Diario di un'apprendista astronauta


Samantha Cristoforetti - 2018
    And I will fall asleep in space.' In space the sun rises and sets 16 times a day. You fly over every sea, every mountain and desert, every city and every port. The most ordinary things - eating, sleeping, brushing your teeth or cutting your hair - have to be relearned, until they become familiar again. This is the story of Samantha Cristoforetti's incredible journey to becoming an astronaut and her journey beyond Earth. Her voyage as an apprentice astronaut began when she was in her early 30s: five years of intense training around the world, from Houston to Japan to the legendary Star City in Russia. Countless hours spent in centrifuges, spaceship simulators and under water for spacewalk practice. Then, one day, a rocket was waiting for her on the launch pad. And after eight minutes of wild ascent, she was on orbit, crunched up with her two crewmates in a tiny spaceship that took them to the International Space Station. With honesty and warmth, Cristoforetti chronicles the 200 days she spent on the ISS, the joys and challenges of being in an extraordinary place, from the sublime sight of seeing Earth for the first time to more unusual concerns, such as mastering the art of floating. How do you find your bearings when there is no up and down? What is it like to run in weightlessness? And how do you cook in space? This is an enthralling, inspiring and surprisingly down-to-earth story about what it really takes to pursue your dreams.

Fear the Sky


Stephen Moss - 2014
    Years before they enter orbit, their approach will be announced by the flare of a thousand flames in the sky, their ships’ huge engines burning hard to slow them from the vast speeds needed to cross interstellar space. These foreboding lights will shine in our night sky like new stars, getting ever brighter until they outshine even the sun, casting ominous shadows and banishing the night until they suddenly blink out. Their technology is vastly superior to ours, and they know they cannot possibly lose the coming conflict. But they, like us, have found no answer to the destructive force of the atom, and they have no intention of facing the onslaught of our primitive nuclear arsenal, or the devastation it would wreak on the planet they crave. So they have flung out an advanced party in front of them, hidden within one of the countless asteroids randomly roaming the void. They do not want us, they want our planet. Their Agents are arriving.

Apollo: The Race To The Moon


Charles Murray - 1989
    It is a book for those who were part of Apollo and want to recapture the experience and for those of a new generation who want to know how it was done. It is an opinion shared by many Apollo veterans. Republished in 2004 with a new Foreword by the authors.

Getting Started with MATLAB 7: A Quick Introduction for Scientists and Engineers


Rudra Pratap - 2005
    Its broad appeal lies in its interactive environment with hundreds of built-in functions for technical computation, graphics, and animation. In addition, it provides easy extensibility with its own high-level programming language. Enhanced by fun and appealing illustrations, Getting Started with MATLAB 7: A Quick Introduction for Scientists and Engineers employs a casual, accessible writing style that shows users how to enjoy using MATLAB.

C++ Programming: From Problem Analysis to Program Design


D.S. Malik - 2002
    Best-selling author D.S. Malik employs a student-focused approach, using complete programming examples to teach introductory programming concepts. This third edition has been enhanced to further demonstrate the use of OOD methodology, to introduce sorting algorithms (bubble sort and insertion sort), and to present additional material on abstract classes. In addition, the exercise sets at the end of each chapter have been expanded, and now contain several calculus and engineering-related exercises. Finally, all programs have been written, compiled, and quality-assurance tested with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET, available as an optional compiler with this text.

Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission


Eileen M. Collins - 2021
    She was in the first class of women to earn pilot’s wings at Vance Air Force Base and was their first female instructor pilot. She was only the second woman admitted to the Air Force’s elite Test Pilot Program at Edwards Air Force Base. NASA had such confidence in her skills as a leader and pilot that she was entrusted to command the first shuttle mission after the Columbia disaster, returning the US to spaceflight after a two-year hiatus. Since retiring from the Air Force and NASA, she has served on numerous corporate boards and is an inspirational speaker about space exploration and leadership.Eileen Collins is among the most recognized and admired women in the world, yet this is the first time she has told her story in a book. It is a story not only of achievement and overcoming obstacles but of profound personal transformation. The shy, quiet child of an alcoholic father and struggling single mother, who grew up in modest circumstances and was an unremarkable student, she had few prospects when she graduated from high school, but she changed her life to pursue her secret dream of becoming an astronaut. She shares her leadership and life lessons throughout the book with the aim of inspiring and passing on her legacy to a new generation.

The 8088 and 8086 Microprocessors: Programming, Interfacing, Software, Hardware, and Applications


Walter A. Triebel - 1991
    This volume offers thorough, balanced, and practical coverage of both software and hardware topics. Develops basic concepts using the 8088 and 8086 microprocessors, but the 32-bit version of the 80x86 family is also discussed. Examines how to assemble, run, and debug programs, and how to build, test, and troubleshoot interface circuits. Provides detailed coverage of floating-point processing and the single instruction multiple data (DIMD) processing capability of the advanced Pentium processor. Includes added material on number systems, logic functions and operations, conversion between number systems, and addition/subtraction of binary numbers. Includes new advanced material such as floating Point Architecture and Instructions, Multimedia (MMX) Architecture and Instructions, and the hardware and hardware architecture of the Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 processors. Covers the Intel architecture microprocessor families: 8088, 8086, 80286, 80386, 80486, and the latest Pentium(R) processors. Illustrates commands of the DEBUG program and how to assemble, disassemble, load, save, execute, and debug programs on the IBM PC. Introduces the contents of the 8088's instruction set. Explores practical implementation techniques, covering the use of latches, transceivers, buffers, and programmable logic devices in the memory and I/O interfaces of the microcomputer system. A valuable handbook for self-study in learning microprocessors, for electrical engineers, electronic technicians, and all computer programmers.

