Manfred "Dutch" von Ehrenfried

This is the comprehensive story of NASA’s pioneering Mars 2020 mission, which at this moment continues to break ground on the surface of the Red Planet.The book takes readers through every stage of the Mars mission, describing its major goals and objectives, the cutting-edge technology and instrumentation onboard the Perseverance rover and other spacecraft components, and the members of the scientific team who steered the mission along the way. Mars 2020 is the first to actually take samples of the Red Planet and prepare them for subsequent return to Earth. The chapters therefore delve into how and why Jezero Crater was selected as the optimal landing and sample collecting site to meet the mission objectives. Featuring dozens of high-resolution images of the mission, this book gives readers a deeper understanding of the technology underlying Mars 2020 and why its work is so important for planetary science and space exploration.

Stratospheric balloons are powerful tools used to study the Earth and its atmosphere, as well as the greater cosmos beyond. This book describes the science and technology behind modern stratospheric ballooning, along with the surprising ways it has impacted our daily lives.The book takes you through every step of the process, starting with an in-depth introduction to basic balloon types and their uses before delving into balloon construction and mission planning. Along the way, you will learn about the novel technologies that have radically changed these balloons and their ability to launch, control and navigate them over specific ground targets. Next follows an exploration of their incredible applications, including research in atmospheric science, cosmology and astronomy, earth studies, meteorology, and aerobiology, and also commercial capabilities such as Internet networks and high-altitude tourism.The community of scientists,engineers, and entrepreneurs involved in stratospheric ballooning is only ever growing. This book shows you how these national and international efforts have truly soared in recent years, and it will be an enjoyable read for anybody interested in learning more about how science and commerce are conducted in the stratosphere, at the edge of space.

This book describes the future of the Artemis Lunar Program from the years 2017 to about 2030. Despite the uncertainty of the times and the present state of space exploration, it is likely that what is presented in this book will actually happen, to one degree or another. As history has taught us, predictions are often difficult, but one can see enough into the future to be somewhat accurate. As the Bible says, “Wesee thru the glass, but darkly.”All of the elements of the proposed program are described from several perspectives: NASA’s, the commercial space industry and our International partners. Also included are descriptions of the many vehicles, habitats, landers, payloads and experiments. The book tells the story of the buildup of a very small space station in a strange new lunar orbit and the descent of payloads and humans, including the first women and next man, to the lunar surface with the intent to evolve a sustained presence over time.

This book explores the practicality of using the existing subsurface geology on the Moon and Mars for protection against radiation, thermal extremes, micrometeorites and dust storms rather than building surface habitats at great expense at least for those first few missions. It encourages NASA to plan a precursor mission using this concept and employ a “Short Stay” Opposition Class mission to Mars as the first mission rather than the “Long Stay” concept requiring a mission that is too long, too dangerous and too costly for man’s first missions to Mars.Included in these pages is a short history on the uses of caves by early humans over great periods of time. It then describes the ongoing efforts to research caves, pits, tunnels, lava tubes, skylights and the associated technologies that pertain to potential lunar and Mars exploration and habitation. It describes evidence for existing caves and lava tubes on both the Moon and Mars. The work of noted scientists, technologists and roboticists are referenced and described. This ongoing work is moreextensive than one would think and is directly applicable to longer term habitation and exploration of the Moon and Mars. Emphasis is also given to the operational aspects of working and living in lunar and Martian caves and lava tubes.

This book describes the history of this now iconic room which represents America’s space program during the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and early Space Shuttle eras. It is now a National Historic Landmark and is being restored to a level which represents the day the flight control teams walked out after the last lunar landing missions. The book is dedicated to the estimated 3,000 men and women who supported the flights and tells the story from their perspective. It describes the rooms of people supporting this control center; those rooms of engineers, analysts and scientists most people never knew about. Some called it a “shrine” and some called it a “cathedral.” Now it will be restored to its former glory and soon thousands will be able to view the place where America flew to the moon.