The Depths of Space: The Story of the Pioneer Interplanetary Probes

by Mark Wolverton

The first spacecraft to explore the secrets of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and the void beyond Pluto, the Pioneer space probes have been the trailblazers of the space age, truly going where no man has... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0309090504
• ISBN13: 9780309090506
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
• Length: 249 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

An excellent book for the curious non-engineer

"The Depths of Space" by Mark Wolverton includes all the details for those of us who weren't born or were too young to know when these remarkable spacecraft began their journeys. Mr. Wolverton's tale shows the politics and competition between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Ames Research Center in the early days of spaceflight primarily through the stories of Pioneers 10 and 11, though without neglecting the other flights of the Pioneer series. For those interested in the history of NASA and spaceflight, this book is an excellent place to start. The Pioneer series of flights racked up a long list of "firsts", not to mention blazing the trail for JPL's Voyagers in the 1970's and 1980's. Pioneers 10 and 11 got there first, scouting ahead for the much more celebrated Voyagers a decade later. Mr. Wolverton's book is a solid first step in remembering the often overlooked and forgotten Pioneers.

Wonderful book on an interesting topic

The Pioneer missions were important milestones in the exploration of space. The book is a nice, concise and well-written history of the Pioneer program, from the early and unsuccessful probes flown by the military in the immediate post-Sputnik era to the trail-blazing missions to Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. All of the book was interesting, but I thought that the story of how Ames Research Center got involved in deep space exploration, the maneuvering to get access to the Deep Space Network, and the continued gathering of data from Pioneers 10 and 11 long after their primary missions ended to be particularly interesting and never before told. I wish that the book had been a little longer, with some more detail about the spacecraft and their scientific findings. Also the meager selection of small black and white photos is inadequate. But those are minor points and this book is a must-have if the subject interests you.

Nice book, emphasizing the human factor

This is a great book on NASA's Pioneer project (not only the well-known - though already half-forgotten - Pioneer 10 and 11 missions to Jupiter and Saturn, but the whole series, including the highly successful 1978 mission to Venus). Very well written and researched, by a very talented young author, who's definitely in love with his subject. As the foreword of astronomer James van Allen states correctly, this book is first of all `a tale of human achievement', i.e. the emphasis of this book is very much on the project as such and on the people that made it possible (and how they did it). Wolverton does pay substantial attention to technical issues and to the scientific results of the various missions, it's true, but I would have preferred him going into more detail on all these things, providing more data and explaining more of the scientific achievements. To my tastes, he spends too much time discussing `the human factor' and the adventure side of it. But then again, this is the book's explicit `mission'. It just wasn't exactly what I expected, although I enjoyed it very much (especially the story about the controversy around the famous plaque with the naked couple on it, and on the old DEC PDP 11-14 `mini-`computer that was still being used in 2000 to communicate with Pioneer 10). So, this book is highly recommended and a Must for space buffs. It's also a very beautiful book, solid and robust. It's a bit of a pity that the - not too many - photographs and pictures are all in black-and-white. You can look into the book (all of the pages, and with color pictures!!!) on the publisher's website.

Informative historical overview of the Pioneer space probe

The Depths Of Space: The Story Of The Pioneer Planetary Probes by by author and NASA expert Mark Wolverton provides the reader with an informed and informative historical overview of the Pioneer space probe mission program that saw the first mission launched in August 17, 1958 that had the misfortune to blow up 77 seconds into lift off. But every failure was a learning experience and subsequent missions ventured to probe the sun, go beyond the asteroid belt, went on to Jupiter, Saturn, and finally out of the solar system and on to the stars. Superbly written, The Depths Of Space is a seminal and enthusiastically recommended addition to personal and community library Space Exploration History reading lists and reference shelves.