from: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc
Discount Price: $24.95
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 629
EAN num: 9781896522999
ISBN number: 1896522998
Label: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc
Manufacturer: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 128
Printing Date: June 01, 2003
Publishing house: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc
Sale Popularity Level: 752923
Studio: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generation Space Ships is a collection of impressive papers which were presented at the American Association fot the Advancement of Science symposium of the same name, held in Boston, Massachusetts on February 15, 2002.
Considered are not only the technical issues, which are formidable, but also the social and 'human' issues that will impact (and perhaps be impacted by) mankind's excursions to other star systems.
The questions of whether we should be embarking upon interstellar journeys, and when, have been debated for decades. Many people are in favor of it simply because they are 'pro-space' and their arguments are more a matter of passion than defensible technological and social facts. There are those, however, who more than make up for the rest in terms of justifying the pursuit of interstellar flight.
Some of the contributors to this volume have made names for themselves as science fiction writers, but before they were writers they were accomplished and respected scientists. They and their colleagues have given us much to consider in this volume with its comprehensive assessment of our ability and our reasons for going to the stars.
These are the facts - presented by some of the top names in the field.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
A very interesting book and a fascinating subject. I enjoyed reading this book. My only complaint is that it wasn't long enough. There isn't a lot out there on realistic interstellar travel and I wish the book had had an extensive bibliography on the subject. Well worth checking out for anyone interested in interstellar travel.
Rated by buyers 
-
This book brings together papers delivered at an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium in 2002. Several presentations address physics and engineering solutions to the problem of interstellar flight, with an emphasis on propulsion concepts. Others address social, cultural, psychological, and genetic dimensions of "generation ships" in which human societies would exist within large vehicles during voyages lasting hundreds of years. The final paper, by physicist Freeman Dyson, suggests that life and intelligence might exist on the icy bodies of the outer solar system.
The quality is very uneven. The science and technology-based papers are the most useful, though many of these ideas have appeared elsewhere. The philosophical commentaries are not very original. This topic deserves a more thorough study, written as a unified whole.
THIS REPLACES A TEXT THAT CONTAINED ONE WORD ERROR
Rated by buyers -
This book brings together papers delivered at an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium in 2002. Several presentations address physics and engineering solutions to the problem of interplanetary flight, with an emphasis on propulsion concepts. Others address social, cultural, psychological, and genetic dimensions of "generation ships" in which human societies would exist within large vehicles during voyages lasting hundreds of years. The final paper, by physicist Freeman Dyson, suggests that life and intelligence might exist on the icy bodies of the outer solar system.
The quality is very uneven. The science and technology-based papers are the most useful, though many of these ideas have appeared elsewhere. The philosophical commentaries are not very original. This topic deserves a more thorough study, written as a unified whole.
Rated by buyers 
-
Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generational Space Ships is a collection of speeches presented at some obscure symposium that lasted a single day.
As a result, this book lacks the continuity one would expect from a real book and is full of repetitions. The speeches themselves are only a few pages in length so no concept is really developed. There isn't much breadth or variety either. The speeches usually are either a "motivational" sermons or a focus on a propulsion scheme. However, there is about fifteen pages devoted to necessary genetic variation in the small population of an interstellar crew.
You will have plenty of back-of-the-envelope calculations involving some rather fanciful concepts. One had a 560 kiloton lens 1,000 km wide and a 43 quadrillion watt earthbound laser. Absent in these ideas were hindrances such as interstellar debris, radiation, navigation, etc.
I thought that serious study had gone into the idea of interstellar travel. It is apparent that the work involved is little more than intellectual doodling done during semester breaks or between class lectures.
After reading this book, I have gained little sense of the feasibility of traveling to the stars.
Rated by buyers -
This remarkable AAAS symposium represents the present best thinking of the best minds of this generation on what is arguably the single most urgent question facing our species. ("How shall we outlast our star?") Dr. Kondo and his associates combine impressive scientific and technical expertise with extraordinary prose skills to explain in clear simple terms why we must go to the stars, how we'll probably go about it, and some of the ways doing so may change us. It is of incalculable value to anyone interested in the future of the human race.
Find other books like this one:
