Note from the Editors: This issue’s lead article is the tenth in a series of reports describing the history and current activities of the planetary research facilities funded by NASA and located nationwide. This issue features the Deep Space Network, a worldwide network of spacecraft communication facilities that supports NASA’s interplanetary spacecraft missions. — Paul […] (read more…)
When I last wrote in April, the conversation around COVID-19 was still relatively fresh and raw. Four months later, it is obvious that the detriments of the virus have the potential to be severe, wide reaching, and long lasting. Although COVID-19 continues to dominate much of our attention, work at NASA and in planetary science […] (read more…)
Arcade Publishing, 2020, 448 pp., Hardcover. $27.99. www.skyhorsepublishing.com From The War of the Worlds to The Martian and to the amazing photographs sent back by the robotic rovers Curiosity and Opportunity, Mars has excited our imaginations as the most likely other habitat for life in the solar system. Now the Red Planet is coming under scrutiny as never before. As […] (read
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Springer, 2020, 389 pp., Hardcover. $69.99. www.springer.com This textbook applies basic, one-variable calculus to analyze the motion both of planets in their orbits as well as interplanetary spacecraft in their trajectories. The remarkable spacecraft missions to the inner and outermost reaches of our solar system have been one of the greatest success stories of modern […] (read
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