astounding technology used by human and robotic explorers as they push out beyond the Moon to Mars - and on towards the stars...

    Their favorite game is hide and seek. But when the moon disappears one evening and cannot be found, Mae wonders what happened and begins to worry. Determined to find her glowing friend, Mae takes matters into her own hands and sets off on a wonderful and curious voyage through her imagination.This charming book, beautifullyillustrated in soft moonlit hues, will capture the hearts of moon gazers everywhere."

    In this fascinating book, hero-astronaut Buzz Aldrin challenges curious kids to think about Mars as not just a faraway red planet but as a possible future home for Earthlings! What will your new home be like? How will you get there? What will you eat for breakfast? Find out what life might be like far, far from Earth as you navigate your way through this fun and fascinating book. What kid wouldn't want to blast off with him on this (literary) journey!

    These colorful pictures have become infused into popular culture and can found everywhere, from advertising to television shows to memes. But they also invite questions: Is this what outer space really looks like? Are the colors real? And how do these images get from the stars to our screens?Coloring the Universe uses accessible language to describe how these giant telescopes work, what scientists learn with them, and how they are used to make color images. It talks about how otherwise un-seeable rays, such as radio waves, infrared light, X-rays, and gamma rays, are turned into recognizable colors. And it is filled with fantastic images taken in far-away pockets of the universe. Informative and beautiful, Coloring the Universe will give space fans of all levels an insider’s look at how scientists bring deep space into brilliant focus.

    It's making waves everywhere from mainstream media to the actual space flight industry, but it has a bit of a learning curve. In this book, five KSP nerds--including an astrophysicist--teach you everything you need to know to get a nation of tiny green people into space.KSP is incredibly realistic. When running your space program, you'll have to consider delta-V budgets, orbital mechanics, Hohmann transfers, and more. This book is perfect for video game players, simulation game players, Minecrafters, and amateur astronomers.Design, launch, and fly interplanetary rocketsCapture an asteroid and fly it into a parking orbitTravel to distant planets and plant a flagBuild a moon rover, and jump off a crater ridgeRescue a crew-mate trapped in deep space

    Includes the Valkyrie Chronicles books, Seventy Two Hours, and Titans. Valkyrie Chronicles: Seventy Two Hours Upon news of the destruction of the Ragnarok civilization by the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. The Valkyrie, Kara, and the combined races must prevent the same fate from befalling Folkvangr. The invention of the Bifrost may hold the key to Valhalla's survival. Secrets are revealed and unexpected friendships are formed. Valkyrie Chronicles: Titans The Valkyrie and the Asgard must contend with an adversary unlike any they have faced before. Kara comes up against an enemy she does not know how to confront. Her brute force fighting skills are useless against this new enemy, and she must match wits with the Titan leader in a battle of wills. Surprises abound and awkward alliances are formed.

    The laws of physics are about to change ...A tsunami on a space station.An explosion with no trace of the bomber.Cyber-security expert Sebastian knows evidence doesn’t magically disappear, yet when he and his colleague Aryx, a disabled ex-marine, travel the galaxy to find the cause, there seems to be no other explanation.Can they unravel the mystery before his family, home, and an entire race succumbs to an ancient foe?Synthesis:Weave by Rexx Deane (2018, second edition) was previously published as Synthesis:Weave by Deane Saunders-Stowe (2015)

    You'll hear yourself saying, "I get it now!" again and again as you explore the fun graphics and clear explanations in Rocket Science for the Rest of Us. Whether you want to impress your friends with your knowledge of quantum physics, finally know what a black hole actually is, or just learn more about the universe that's all around us, Rocket Science for the Rest of Us breaks it all down so science and physics are easy to understand. You're not a rocket scientist? So what! That doesn't mean you can't understand it!

