Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World BeyondIn 1958, mankind's centuries-long flirtation with space flight became a torrid love affair. For a decade, tens of millions of people were enraptured -- first, by the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon, and finally, as America outstripped its rival, by Project Apollo alone. It is now more than three decades since the last man walked on the moon...more time than between the first moonwalk and the beginning of World War II. Apollo did not, as had been promised by a generation of visionaries, herald the beginning of the Space Age, but its end. Or did it? Project Apollo, like a cannonball, reached its apogee and returned to earth, but the trajectory of that return was complex. America's atmosphere -- its economic, scientific, and cultural atmosphere -- made for a very complicated reentry that produced many solutions to the trajectory problem. Rocket Dreams is about those solutions...about the places where the space program landed. In Rocket Dreams, an extraordinarily talented young writer named Marina Benjamin will take you on a journey to those landing sites. A visit with retired astronauts at a celebrity autograph show is a starting point down the divergent paths taken by the pioneers, including Edgar Mitchell, founder of the "church" of Noëtic Sciences. Roswell, New Mexico is a landing site of a different order, the "magnetic north" of UFO belief in the United States -- a belief that began its most dramatic growth precisely at the time that the path of the space program began its descent. In the vernacular, the third law of motion states that what goes up, must come down. Thus the tremendous motive force that energized the space program didn't just vanish; it was conserved and transformed, making bestsellers out of fantasy literature, spawning Gaia, and giving symbolism to the environmental movement. Everything from the pop cultural boom in ufology to the worldwide Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) feeds on the energy given off by America's leap toward space. Rocket Dreams is an eloquent tour of this Apollo-scarred landscape. It is also an introduction to some of the most fascinating characters imaginable: Some long dead, like the crackpot visionary Alfred Lawson, who saw in space flight a new stage of human evolution ("Alti-Man"), or Robert Goddard, the father of rocketry, whose workshop in Roswell stands only half a mile from shops selling posters of alien visitors. Others are very much alive -- like Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog and partner with Gerard O'Neill in the drive to build free-floating space colonies, and SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, who has spent decades listening to the skies, hoping for the first contact with another intelligent species. Perceptive, original, and wonderfully written, informed by history, science, and an acute knowledge of popular culture, Rocket Dreams is a brilliant book by a remarkable talent. |
Avis des internautes - Rédiger un commentaire
Les avis ne sont pas validés, mais Google recherche et supprime les faux contenus lorsqu'ils sont identifiés
ROCKET DREAMS: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond
Avis d'utilisateur - KirkusWhatever happened to those dreams, wonders freelance journalist Benjamin, those "utopian, escapist, and conquistadorial hopes" once fueled by the American space program?When the exigencies of politics ... Consulter l'avis complet
Rocket dreams: how the space age shaped our vision of a world beyond
Avis d'utilisateur - Not Available - Book VerdictThe Space Age of the 1960s never lived up to its aspirations. Ever since the manned exploration of space beyond Earth's orbit ended abruptly with the Apollo moon missions, disappointed people have ... Consulter l'avis complet
Table des matières
The Skys the Limit | 7 |
One Small Step | 28 |
Forever Roswell | 69 |
Space for Rent | 105 |
Aliens on Your Desktop | 144 |
Ground Control to MajorTom | 174 |
Works Consulted | 217 |
231 | |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of a World Beyond Marina Benjamin Affichage d'extraits - 2004 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
alien American Apollo appeared astronauts astronomers become began believe better building called Center civilizations claims collective colonies cosmic course cyberspace designed developed dreams Earth eventually example existence experience exploration fact feel find first followed Force frontier future hand head hope human idea intelligence interest kind known land later launch least living looked managed mankind Mars means mind mission Moon move NASA nature never O’Neill offered once perhaps Physics Pioneer planet Press processing radio rocket Roswell running Sagan scientists seemed sense SETI SETI@home signal Space Age spirit stars story talk things thought tion took town turn universe users virtual vision wanted whole York