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Humans have long thought that planetary systems similar to our own should exist around stars other than the Sun, yet the search for planets outside our Solar System has had a dismal history of discoveries that could not be confirmed. However, this all changed in 1995, after which astonishing progress can be seen in this field; we now know of more than 200 extrasolar planets. These findings mark crucial milestones in the search for extraterrestrial life - arguably one of the most intriguing endeavors of modern science. These proceedings from the 2005 Space Telescope Science Institute Symposium on Extrasolar Planets explore one of the hottest topics in astronomy. Discussions include the Kepler mission, observational constraints on dust disk lifetimes and the implications for planet formation, and gravitational instabilities in protoplanetary disks. With review papers written by world experts in their fields, this is an important resource on extrasolar planets. ... Read more

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This volume presents a series of papers delivered at a two-day session of the Theban Workshop held at the British Museum in September 2003. Due to its political and religious prominence throughout much of pharaonic history, the region of ancient Thebes offers scholars a wealth of monuments whose physical remains and extant iconography may be combined with textual sources and archaeological finds in ways that elucidate the function of sacred space as initially conceived, and which also reveal adaptations to human need or shifts in cultural perception. The contributions herein address issues such as the architectural framing of religious ceremony, the implicit performative responses of officiants, the diachronic study of specific rites, the adaptation of sacred space to different uses through physical, representational, or textual alteration, and the development of ritual landscapes in ancient Thebes. ... Read more

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This timely volume reviews recent progress in our understanding of all aspects of stellar structure and evolution, with special emphasis on currently unsolved problems. It covers every stage in the life of a star, from birth to death, as well as the fundamental processes that affect stellar evolution. Each chapter is written by a leading world expert, based on presentations at an international conference held at the Space Telescope Science Institute.A complete understanding of stellar evolution is important in its own right, constituting a vital piece in the more general puzzle of understanding how galaxies form and evolve. This volume presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey available of this crucial topic in astrophysics. ... Read more

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The Hubble Space Telescope has made some of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of astronomy. From its vantage point 600km above the Earth, Hubble is able to capture images and spectra that would be difficult or impossible to obtain from the ground. Representing some of the most important scientific achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope in its first decade of operation, this collection of review articles is intended for researchers and graduate students. ... Read more

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This work introduces the important emerging space powers of the world. Many of their space programs are little known, but they all play vital roles. Some have quite ambitious goals and are even challenging the leaders in the space community.

Brian Harvey describes the origins of the Japanese space program, from rocket designs based on WW II German U-boats to tiny solid fuel 'pencil' rockets, which led to the launch of the first Japanese satellite in 1970. The next two chapters relate how Japan expanded its space program, developing small satellites into astronomical observatories and sending missions to the Moon, Mars, comet Halley, and asteroids. Japanese astronauts flew on the space shuttle and military satellites now spy on North Korea.

Chapter 4 describes how India's Vikram Sarabhai developed a sounding rocket program in the 1960s. Modeling their own rocket on the American Scout launcher, India eventually put a satellite into orbit in 1980. The following chapter describes the expansion of the Indian space program. Chapter 6 relates how the Indian space program is looking ahead to the success of the moon probe Chandrayan, due to launch in 2008, and its first manned launching in 2014. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 demonstrate how, in Iran, communications and remote sensing drive space technology. The new Islamic Republic abandoned most of the Shah's space and nuclear plans. Iranian work on satellites and rocketry was started in the mid-1990's. Indigenous technology combined with foreign help should eventually lead to a thriving, independent Iranian space program.

Chapter 10 outlines Brazil's road to space, begun in the mid-1960's with the launch of the Sonda sounding rockets. The following two chapters describe Brazil's satellites and space launch systems and plans for the future. Chapters 13 and 14 study Israel's space industry. Israel is developing spacecraft (with some European cooperation) and launchers (with South Africa and USA). In 1988, Israel became the ninth country in the world to successfully launch a satellite (Ofeq-1) with its own vehicle (Shavit). The next chapters look at the burgeoning space programs of North and South Korea. South Korea aims to become a major international player in both space systems and in manned ventures. Launch vehicles are being developed with Russian help while European partners are aiding with the production of advanced remote sensing satellites.