    She has faced death on countless battlefields. Dealt with Palace intrigue. Gone toe to toe with damn near indestructible alien war machines. She has dealt with revolutionaries’ bent on destroying the Empire. All these things will be a walk in the park compared to the new assignment that the Emperor has given her. She must return to High School as the bodyguard of his daughter.Can she deal with the petty back stabbing ways of teenage girls? Can she keep her head when dealing with teachers who are apathetic in their handling of those girls? Can Maiha and her family stay out of trouble and still do the job the Emperor has commanded them to do? Is there any way for Maiha, Alice and their sisters to get a handle on all of this and still remain sane? All the while trying to learn the skills and knowledge they need to be true High Family Ladies. When everywhere they look they see a select few students running roughshod over the staff and fellow students. A group of High Families bullies that feel they have the right to do whatever they want.For Maiha Nakatoma the answer should be a simple one in her mind. Target the enemy and call for an artillery strike. Boom no more enemy target. Unfortunately for Maiha she cannot use her normal method of handling a problem. She must learn to use subtlety over the hammer and anvil approach to her problems. In short the Daughter of Death must learn how to be a Lady and act accordingly. Her days of being a commoner are over and now she must be what she has always hated. A member of the High Families. She may have been a First High Lord of the Death Dealers and now is the first true First High Lady of those feared military forces, but she has one problem that all her training has never prepared her for dealing with. The moods, and attitudes of teenage girls. All the while she has no idea of the forces that are slowly gaining power in both the Temples and criminal worlds. A plot to overthrow the Emperor and place a usurper on the Throne by using the girls of this school as political pawns. Young ladies that have been told their entire lives that their only future is to marry into another High Family to insure a greater power base for the family. What no one foresaw was the manipulation of those same young women by a criminal organization bent on nothing more than profit at the expense of others? Manipulated through drugs, prostitution, loan sharking, and so many other criminal vices that most of these young girls never saw the trap that has been laid out before them. Can Maiha uncover the plot before it is too late to save these young ladies and still protect the Princess Daniela as she attends the same school? The Revolution that Maiha had put down only months previously was just the tip of the iceberg of political unrest that has taken up residence in the Empire. More than a few of the High Families would love to take the Throne of the Empire from the Dan Family. However this is the normal politics of the Imperial Court. The threat to the Emperor and his family lies outside of the normal halls of power. In fact the greatest threat lies in a place that no one would look to as their loyalty has always been unquestioned. No the threat to the Empire comes from the Temples that are the spiritual and moral guides for the Empire. When the threat comes from the one place that should be without political gain in mind how do you defend against the threat? Who do you turn to when the very people that are there for guidance are the ones plotting against you?For Maiha Nakatoma, First High Lady of the Death Dealers, Head of House Nakatoma, and temporary Planetary Governor for Hades the answer is not a simple one.

    Before the Big Bang, there was a tiny fraction of a second during which a process called inflation expanded a seed much smaller than the nucleus of an atom into a fireball the size of a basketball -- the Big Bang itself. From this fireball, the Universe as we know it developed. The origin of the seed from which the Universe began is not known with certainty, but as John Gribbin explains the most likely explanation is that it was a fluctuation of quantum energy in an eternal sea of cosmic energy. And that means that other seeds must surely have inflated to become other universes, bubbles in the cosmic sea. It is even possible that a collision between our universe and another bubble on the sea of eternity may have left an imprint on the cosmic background radiation, the echo of the Big Bang itself. John Gribbin is an award winning science writer best known for his book In Search of Schrodinger's Cat. He studied astrophysics under Fred Hoyle in Cambridge, and is now a Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex.

    The two Voyager probes will continue to transmit details of discoveries beyond our solar system until at least 2020.

    When not writing or composing music, most of his days are spent beating the valley’s bounds, exploring its network of paths, streams and walls. Beyond the Fell Wall is a distillation of his thoughts and observations on this particular patch of land. It is a poetic enquiry into the inanimate life of a landscape – its unheard melodies and unseen movements. It considers both vast geological epochs and brief moments of intimacy, and in turn it asks us to consider sentience in all things – animal, vegetable and mineral. At its heart is the fell wall itself - a vast, serpentine entity. A vessel for the lives, voices and myths of the landscape. The dark heart about which all of life and death revolves.

