Interplanetary Flight: an introduction to astronautics
Encyclopedia
Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics is a short, modestly technical introduction to space exploration
Space exploration
Space exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....

 written by Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...

, and published in 1950. It includes material accessible to readers with a high-school level of science and technical education, covering the elements of orbital mechanics, rocket
Liquid rocket
A liquid-propellant rocket or a liquid rocket is a rocket engine that uses propellants in liquid form. Liquids are desirable because their reasonably high density allows the volume of the propellant tanks to be relatively low, and it is possible to use lightweight pumps to pump the propellant from...

 design and performance, various applications of Earth satellites, a discussion of the more interesting and accessible destinations in the Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...

 (such as they were understood at the time of writing), and in a final chapter covering the rationale and value of human expansion off the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

.

Overview

The book includes ten chapters:
  • Historical Survey

  • The Earth's Gravitational Field

  • The Rocket

  • The Problem of Escape by Rocket

  • The Earth-Moon Journey

  • Interplanetary Flight

  • The Atomic Rocket

  • Spaceships and Space Stations

  • Subsidiary Problems

  • Opening Frontiers


A short mathematical appendix is provided (for the benefit of readers not versed in the calculus
Calculus
Calculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...

), plus a bibliography and index, for a total of 164 pages. It includes also many figures and diagrams, and 15 plates (now largely of historical interest, showing how far space exploration has advanced since 1950).
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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