Farquhar, Robert W. (Author)
An autobiographical account of one man's 50-year career in creating, selling, designing, and implementing deep-space missions. The book tells the story of how the author was able to achieve several important space "firsts" despite difficult technical, management, and programmatic hurdles. These firsts include the following: -First libration-point mission, ISEE-3 (1978) -First exploration of Earth's distant magnetotail, ISEE-3 (1983) -First comet encounter, ICE (1985) -First asteroid orbiter, NEAR Shoemaker (2000) -First landing on an asteroid, NEAR Shoemaker (2001) -First orbiter of Mercury, MESSENGER (2011) -First flyby of Pluto/Charon, New Horizons (2015) At the beginning of his career, the author was motivated by a driving ambition to design and implement the first mission to a libration point. This aspiration resulted in the placement of the ISEE-3 spacecraft into a "halo orbit" around the Sun-Earth L1 libration point. By successfully demonstrating the utility and practicality of libration-point orbits, ISEE-3 prepared the way for a number of follow-on missions including SOHO, ACE, MAP, Genesis, Herschel/Planck, and JWST. The author's advocacy of libration-point staging for human missions to the Moon and beyond is also discussed. The author also had a special interest in comets and asteroids. This interest led to several proposals for missions to these small bodies----some flown, others not. The NEAR Shoemaker mission to the asteroid Eros is described in some detail. Others mentioned include missions to Halley's comet, the ICE flyby of comet Giacobini-Zinner, a U.S.- Japanese proposal for a comet sample-return, the CONTOUR multi-comet flyby mission, and the Stardust-NExT flyby of comet Tempel-1.
...MoreDescription Autobiographical account technical and organizational work on deep-space missions.
Review Smith, Robert W. (2012) Review of "Fifty Years on the Space Frontier: Halo Orbits, Comets, Asteroids, and More". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 803-804).
Book
Collins, Martin J.;
(2007)
After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age
(/isis/citation/CBB001032663/)
Book
Valerie Olson;
(2018)
Into the Extreme: U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics beyond Earth
(/isis/citation/CBB041821305/)
Book
Neufeld, Michael J.;
(2013)
Spacefarers: Images of Astronauts and Cosmonauts in the Heroic Era of Spaceflight
(/isis/citation/CBB001201283/)
Book
Ansari, Anousheh;
Hickam, Homer H.;
(2010)
My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer
(/isis/citation/CBB001032642/)
Book
Worden, Al;
French, Francis;
(2011)
Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey
(/isis/citation/CBB001032666/)
Book
Dubbs, Chris;
Paat-Dahlstrom, Emeline;
(2011)
Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight
(/isis/citation/CBB001212136/)
Chapter
Wright, Rebecca;
Larsen, William A.;
Johnson, Sandra;
Ross-Nazzal, Jennifer;
(2010)
The NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project
(/isis/citation/CBB001232473/)
Chapter
Henry, Holly;
Taylor, Amanda;
(2009)
Re-Thinking Apollo: Envisioning Environmentalism in Space
(/isis/citation/CBB001032640/)
Article
Neufeld, Michael J.;
(2014)
First Mission to Pluto: Policy, Politics, Science, and Technology in the Origins of New Horizons, 1989--2003
(/isis/citation/CBB001201042/)
Book
Bizony, Piers;
(2011)
The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of NASA's First Space Plane
(/isis/citation/CBB001213775/)
Book
Erickson, Lance K.;
(2010)
Space Flight: History, Technology, and Operations
(/isis/citation/CBB001020909/)
Book
Stafford, Thomas P.;
Cassutt, Michael;
(2002)
We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race
(/isis/citation/CBB000302347/)
Chapter
Sage, Daniel;
(2009)
Giant Leaps and Forgotten Steps: NASA and the Performance of Gender
(/isis/citation/CBB001032637/)
Book
Heiken, Grant;
Jones, Eric;
(2007)
On the Moon: The Apollo Journals
(/isis/citation/CBB001032670/)
Book
Makemson, Harlen;
(2009)
Media, NASA, and America's Quest for the Moon
(/isis/citation/CBB001032644/)
Book
Tsiao, Sunny;
(2008)
“Read You Loud and Clear!”: The Story of NASA's Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network
(/isis/citation/CBB001032649/)
Book
Harland, David;
(2010)
Apollo 12: On the Ocean of Storms
(/isis/citation/CBB001032668/)
Book
Blair, Don;
(2010)
Splashdown! NASA, the Navy, and Spaceflight Recovery
(/isis/citation/CBB001033130/)
Book
David N. Spires;
(2021)
Assured Access: A History of the United States Air Force Space Launch Enterprise, 1945-2020
(/isis/citation/CBB078667094/)
Article
Griswold, Robert L.;
(2012)
“Russian Blonde in Space”: Soviet Women in the American Imagination, 1950--1965
(/isis/citation/CBB001320683/)
Be the first to comment!