    It was supposed to be a short run, but, between the pirates, a brewing civil war and her ex, she may never get to leave. Caden Carnes hadn't seen Ari in twelve years. Given their past, it wasn't exactly surprising. What was surprising was seeing her back on Taarken, the mining planet she'd abandoned along with her lover and her family. Her brother's mining hauler is missing and Caden asks for Ari's assistance and her ship to go find it. One discovery leads to another, until all the secrets are out. Caden and Ari don't have long to discover the most important thing in the universe; You can actually go home again.

    Join author Sandra Kynes on an exploration of the night sky, looking beyond the moon to using the energy of the constellations in magic in ways meaningful to twenty-first-century Pagans and Wiccans. Explore the history associated with each constellation and notable stars, as well as ways to engage them, with help from seventy illustrations and a variety of star maps.Organized around the Wheel of the Year, Star Magic lets you easily navigate chapters corresponding to both your current season and hemisphere. Discover the constellations of each season, from Virgo in spring to Aquarius in autumn, and dozens more. Use chakras, dream work, and astral travel to align with the stars and harness their power. With this comprehensive book's simple and straightforward methods, you'll reach a new level of magic and wonderment that is out of this world.

    Eicher's fascinating and spectacular exploration of the Cosmos. Featuring numerous color images including photos, maps and explanatory diagrams, he presents a series of celestial highlights ranging from our own solar system and galaxy to distant planetary systems and galaxies, and from the lives and deaths of stars to the overall composition and fate of the cosmos. Each chapter sets out the scientific history of a specific question or problem, before tracing the modern observations and evidence that helps answer or solve it. It will instil in you with a new sense of wonder at the amazing universe that we inhabit, simultaneously awakening both your humility as a cosmic speck of dust and your awe at our present understanding of the cosmos. This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in science, astronomy and space science.

    The perfect book for little ones who dream of being astronauts!

    This set includes: Orbs, Orbs II: Stranded, Orbs III: Redemption, and the White Sands and Red Sands short story prequels. While training for a manned mission to Mars, Dr. Sophie Winston and her team of scientists find themselves cut off from the rest of the world. Trapped inside a biosphere deep within the confines of Cheyenne Mountain, Sophie and crew discover they are the survivors of a brutal alien invasion. But as they struggle to stay alive, they realize their safe haven is far from safe and that they must team with other survivors around the world to defeat the aliens before it's too late for humanity, and the Earth.

    Everything about this part of Return of the Jedi made me want to DRAW and CREATE. This is a fan fiction comic I made in April, just because I love this scene and I love comics. I was originally going to only have this story in print with me at shows, but I want as many people to see it as possible. There’s a big part of me in these eleven pages, I hope you can see it.

    Today, both are safer than ever, thanks in part to one pioneering air force doctor’s research on seatbelts and ejection seats. The exploits of John Paul Stapp (1910–1999) come to thrilling life in this biography of a Renaissance man who was once blasted—faster than a .45 caliber bullet—across the desert in his Sonic Wind rocket sled, only to be slammed to a stop in barely a second. The experiment put him on the cover of Time magazine and allowed his swashbuckling team to gather the data needed to revolutionize automobile and aircraft design. But Stapp didn’t stop there. From the legendary high-altitude balloon tests that ensued to the ferocious battles for car safety legislation, Craig Ryan’s book is as much a history of America’s transition into the Jet Age as it is a biography of the man who got us there safely.

    Organized by the Royal Observatory, the photographs capture an astounding range of astronomical phenomena both within our solar system and far into deep space.The book features four sections: Earth and Space, Our Solar System, Deep Space, and Overall Winners. The images are from the first six years of the competition (2009-2014), and include all the winners from each year along with a carefully curated selection from the shortlists. They are accompanied by notes from the judges and photographer, with background information and camera specifications.From giant storm systems in Jupiter's atmosphere to the colorful, wispy remnants of a supernova explosion and the dazzling green curtain of the Northern Lights, Astronomy Photographer of the Year will appeal to both astrophotographers and beginners who simply enjoy gazing at the night sky.

