Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier (49 page)

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Authors: Neil deGrasse Tyson,Avis Lang

BOOK: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
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electromagnetic spectrum, 90

Embraer, 73

Endeavour space shuttle, 160–61

Energy, Department of, US, 12

ENIAC, 213

Environmental Protection Agency, 225

ethanol, 158

ethyl alcohol, 92

Europa, 40, 129, 169, 201, 209, 212

European Space Agency, 7, 138–39, 166

European Union, xiv, 127, 226

evolution, 40, 205

religion and, 205

Evolutionary Xenon Thruster, 170

exobiology, 36

exoplanets, 32

biomarkers on, 30–31

search for, 28–30

expenditures,
see
budgets; NASA, budget of

Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, 169

Explorer I satellite, 126

extraterrestrial life, 33–41, 325

chemical composition of, 35–36

Copernican principle and, 34, 36

Drake equation and, 40–41

in Gupta–author interview, 42–44

Hawking’s view of, 42–43

Hollywood portrayals of, 35–38

human self-perception and, 41

intelligence of, 36–39

liquid water and, 39–40

probability of, 33–34

search for, 41, 325

stable orbits and, 40

television signals and, 178

water and, 39–40

eyewitness testimony, 183–84, 204

Fall of Moondust, A
(Clarke), 175

Faubus, Orval, 124

Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer, 304–5

Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, 269

Ferguson, James, 254

Fisher Pen Company, 194
n

flight, 107–11, 216

ballistic missiles and, 110–11

early attitudes toward, 216–17

firsts in, 110, 216–17

sound barrier and, 109

V-2 rocket and, 110–11

Wright brothers and, 109–10, 216–17

flybys, 157

Foch, Ferdinand, 217

formaldehyde, 92

fossil fuels, 30

France, xiv, 7

Freedom 7 spacecraft, 114

free fall, 119

friction, 152, 155

Friedman, Louis, 193

From the Earth to the Moon
(Verne), 170

Fukushima Daiichi disaster, 168

Futurist, The,
218

Gagarin, Yuri, 73, 79, 113–14, 122, 192

galaxies, 32, 91, 98

black holes in, 142

elements in, 239–40

expansion of universe and, 98, 100–101

orbits of stars of, 115

Galef, Julia, 75–83

Galileo Galilei, 85–86, 97, 147, 169, 213, 225

Galileo navigation system, 208

Galileo space probe, 198

gamma rays, 71, 90, 94, 129, 139

Ganymede, 169

Garbedian, H. Gordon, 110

Garver, Lori B., 146

Gates, Bill, 136

wealth of, 229–30

Gemini program, 7, 162

General Accounting Office, 320

General Dynamics, 236

Genesis mission, 138, 176

Germany, xiv, 7, 200

Ghazali, Al- (theologian), 206

Glenn, John, 5, 10, 66, 146, 193

Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, 168

global warming, 58

Gnedin, Oleg, 194

Goddard, Robert H., 95, 153, 192

Goddard Memorial Dinner, 203–4

Goddard Space Flight Center, 140

Good Morning America
(TV show), 232

Gott, J. Richard, 83, 194

gravitation, universal law of, 65, 192

gravitational waves, 94

gravity:

and discovery of Uranus, 247–48

Lagrangian points and, 172–74

Pioneer Anomaly and, 245, 248–51

Great Barrier Reef, 231

Great Britain, 110

Great Wall of China, 87, 207, 233

greenhouse effect, 39–40, 201, 227

Gregory, Fred, 221

Grissom, Gus, 66

Gulf War of 1991, 27

Gupta, Sanjay, 42–44

Haldane, Richard Burdon, 217

Hawking, Stephen, 42–43, 83, 257

Hayden Planetarium, xiii, 67, 75, 111, 134, 194, 249, 256

Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids,
51

Hearst Castle, 87–88

heat shield, 156

Helios-B (solar probe), 195

helium, 31, 36, 101, 240

Henson, Carolyn, 175

Henson, Keith, 175

Herschel, William, 247

Hertz, Heinrich, 90

Hewish, Anthony, 29

Higher Education Act of 1965, 327

High Frontier, The: Human Colonies in Space
(O’Neill), 175

History of the Conquest of Peru
(Prescott), 196–97

Hornet, USS, 5

House of Representatives, US, 4–5

and appointments to Commission on Future of Aerospace Industry, 316–17

Appropriations Committee of, 321, 329

Committee on Science and Astronautics of, 272, 288, 321, 323, 324, 329

Hubble, Edwin, 101

Hubble Space Telescope, 5, 68, 72, 73–74, 82, 135, 139, 175, 198, 210, 212, 228, 239