The book ends by contrasting and comparing all the space programs and speculating how they may evolve in the future. An appendix lists all launches and launch attempts to date of the emerging space powers.

Customer Reviews (2)

Emerging Space Powers is an excellent contribution!
Having previously read two books on China's Space Program by Brian Harvey and having a popular media awareness of the other Asian space powers, I immediately wanted to read Emerging Space Powers: The New Space Programs of Asia, the Middle East and South America, purchased it from Amazon, and read I did. The book is worthy of every serious space technology and policy buff. The authors Harvey, Smid, and Pirard have obviously expended serious time researching this current and timely book.

The work provides an overview of the direction of the would-be space powers now emerging in the global context. In many ways the book demonstrates how Russian, American, and to a lesser extent Chinese space technology transfer is impacting the global space market and space launch capacity. One can better understand how India's technology will place humans in orbit in this decade with others to subsequently follow by some means.

The Japanese spent hundreds of millions of USD in seeking to develop a mini-space shuttle 'HOPE-X'
as documented quite well in this work. It made me wonder how much of the Japanese R&D has gone into the USAF-DARPA X37-B to launched on an Atlas booster soon.

The most thought provoking realization from this book is how much Japan, India Brazil, Iran, Israel, North Korea and South Korea are doing at this moment to develop launch capability and place on the global commercial market. Moreover, it is interesting to learn the technology transfer flows from one nation to another. Russia appears to have the significant space launch niche in providing space launch development assistance.

This book is worthy. I purchased it at the more expensive pre-order price yet believe it to have been worth every cent. Having a significant space science and technology library, this book is an excellent supplement and contribution to place the Russian, American, and Chinese space launch programs in a larger global context. It provided one more reason to root for SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation to make breakthrough and open the commercial space launch market to American competition. Several nation are now 'in-play' as emerging space powers as the United States deliberates the future.

Great Book!
What a great book! Not only is it exactly what I need I was able to get it from this vendor before it was available anywhere else this year! Thanks! ... Read more

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When the first sputnik was launched and the space era began, few gave thought to the possible negative impact that putting satellites into orbit may have. In fact, man's space activity has led to the formation of a new media named space debris, i.e. manmade objects and their fragments launched into space, currently inactive and no longer serving any useful purpose. Space Debris: Hazard Evaluation and Mitigation will be of interest to readers unfamiliar with the issues as well as experts and designers as it introduces concepts related to the problems of space ecology featuring actual data on the space debris environment, new mathematical models for space debris evolution, production and self-production, description of the existing software, and concepts for shield design. Methods of collision risk assessment depending on attitudes and inclinations of orbits, collision hazard evaluation and suggestions for preventative measures are also covered. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Rigorous, but very understandable
Although published in 1978, this book could be used as an introduction to the theory of operads and other recent work on homotopy theory and vertex operators. Vertex operators are not discussed in this book, but the theory elucidated herein is good background material for their study.

The author does a great job in motivating the subject in chapter 1. Loop spaces are function spaces of maps from the unit interval to a space with a chosen basepoint, with the property that each map sends 0 and 1 to the base point. The mathematician Jean Pierre Serre introduced the path space in order to study loop spaces, resulting in the famous Serre fibering. The nth homotopy group of the loop space can be shown to be equivalent to the (n+1)-th homotopy group of the original space. The homology of loop spaces can be calculated for some types of spaces, such as wedges of spheres. Infinite loop spaces are essentially sequences of spaces such that the nth element of this sequence is equivalent to the loop space of the (n+1)-th element. This sequence is also known as an "Omega-spectrum" and has the infinite loop space as its zeroth term. The name "spectrum" comes from general considerations involving sequences of spaces where the nth term is equivalent to the loop space of the (n+1)-th term; equivalently, where the suspension of the nth term is equal to the (n+1)-th term. The author reviews how a generalized cohomology theory yields an Omega-spectrum, giving two examples involving Eilenberg-Maclane spaces and complex and real K-theory. One can also start with a spectrum and construct a generalized homology and cohomology theory. Spectra and cohomology theory are thus essentially equivalent.