    The Total Skywatcher’s Manual will help you choose the best telescope, identify constellations and objects in the night sky, search for extraterrestrial phenomena, plan star parties, capture beautiful space imagery and much more.With fully illustrated star charts, gorgeous astrophotography and step-by-step project instruction, this family friendly book is the only guide you’ll ever need to navigate the nightsky. Learn about the phases of the moon, how to conduct your own deep-sky observations, how the universe is expanding, our search for life on other planets, meteors vs. meteorites, sunspots and solar flares, best eclipse-viewing techniques—everything you need to know to appreciate the wonder of our universe. Based in San Francisco, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has a 125-year history of providing resources, tools, and information to astronomy enthusiasts, including amateur astronomers, families, and science educators (K-16). Join the ASP on this journey through the nightsky and beyond.

    Hopes were high that the long search for a second Earth was over. The Western Global Alliance had the means to get there, but first contact did not turn out as planned. The year is now 2063 and they must deal with the consequences of the ill-fated Gaia missions.Earth is under siege from the hostile alien fleet in orbit. They now dominate space and have the industrial muscle to maintain their hold. Their objective is clear and uncompromising: the conquest and subjugation of Earth. The inhumanity witnessed on Gaia is disturbing, and a taste of things to come if the invaders prevail.With humanity’s space forces wiped out, US President, Stephen Powell, must forge an alliance with the Outcasts – an alien race that has already felt the wrath of Earth’s tormentors. They are a culture so different from anything human eyes have ever witnessed. Can these disparate species work together to defeat the vastly superior foe? The Outcasts’ network of spies and sympathizers stretches from the mining colonies of the asteroid belt, to the space stations and settlements of Gaia. Can Jake Sorensen and his team of operatives infiltrate Gaia via the smuggling routes that exist? Do they have what it takes to carry out their crucial orders and survive the mission?The only strategic weapons left on Earth are a handful of nuclear subs, which escaped the orbital assault. The USS Esperanza is the latest generation of sub, a super-weapon of her time. Captain Nathan Carter and his crew must rise to meet the ultimate challenge and head off the enemy offensive before it’s too late. As the aggressor masses for a planetary invasion, can the malignant regime be brought to heel?In the gripping conclusion to 'The First Exoplanet', how can humanity survive the onslaught and stop Earth becoming a vassal world?Who will enjoy this novel?• Readers that enjoyed 'The First Exoplanet', the first part of this two-book series• Readers that like a complex, multi-thread plot• Readers that enjoy hard sci-fi with elements of military adventure and political & strategic planning

    Now, we've ventured into deep space and discovered a planet humans were never meant to find. When alien DNA from the long-dead planet is regenerated on one of our medical frigates, an ancient evil is awakened and the descent into madness begins. A cosmic horror inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. -------------------------- “Help us. We’ve gone too far...” When the military’s largest space fleet disappears with a single terrifying transmission, the best and brightest are recruited to find out what happened. Beka Grales, a young quantum entanglement expert whose only sister was stationed on the missing fleet, struggles along with her team to decipher their only clues: the encrypted memories of the lost soldiers. Meanwhile across the galaxy, two young twin girls awaken from visions of ghastly souls pleading for help. Night after night the girls are drawn deeper into their dreams as they communicate with these lost beings. As their mother, Cam Dowager, realizes the lost souls are connected to the missing fleet, she works frantically to hide the twins and their knowledge from the increasingly desperate military. Despite the military’s sole focus on recovering their ships, Beka and Cam begin to realize the horrifying truth…that the Fleet, and the creature that has taken control of it, must never be found again. This novel is the full compilation of the First Fleet Series by Stephen Case and includes: First Fleet 1: Bones First Fleet 2: Wake First Fleet 3: Descent First Fleet 4: Memory You can read First Fleet #1 - Bones for free! Download it on Amazon.com and if you enjoy it, come back to download the full book!