The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here


Hope Jahren - 2020
    A Vintage Original.Hope Jahren is an award-winning geobiologist, a brilliant writer, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. The Story of More is her impassioned open letter to humanity as we stand at the crossroads of survival and extinction. Jahren celebrates the long history of our enterprising spirit--which has tamed wild crops, cured diseases, and sent us to the moon--but also shows how that spirit has created excesses that are quickly warming our planet to dangerous levels. In short, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions--from electric power to large-scale farming and automobiles--that, even as they help us, release untenable amounts of carbon dioxide. She explains the current and projected consequences of greenhouse gases--from superstorms to rising sea levels--and the science-based tools that could help us fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of warming and a capsule history of human development, The Story of More illuminates the link between our consumption habits and our endangered earth, showing us how we can use less and share more. It is the essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it.

The Race: The Complete True Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon


James Schefter - 1999
    Like Undaunted Courage and D-Day, this is a tale of achieving the extraordinary against extraordinary odds.  As incredible as the "official" story of the space program is, the true, behind-the-scenes tale is more thrilling, more entertaining, and ultimately more ennobling.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Simple Techniques to Instantly Overcome Depression, Relieve Anxiety, and Rewire Your Brain


Olivia Telford - 2020
    How you see yourself and the world shapes your entire life.To achieve the relationship, career, and lifestyle of your dreams, you need to understand how the human mind really works. That’s where Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) comes in. It’s a simple but brilliant approach that will show you exactly how your thoughts rule your life.Millions of people have used CBT to retrain their brains. You can join them today.In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, you will discover exactly what you need to do to get over depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems. You will learn how to reinvent yourself, handle everything life throws your way, and find true happiness. It’s safe, drug free, and scientifically proven to work. Using powerful exercises you can do at any time and place, you can choose a brighter future. You will discover: Why your actions, thoughts, and feelings are intertwined The real reasons you feel depressed How to conquer panic attacks and worry How to release regret and shame forever How to break free from intrusive thoughts and obsessive behavior How to supercharge your communication skills and build better relationships And much, much more YOU HAVE A CHOICE.Will you choose to stay stuck in the same old, familiar thought patterns that keep making your life hell? After all, that’s what most people do. It’s called the “comfort zone” for a reason!Or are you brave enough to take a long, hard look at yourself and retrain your brain for the better? Do you dare make the leap, take back your destiny, and live your best life?Click the link below to view the book on Amazon!https://amzn.to/2KMxYpK

How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler


Ryan North - 2018
    . . and then broke? How would you survive? Could you improve on humanity's original timeline? And how hard would it be to domesticate a giant wombat? With this book as your guide, you'll survive--and thrive--in any period in Earth's history. Bestselling author and time-travel enthusiast Ryan North shows you how to invent all the modern conveniences we take for granted--from first principles. This illustrated manual contains all the science, engineering, art, philosophy, facts, and figures required for even the most clueless time traveler to build a civilization from the ground up. Deeply researched, irreverent, and significantly more fun than being eaten by a saber-toothed tiger, How to Invent Everything will make you smarter, more competent, and completely prepared to become the most important and influential person ever.

American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race


Douglas Brinkley - 2019
    Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon.“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. KennedyOn May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America’s success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth’s orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley’s ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson.A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.

First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong


James R. Hansen - 2005
    Armstrong become the first person to step on the surface of another heavenly body. Perhaps no words in human history became better known than those few he uttered at that historic moment. In a penetrating exploration of American hero worship, Hansen addresses the complex legacy of the First Man, as an astronaut and an individual.

A Fire Upon the Deep


Vernor Vinge - 1992
    A Fire upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale.Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

The Victorian Internet


Tom Standage - 1998
    Generations of innovators tried and failed to develop speedier messaging devices. But in the mid-1800s, a few extraordinary pioneers at last succeeded. Their invention--the electric telegraph--shrank the world more quickly than ever before.A colorful tale of scientific discovery and technological cunning, The Victorian Internet tells the story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it. By 1865 telegraph cables spanned continents and oceans, revolutionizing the ways countries dealt with one another. The telegraph gave rise to creative business practices and new forms of crime. Romances blossomed over the wires. Secret codes were devised by some users, and cracked by others. The benefits of the network were relentlessly hyped by its advocates and dismissed by its skeptics. And attitudes toward everything from news gathering to war had to be completely rethought. The telegraph unleashed the greatest revolution in communications since the development of the printing press. Its saga offers many parallels to that of the Internet in our own time--and is a fascinating episode in the history of technology.