Chapter 2 is an overview of techniques needed to construct a category of spaces with enough structure so that the infinite loop space functor yields an equivalence from the category of spectra to the category of certain spaces. An example of the latter is given by the Stasheff A-infinity space, and its now ubiquitous property of having a product which is strictly associative. This property allows one to prove that a space is equivalent to a loop space if and only if the space is a Stasheff A-infinity space and that the zeroth homotopy of the space is a group. The Stasheff A-infinity spaces are also used to motivate the construction of 'operads'.

The next chapter the author is concerned with the concept of a space being like another one without being equivalent to it. He discusses the use of 'localization' in homotopy theory, an idea that is analogous to the one in algebra. The use of localization in homotopy theory is due to D. Sullivan, and involves use of the notion of a space being 'A-local', where A is a subring of the rationals. Remembering that a Z-module is A-local if it has the structure of an A-module, a space is A-local if its homotopy groups are A-local. Examples of the use of localization in constructing certain spaces are given. The author also discusses the use of the 'plus construction' that allows the alteration of fundamental groups without affecting the cohomology groups. Then after the construction of the Quillen higher algebraic K-theory groups in this regard, the author describes the relation between a topological monoid and the loop space of the classifying space of this monoid. This involves the notion of 'group completion', which is essentially an isomorphism between the homology of the path components of the monoid and the homology of the loop space of the classifying space of the monoid, but in the (infinite) direct limit.

Chapter 4 introduces the concept of a transfer map. A very elusive idea at first glance, the transfer map is motivated via the n-sheeted covering map of a space on another. The (singular) simplices of each then get matched up by the covering, and the transfer map between the spaces is then defined so that it is equal to the sum of the singular simplices of the covering space. It is in fact a chain map as shown by the author. The transfer maps are related to homotopy classes of the 'structure' maps of chapter 2, and the author gives a few examples of how they are used.

Chapter 5 is a quick overview of the Adams conjecture, which is essentially an assertion that the image of KO(X) in KF(X) can be characterized explicitly. Detailed proofs are omitted but references are given for the interested reader.

In chapter 6, the author restricts his attention to the K-theory of spectra. The treatment is concerned in large degree with the question of the existence of infinite loop map between infinite loop structures, and finding such a map, checking whether it is unique. This question is answered for particular types of spectra, via the Madsen, Snaith, and Tornehave theorem. Also, the Adams-Priddy theorem is proved, showing that one can construct on a space a unique infinite loop space structure. The reader gets more examples of the use of localization, in that some spaces can become equivalent as infinite loop spaces upon localization. The origin of K-theory in this chapter comes from the replacing of spectra that are not known by ones that are (namely the ones in classical K-theory). The author shows how the Madsen-Snaith-Tornehave theorem works in the context of both complex and real (periodic) K-theory. Detailed proofs are given for all of these results.

A charming and readable introduction to infinite loop spaces
Reading this book made me excited about infinite loop spaces, which I had always imagined to be a very dry topic. Adams informal style reads as smoothly as a purely expository work, but gave me enough understanding andinsight to make me feel like I could fill in the details myself if I neededto. Even if this isn't always literally true, it certainly oriented me wellenough to be able to make sense of the literature. I especially liked thediscussion of A_infty spaces. ... Read more

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Describes how 15 derelict areas of the United States were developed into thriving new parks and offers advice to public agencies and private developers on how to go about revitalizing urban areas. The text includes information on financing techniques, design, management and programmming. ... Read more

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Report examines the issues surrounding astronaut health and safety for long duration space missions. Softcover. DNLM: Aerospace Medicine--standards. ... Read more

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Simple text and cartoon characters introduce the basic concept of shape and its application and importance in artwork and architecture. ... Read more