    Drawing in fans from across the Colonies, no other sporting event creates a bigger buzz than the annual two day tournament to crown a new Spark Form World Champion. Yet the scramble for the title is not the only source of conflict this year, and for some competitor’s the real battles will take place away from the TV cameras.What defines a person’s life and drives them to keep moving forward? When a game grows to reflect a society struggling to hang on, are some lives more valid than others? Can an AI ever truly be alive?Find out in Matt Doyle’s genre bending Slice of Life / Science Fiction series, The Spark Form Chronicles.

    She knew that she was witnessing the beginning of a new era for the human race. Would she play a part? Rhea Seddon was ten years old.As years went by, humans ventured off the planet and walked on the moon. The astronauts were men but she felt that would change. At Berkeley in the tumultuous late 1960s, in medical school and a surgery residency she learned that the world no longer belonged solely to males. When NASA announced a selection of new astronauts for the space shuttle program in 1977, she knew: this was her chance.As one of the first female astronauts in 1978 her quest for space began. But she would do this job her own way, blazing a new path for others to follow.Venturing into space on three spectacular missions, working on important projects for NASA, weathering the storm of Challenger, marrying a fellow astronaut, and bearing Astrotots, that child who looked skyward long ago is an inspiration to all who aim high to find their own orbit.

    This book explains the practical steps we need to take this century to make humans on Mars a reality. Missions to Mars will happen. Read this book. Spread the word. Make humans on Mars a reality! For years we've dreamed of sending people to Mars. With the emergence of disruptive new technologies from space companies and university researchers, it's now possible to design mission architectures that can send people to Mars and return them to Earth more safely and cheaply than ever before. This book outlines a practical and affordable plan for establishing a base on Mars for use by international crews over numerous missions, initiating a process of settlement and opening up a new world for human civilization, while simultaneously bringing together the nations of Earth in a noble and historic endeavor. In this remarkable new book, NASA's Design Reference Architecture is improved in a variety of ways by incorporating the latest space technologies, such as SpaceX Falcon rockets and Dragon capsules, and Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space habitats. Focusing on a single location saves money through reuse of hardware, and mechanical counter-pressure spacesuits provide many advantages including comfort, mobility, and zero prebreathing. Crews can then land on Mars in capsules, which is safer and cheaper, and permits predeployment of the surface habitat. This also saves money as a single habitat can be used for multiple missions, and allows time for obtaining air and water for the habitat from the local environment, which reduces the mass to transport from Earth. Mars Transfer Vehicles are made reusable, all the propellant for Mars ascent is manufactured from local resources, and a long-range pressurized surface vehicle greatly increases the explorable area around the base. An observation and communication satellite in areostationary orbit provides a stable, continuous link with Earth. Overall, these changes produce a much cheaper and safer mission architecture that delivers a superior result. Sharing the cost between the top 10 space agencies then makes it truly affordable. Any remaining hardware development can be achieved in less than 10 years of focused effort using current technology. Considerable thought and research have gone into this program, and if you study it in detail, you'll be convinced: here’s an authentic plan for initiating human exploration of Mars that will actually work. Read the book. Spread the word. Let's go to Mars. This Kind eBook version has full-color images.

    Neither was it a pioneer, coming after the heroic and pathfinding Mercury project. But whereas Mercury was derided as 'spam-in-a-can' and Apollo was a truck towing a lunar lander, the Gemini spacecraft was an agile flying machine for fighter pilots. Initially called the Mercury Mark II, it gave the United States the tool it needed to learn how to fly in space, and in so doing it prepared the country's space agency, NASA, to set off for the Moon.

