Space Invaders: How Robotic Spacecraft Explore the Solar System Book

Preface     xi
Introduction     1
From the Ground Up     3
Rockets and Satellites     4
To the Moon     15
Humans versus Robots     18
A Space Robot is Born     23
Scientific Conception     25
Proving Technology     33
The Political Push     36
Paper Spacecraft     38
It's Just a Phase I'm Going Through     48
Anatomy of a Space Probe     53
Bits and Pieces     55
Power     57
Communication     65
Structures     70
Thermal Control     73
Attitude Control     77
Propulsion     86
Data Handling     89
Mechanisms     93
The Kidnap of Luna 1     95
Building and Testing     97
The Spacecraft Garage     97
Keep it Clean     100
Planetary Protection     102
Shake, Rattle 'n' Roll     108
Shaken, not stirred     110
Canned space     112
Antenna testing     112
Special cases     113
Breaking the software     114
Instruments of Science     115
The More we Learn, the More we Don't Know     116
Let's get Physical     118
It's All in the Data     121
Many Eyes     122
Visible light instruments     123
There is more than meets the eye     126
Messenger's Instruments     129
Roving Around     132
Diving through an Atmosphere     140
Primeval soup     142
Going down     142
Launch     149
On the Road     149
Spaceports     150
Preparing for Launch     153
Up and Away     156
Rockets     159
Orbits     162
Distant Destinations     167
To the Moon     170
The first visits     170
Preparing for Apollo     172
Robot rovers     175
Modern missions     176
A new Moon     177
Unromantic Venus     179
Greenhouse nightmare     179
Into the unknown     180
Magellan     186
Venus Express     189
Mars     190
Stumbling toward Mars     192
Viking invasion     193
Disaster strikes     195
Return to the red planet     196
Mercury, a Scorched Planet     202
Giant Jupiter     204
Saturn     210
The Outer Giants: Uranus and Neptune     217
The Sun     218
Asteroids and Comets, the Building Blocks of the Solar System     223
Attack from outer space     223
Thawing ice balls     229
Never Finished     235
Death of a Spacecraft     237
Down to Earth     238
In a Blaze of Glory     240
Saving SOHO     243
Hope is Lost     245
Near Eros     246
A Bright Future     249
Faster, Better and Cheaper?     251
Going Commercial     252
Future Launchers     256
Solar Sailing     262
Nuclear Energy     265
Working Together     266
Going for a Walk     267
Flying     270
Microbots     272
Beyond the Solar System     276
Only Just Beginning     281
Glossary      285
Bibliography     297
Index     305