age of universe and, 142

cost of, 80

images returned by, 141–42

repair missions to, 23, 135–36, 142–43, 147

scientific legacy of, 142

humans, 30, 49, 103

DNA of, 240–41

intelligence of, 240–41

universe within, 241

Human Space Flight Innovative Technologies program, 324

Huygens probe, 138–39

hydrogen, 31, 35–36, 91, 158, 240, 258

in Sun, 101

hydrogen cyanide, 92

IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun), 167

Independence Day
(film), 38, 43

India, xiv, 22, 23, 49, 127, 226

Industrial Revolution, 95, 253

infrared light, 90, 92–93, 129

in-space propulsion, 170

Integral satellite, 139

intelligence, 36–39, 257

Intelligent Design movement, 204–5

International Federation of Aeronautics, 23

International Space Station (ISS), xiii, 6–7, 10, 13, 15, 25–26, 72, 76, 116, 119, 161, 167, 218, 228

commercialization management of, 323

contingency funding of, 321–22

contingency plan for, 319–23

launch costs of, 320–21

operational costs of, 320

research on, 322–23

Internet, 141

In the Shadow of the Moon
(film), 5

Io, 169

ion-thruster engines, 164

Iran, xiv, 23

Islam, 206

“island universes,” 98–100

Israel, 23

Italy, xiv, 7, 72

Jackson, Michael, 203

James Webb Space Telescope, 139, 143, 176

Jansky, Karl, 90–91

Japan, xiv, 7, 22, 168, 215

atomic bombing of, 50, 95–96

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), 167

Jarvis, Greg, 243

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 13, 130, 131, 248–49, 324

Jobs, Steve, 136

John F. Kennedy, USS, 5

Johnson, Lyndon B., 66–67, 124

Johnson Space Center, 8, 220

Journey to Inspire, Innovate, and Discover, A: Moon, Mars and Beyond,
146

Jupiter, 32, 33, 37, 40, 46, 52, 85, 88, 102, 112, 115, 117, 128, 157, 201, 245, 246

slingshot effect and, 119–20

Jupiter-C rocket, 126

Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), 169–70

Kazakhstan, 121, 123

Kelvin, Lord, 108

Kennedy, John F., 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 79, 136, 219, 225

“Moon” speech of, 13, 79, 148–49, 191–92

Kennedy Space Center, 14–15, 16, 140, 145, 161, 220, 229

Kepler, Johannes, 115

Kinsella, Gary, 249–50

Korea, Republic of (South Korea), xiv

Korean War, 149

Korolev, Sergei, 123–24, 126

Kubrick, Stanley, 128–29

Kuiper Belt, 168, 245

Kuwait, 27

Lagrange, Joseph-Louis, 173, 176

Lagrangian points, 72, 145, 173–76

gravity and, 172–74

launches from, 177

libration paths and, 174

NASA satellites and, 176

Laika (dog), 122

Langley, Samuel P., 216–17

Laplace, Pierre-Simon de, 117–18

Large Hadron Collider, 80, 82

lasers, 167

Lauer, Matt, 210–11

Launching Science,
169–70

Leno, Jay, 144–45

Le Verrier, Urbain-Jean-Joseph, 248

L5 Society, 175

life:

chemical components of, 35–36

diversity of, 34–35

extinction episodes of, 49

extraterrestrial,
see
extraterrestrial life

on Mars, 48, 259

search for, 41, 325

light, 30, 90, 93, 258

speed of, 109, 164, 195

LightSail-1, 167

Lindbergh, Charles, 110

Lindsay, John, 67

Lockheed Martin, 236

Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, 23

long-period comets, 46–47

Lovell, Jim, 112

low Earth orbit (LEO), 113

Luna 9 rover, 70

Luna 13 rover, 70

Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, 149–50

Lunar Orbiter spacecraft, 149

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), 150

MacHale, Des, 234

Madonna, 203

Magellan, Ferdinand, 95, 96

Major Mysteries of Science
(Garbedian), 110

Manhattan Project, 80

many-body problem, 117–18

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