    It can, however, be difficult to capture in a photograph, as it requires specialized techniques that are rarely used when shooting images during the day. Renowned photographer Grant Collier sheds light on how to capture these otherworldly images by sharing secrets he has learned over the past 12 years. He explains how to take photos of the Milky Way, northern lights, meteors, eclipses, lightning, and much more. Grant begins by reviewing equipment and supplies that are helpful when photographing at night. He then discusses many software programs, web sites, and mobile apps that will help you plan your shots. Finally, he offers extensive advice on how to capture and process images at night. He goes beyond the basics and teaches how to blend multiple exposures and create huge stitched images to capture incredibly detailed photos that you never before thought possible! Some of the topics covered include: - How to photograph the Milky Way, northern lights, eclipses, meteors, lightning, air glow, lava, and more! - What moon phases to shoot under. - Light painting the foreground and recommended flashlights. - Capturing star trails with both film and digital cameras. - Creating comet-like star trails. - Stitching huge images that can be printed very large. - Stacking images and blending multiple exposures to increase detail. - Focus stacking to increase depth of field. - Using an equatorial mount (or star tracker). - Enlarging star size to bring out constellations. - Minimizing noise, light pollution, and elongated stars in post-processing.

    Left Brains for the Right Stuff briefly summarizes the history of three technologies-rockets, navigation, and computers-and recounts how they were woven into the rise and rivalry of superpowers in the twentieth century. President John F. Kennedy inherited a small Space Race and transformed it into a Moon Race by creating the Apollo program (..". achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon ..."). To make it an "offer" the Soviet Union couldn't refuse, he added, "We choose to go to the moon ... not because [it is] easy, but because [it is] hard." Apollo won the Moon Race and, combined with the Space Shuttle, won the Space Race, which did much to win the Cold War and preserve the momentum of American leadership that had been created in World War II. Many big companies worked on those programs, and so did a small academic research laboratory. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Instrumentation Laboratory ("the Lab") was the creation of one man, Charles Stark "Doc" Draper, who invented inertial navigation. Author Hugh Blair-Smith was a staff engineer at the Lab from 1959 through 1981. Trained as an electronic engineer and computer scientist, his two-pronged expertise contributed to both the hardware of spacecraft computers and the programming that had to make the most of their limited resources. This is a history, an inside story, and a riveting account of the Space Race, studded with startling insights into causes and effects. In those exciting years, Blair-Smith joined many thousands of people in cooperating gladly, generously, and passionately to add electronic left brains to the Right Stuff. Their creations answered the long-sought quest for "a moral equivalent to war."

    Searching more for a learned appreciation of nature and our exact place within the cosmos than academic scientific knowledge, science and travel writer Jamie Carter takes the reader on a 12 month tour of the night sky's incredible annual rhythms that say so much about Earth. During the journey he learns about the celestial mechanics at work in the skies above that are - to the beginner - almost beyond belief. As well as the vital constellations and clusters, and the weird and wonderful nebulas, he searches out "dark sky destinations" across the globe that help increase knowledge and give a new perspective on familiar night sky sights. On the journey he witnesses a solar eclipse and grapples with star-charts, binoculars, smartphone apps, telescopes, spots satellites and attempts basic astro-photography. By year's end, the reader will be able to glance at the night sky from anywhere on the planet and tell what direction he or she is facing, what time it is, where all the planets are and even where the Galactic Center Point is.

    Others insisted the shuttle must take off. Lies, pressure, and faulty parts all played a terrible part in the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986. Through powerful narrative storytelling, follow the tales of people who experienced the tragedy firsthand. Perfect for Common Core studies of narrative nonfiction and exploring multiple accounts of an event.

    This is the story of what went on during those hectic six months.Countdown to a Moon Launch provides an in-depth look at the carefully choreographed workflow for an Apollo mission at KSC. Using the Apollo 11 mission as an example, readers will learn what went on day by day to transform partially completed stages and crates of parts into a ready-to-fly Saturn V. Firsthand accounts of launch pad accidents, near misses, suspected sabotage, and last-minute changes to hardware are told by more than 70 NASA employees and its contractors. A companion to Rocket Ranch, it includes many diagrams and photographs, some never before published, to illustrate all aspects of the process. NASA’s groundbreaking use of computers for testing and advanced management techniques are also covered in detail.This book will demystify the question of how NASA could build and launch Apollo missions using 1960s technology. You’ll discover that there was no magic involved – just an abundance of discipline, willpower, and creativity.