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Historical astronomical records can play an important role in modern research, especially in the case of ancient Chinese observational data: sunspot and aurora records are important for the study of solar variability; solar and lunar eclipse records for the study of the Earth's rotation; records of Comet Hally for the study of orbital evolution; "guest star" records for the study of supernova remnants; planetary conjunction records for research in astronomical chronology. In the past, Western scientists have not been able to exploit these valuable data fully because the original records were difficult to gather and interpret, and complete English translations have not been available. East-Asian Archaeoastronomy is the first comprehensive translation into English of such historical records for modern research. ... Read more

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Great resource
Every record of an eclipse, sunspot, nova, auroral event, or other cosmic occurrence from Korea, Japan, and China is documented here -- in English and Chinese. People familiar with Early China will feel right at home with this material; people who are new to East Asian archeoastronomy will find a gold mine of information extremely well documented and explained.

You can't ask for much better than this kind of work. ... Read more

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Space Radio Science deals with the theory and practice of space communications with Earth's satellites and interplanetary probes, interstellar radio communications in our galaxy, and the effects of gravitational fields on propagating radio waves. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of radiophysical problems and methods, as well as the benefits from the use of various spacecraft and radio signals.The comprehensive monograph will be of interest to radiophysicists, engineers and students in space radiophysics, remote sensing, propagation of radio waves and space communications. ... Read more

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Containing the proceedings of the Fourteenth School on Operators in Functional Spaces, held in Novgorod, USSR, in the summer of 1989, this volume focuses on the spectral theory of differential operators. The emphasis is on estimates of the number of negative eigenvalues of elliptic differential operators and on the analysis of asymptotical distribution of eigenvalues. Three of the papers discuss distribution of eigenvalues, while the fourth studies scattering theory. The authors rank among the leading Soviet specialists in this area of research. Aimed at researchers in spectral theory of differential operators, scattering theory, and related problems in mathematical physics, this collection provides an excellent overview of some of the major problems in the field. ... Read more

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The extragalactic background radiation, from gamma-rays to radio waves, tells us a great deal about the formation and evolution of structure in the universe. A workshop at the Space Telescope Science Institute addressed this radiation, providing a unique opportunity for observational astronomers and theorists to share their expertise and to help synthesize a new understanding. This volume presents fourteen invited reviews from internationally renowned experts as an edited and coherent overview. Chapters address the gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, microwave and radio backgrounds as well as the detection of anisotropies and the theory of structure formation. Together these reviews provide a unique, multi-wavelength overview of the extragalactic background radiation and how it relates to structure in the universe. They summarize our present knowledge, highlight outstanding problems and provide focus for future work. In this way they provide a unique reference for graduates and professionals in astronomy, cosmology and physics. ... Read more

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Though they differ vastly in scale and energy, protostars and extragalactic radio sources show a remarkable similarity in their morphology.What physics do they share?As the first of its kind, a workshop at the Space Telescope Science Institute provided a unique forum for astronomers from the fields of extragalactic and galactic/stellar jetsto share their expertise and synthesize astrophysical links. A dozen invited reviews from internationally renowned figures are presented here as an edited and coherent review.Topics include acceleration and collimation mechanisms, magnetized accretion disks, thermal and synchrotron jets, optical and molecular outflow, and emission-line radiative bow shocks.Together these reviews provide a unique overview of astrophysical jets, crossing the usual boundaries of scale and energy, theory and observation.They summarize our present knowledge, highlight outstanding problems, and provide focus for future work.In this way they provide a unique reference for graduates and professionals in astronomy, astrophysics and physics. ... Read more

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The hottest debate in astronomy and cosmology today is the value of the Hubble Constant that fixes the size and age of the Universe. At a workshop at the Space Telescope Science Institute, experts from around the world presented the latest results from a plethora of techniques for determining the Hubble Constant. The value has always been controversial, but for the first time at this meeting experts' results agreed, to within twenty percent. The articles in this book provide a comprehensive account of the Hubble Constant debate with the latest results from gravitational lensing, supernovae and novae, the Tully-Fisher relation, the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, globular clusters, planetary nebulae, light echoes, and the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project. This timely volume will become a standard reference for graduate students and researchers in astronomy and cosmology. ... Read more