A Tribble's Guide to Space: How to Get to Space and What to Do When You Are There

by Alan C. Tribble

Book Overview

Space--the final frontier. It's as little as fifty miles away, and yet it is considered one of the most dangerous and remote of places. Popular television shows such as Star Trek and movies such as Apollo 13 and October Sky have fired the imaginations of would-be explorers. Alan Tribble has worked on the design and development of dozens of spacecraft, including the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. A Tribble's Guide to Space is a...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691050597
• ISBN13: 9780691050591
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

easy and entertaining read

My husband bought me this book for my birthday, we are both engineers for NASA, and I truly appreciated the clear and concise way that Mr. Tribble presented the material. This is a great book for non-technical and technical people alike. A very pleasant, entertaing and informative read.

"Spaceflight for dummies" (not an insult!)

Tribble parlays his name into an entertaining, lightweight overview of the history of space exploration and the basics of spaceflight science and engineering. I didn't find it too enlightening, but someone with limited prior knowledge about the subject would likely find it helpful.I have my usual quibbles: Apollo 17 wasn't the first mission to depict the liftoff of the lunar module, just the most successful. And Tribble reports two "urban legends" as fact, one being the story that HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey was a deliberate one-upmanship on IBM (go back one letter in the alphabet for "IBM" to see what I mean), something Arthur C. Clarke denies. But as usual those are trivial. Overall, Tribble provides a clear, if basic, explanation of the key issues of space flight, and I didn't detect any errors in the core of his presentation.Recommended for those looking for a basic introduction to space flight.

An Engaging Introduction to Issues of Spacefaring

_A Tribble's Guide to Space (How to Get to Space and What to do When You're There)_ is a succinctly and entertainingly written introduction to the core issues of manned and unmanned spaceflight, playing off the well- known technologies and plot devices of the Star Trek series. Author Alan Tribble, a Real Rocket Scientist, conveys to his reader what the main issues are, why they are issues in the first place, and what needs to be considered in addressing those issues. He does thiswithout scrutinizing any of his topics to the point of tedium. His discussion of orbits is a good example of how a topic progresses: he describes what an orbit is, gives something of the history and personalities involved in the development of our understanding of the physics of orbits, what it takes to get into orbit, why that depends on where you start from, and what the implications of all those things are. His discussion of orbits provides a useful vehicle for illuminating digressions on gravity, the history of rocketry, current launch vehicles and power sources, Trek power sources, and both real and fictional interplanetary and interstellar travel times. Along the way he uses examples from 20th century space endeavors, as well comparisons to Trek Mythology, to concretize these ideas. And that's all in Chapter 2! The remaining chapters are similarly rich in content, without being daunting, overburdened, or unduly academic, and cover the full spectrum of topics including the space environment, the uses of space, and manned and unmanned spacecraft design. Altogether, Tribble has produced an engaging volume appropriate for those seeking an introduction to the real core issues of manned and unmanned spaceflight. The book is most appropriate for the average intelligent (i.e., not adverse to thinking) person of high school age or greater, although I certainly would not hesitate to give a copy to an interested and motivated junior high student. One can only hope that this book will be well enough received to induce Tribble to write further on popular topics in the physical sciences.

No Trouble with Tribble!

Tribble's book is wonderful. It describes the many challenges that engineers have faced, and overcome, in getting humans into space; it also explains some of the truly fascinating questions that are now being answered because scientists have access to space-based laboratories.It's superb reading, as Tribble not only discusses real-world science and engineering, he also mentions classic movies like 2001, October Sky, and - of course - Star Trek.If you're at all interested in space, go buy a copy.

Best Science Book I've Ever Read

This book is destined to be a classic -- right up there with "The Tao of Physics" and "A Brief History of Time." Once I started, I could hardly put it down. My only regret is that the book got me so excited about the final frontier but I can't get there -- at least not for a while. But one thing I can do is share the book with my children, since I'm certain it's a lot more interesting than what they're reading in school. If you are a parent, I can think of no better Birthday, Christmas, or Hannukah gift for you to give your child than "Alan Tribble's Guide to Space!"