Mission Jupiter: The Spectacular Journey of the Galileo Spacecraft

by Daniel Fischer

Book Overview

Mission Jupiter brings us the exciting story of the Galileo mission to investigate Jupiter. The noted astronomer Daniel Fischer, co-author of Hubble: A New Window to the Universe and Hubble Revisited: New Images from the Discovery Machine, takes us behind the scenes to present the mission's background, the problems it encountered early on and how these were resolved. Fischer then weaves together the many disparate facts learned about Jupiter and its...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0387987649
• ISBN13: 9780387987644
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Copernicus Books
• Length: 317 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Full of technical detail and hard science...

A must-read for any Jupiterphile. Fischer presents an in-depth look at the science behind the Galileo mission to Jupiter. From the history behind the probe, going all the way back to the 1970's, to the budget cutting, to the eventual launch and failure of the high-gain antenna. It's all covered in this volume, with exquisite detail and enough science content to take you well beyond the press releases. Highly recommended!

A planetary system inside a planetary system.

An interesting look at the space program from a non-american source, that gives the reader a text free of the usual "national" chauvinism (and a little bit a German-centric comments!).But, most of all, it's an excellent source of information about the Galileo probe, from its 1970 original concepts to its long-delayed launch (which makes you wonder if NASA really cares about science). You will also find an excellent (and, of course, premature) synthesis of what we thought we knew about Jupiter and its moons, and what we think we now know...Even though this english edition has been revised since the original 1998 German release, especially about Europa, you can expect most of its scientific content to be outdated in a few years from now... but, no, you shouldn't wait for another book, because the Viking probes, 25 years after their mission, are still giving up some secrets about Mars. So you can expect a few decades of data mining before having exhausted the information locked up in the Galileo database.Enjoy your trip!

Good, But Not For The Casual Reader

For planetary astronomy fans, the book is great: chock full of pictures and engineering detail. (The slipcover is also lovely -- I wish I had it as a poster!) The writing is workmanlike and shows that the author's first language is not English, but it does the job. For the casual reader, though, the technical detail may be too much.One gripe: the paper is a glossy bond that smudges and holds fingerprints something awful. This would have been fine for the photo pages, but *all* the pages are like that.All in all, a good book and a much-needed addition to any space-lover's bookshelf.