    These include plans and engineering drawings for Soyuz capsules and the space stations Salyut and Mir. Balashova acted as a consultant to the Buran programme, the Soviet counterpart to the American Space Shuttle. Striving for harmony and beauty, the architect strikes an emotional chord in the high-tech world of carrier rockets, laboratories and survival equipment. It is therefore due to Balashova‘s talent that a unique chapter has been added to Soviet architectural history: Architecture for Cosmonautics. Her exceptional achievements, including designs for medals and emblems, are still scarcely known today – even in Russia.

    Kennedy just over eight years earlier. It also raised the question 'What do you do next, after landing on the Moon?' It fell to President Richard M. Nixon to answer this question. After Apollo? Richard Nixon and the American Space Program traces in detail how Nixon and his associates went about developing their response.

    For Maiha Mana Nakatoma war is nothing new. Not for the girl who was, until just recently, 97 year old James J. Owens one of the 7 First High Lords of the Death Dealers. War and the suffering it brings is familiar territory. The High Families of Light, Daniels, and Moore have issued death threats against Maiha and her family. They have sent assassins to kill Maiha and her family in their sleep. These Houses have used spies, bribery, and coercion to infiltrate the House Nakatoma military. They have gone out of their way to bring down this once great House. After the brazen attack on Maiha’s family in broad daylight Maiha has brought down the full weight of the Empire to handle these rebels. But will 4 divisions of Death Dealers be enough to handle the rebellion or will she need even more military forces? Forces that she has no idea of where to get. Can Maiha truly face off against the military might of 7 of the Greatest High Families Houses? A military force that will outnumber her own by a factor of 7 to 1. The odds are not in House Nakatoma’s favor. But all of this is overshadowed by something her sister Fuyuko has been hiding from her. A secret so terrible that it takes everything in Maiha’s power to keep control. A secret that could very well send her own House Military on a revenge inspired killing spree. This is a problem that Maiha must face and deal with before it gets out and she loses control of her House Military. While the Emperor has dispatched his Hunters to bring the other members of the rebel Houses to justice. Maiha has been given an Imperial order to stop the rebellion on Hades. A rebellion that can have Empire wide consequences. This rebellion threatens the very foundations of the Empire. Will Maiha have the time to train her family in the use of their new abilities as Second Generation Death Dealers or will Houses Light, Moor, and Daniels force her hand? Already the three Houses are moving to stop her and her forces. The three Houses have gathered more than just their own Military Forces to attack the Nakatoma’s. To add to Maiha’s problems there is the upcoming marriage of her adopted mother the Lady Dai Etsu. Her growing feelings for a certain APS Pilot Sargent Alice Ann Wendell and her growing confusion over her own sexuality. Will the now young again James Owens find love again once more in this new life? Will she forget about her first true love Matsu Nakatoma Owens or will the new young lady move on with her life? How will the fiery hellion face all these new challenges? One thing is for certain she won’t run away and hide. No that is not the way James Owens would handle a problem, and despite the behavioral program that drives so much of her life now, Maiha doesn’t run either. Maiha maybe the only successful secondary configuration in the history of the Death Dealers, but she is still at the very core of her being a Death Dealer. On over a thousand worlds, across countless battlefields their battle cry has been heard. These are men who do not back down and do not retreat. At the back of her mind Maiha hears this cry sounding over and over “By our hands death is dealt”. For the most feared of Death Dealers the man they called Death, there can be only one solution. Victory or death. However that man is no longer among the living. He and his legend has been laid to rest in the Nakatoma Family Shrine. Maiha, maybe the Head of House for her family, but she still looks like an innocent teenage girl. Can Maiha live up to the legend that is already starting to form around her? Can she show the Universe that Maiha Nakatoma is ‘Deaths Own Daughter’?

    Taking in 440 sextillion kilometres of space and 13.8 billion years of time, it is physically impossible to make a better map: we will never see the early universe in more detail. On the one hand, such a view is the apotheosis of modern cosmology, on the other, it threatens to undermine almost everything we hold cosmologically sacrosanct. The map contains anomalies that challenge our understanding of the universe. It will force us to revisit what is known and what is unknown, to construct a new model of our universe. This is the first book to address what will be an epoch-defining scientific paradigm shift. Stuart Clark will ask if Newton's famous laws of gravity need to be rewritten; if dark matter and dark energy are just celestial phantoms? Can we ever know what happened before the Big Bang? What’s at the bottom of a black hole? Are there universes beyond our own? Does time exist? Are the once immutable laws of physics changing?

    From deep space. Emanating from a rocky planet orbiting a star similar to our sun. It broadcasts for mere seconds before terminating, but within those seconds is buried a tantalizing and familiar message.Rae Francis was only a little girl when Earth’s telescopes detected The Signal for the first time. A year later, when the same message returned, it set into motion a worldwide series of events which would come to define virtually every aspect of Rae’s life from that point forth.She wants to know what’s out there. She wants to know who. If it happens in her lifetime, she wants to go, no matter the cost. Will she get her chance? Will she play her part in helping to finally answer once and for all the greatest question ever posed?Are we alone?

    This book shows how easy it is to understand space flight and orbital mechanics. In this book you'll learn how gravitational and centripetal forces cancel to enable orbits. You'll learn how orbits are classified and how to do orbital transfers. You'll even learn to do space mission design for interplanetary missions. Finally, you'll lean how to simulate orbits on your computer. You'll be surprised how easy it really is. With this book you also get the author's computer code for simulating orbits.

    

    It also explains the origin and operating record of satellite launchers around the world. Rocket motors large and small are listed and explained, including small motors used to push satellites and spacecraft into different orbits, throttleable rockets for controlling spacecraft descending to the Moon and the surfaces of other planets, restartable motors for adjusting orbits and reusable motors such as those developed for the Shuttle.

    Today this low profile network, or "invisible college," has grown into a larger, multi-nation volunteer research effort joined by many individuals.Dr. Jacques Vallee began his professional life as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in 1961. He arrived in the U.S. in 1962 and worked in astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin before receiving a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University. He became a close associate of J. Allen Hynek, then scientific consultant for the U.S. Air Force on Project Blue Book. Other books by Vallee include Dimensions, Confrontations, and Revelations.

    Complex facts about space are reinterpreted as stylish infographics that astonish, amuse, and inform. Researched by the Guardian’s Datablog expert and illustrated by New York Times designer Jennifer Daniel, this is a book of the highest pedigree.

    It’s a marathon and a team marathon at that. Even if you’re the fastest, sometimes you have to turn around and come back to help the slower ones. If you show them you care about the team, about them, then you’re all running the same race. That’s when you’ll really see what they can do.” The clandestine war between the Xen Empire and the Terillian Confederation continues. The Dark Zone—officially called the Neutral Quadrant—is littered with the bodies of countless soldiers from both sides. It is into this wasteland that Lieutenant Emily Martin and her crew set out on a recon mission to investigate a planet they suspect contains an illegal Terillian base. Why have the Terillians violated the Peace Accords, and what are they so desperate to protect? It doesn’t take them long, however, to run into a squad of Terillian fighters. Outmatched and outgunned, Lieutenant Martin and her crew make a desperate gamble for survival, aiming their ruined ship for a crash landing at the planet below. There the fight for survival takes a vicious turn. It’s not only the Terillians and the inhospitable ecosystem of the planet that Lieutenant Martin must defeat, but also dissent from within her own ranks. Her superior officer has no combat skills and her crew questions Emily’s own leadership—skills both her men and her superior officers report are sorely lacking. With the odds this stacked against her, how can Lieutenant Martin ever possibly survive, much less uncover what the Terillians are hiding? Lieutenant Emily Martin didn’t become the only female officer ever in the Elite Guard because she thought it would be easy, but this battle could easily prove to be her last.