It's (just) rocket science : exploring physics through spaceflight missions /
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the fascinating physics behind space exploration.It's (Just) Rocket Science delivers on a bold promise: spaceflight isn't just for engineers or physicists. Science writer Trisha Muro introduces readers to the physics principl...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Baltimore :
Johns Hopkins University Press,
2026.
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Table of Contents:
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- I. What's Got You Down? (Let's Talk About Gravity)
- 1. Exoplanets hiding in Plain Sight: TESS and the Geometry of Orbits
- 2. A Seemingly Magical Orbit: JWST and Gravitation
- 3. From a Relativistic Point of View: Hubble Space Telescope and Relativity
- 4. Initial Conditions: Voyager and Our Place in Space
- II. Let's Go
- 5. We Are 'Go' For Launch: Sounding Rockets and the Physics of Launch
- 6. To Mars! Wait, but How? Perseverance and the Physics of Orbit
- 7. A Balance of Forces: Dragonfly and Newton's Laws
- Interlude 1.
- The Speed You Need: Orbits
- III. There's No Free Lunch, But There Might be Some Tasty Snacks
- 8. To Shift a Space Rock: DART and the momentum of collisions
- 9. Gravitational Slingshots: Psyche and angular momentum
- 10. Spaceflight's Not-Quite-Free Lunch: Apollo and Conservation of Energy
- Interlude 2.
- The Speed You Need: Escape
- IV. Rockets Don't Surf, But They Still Need Waves
- 11. How to Phone Home From Space: the Deep Space Network and waves
- 12. Beyond the Rainbow: DAVINCI and the electromagnetic spectrum
- 13. Seeing the Unseeable: Chandra X-ray observatory and optics
- V. Look Deeper, and Dream On
- 14. Sailing on Starlight: Two Solar Sail Spacecraft and Photon physics
- 15. Spaceflight, Differently: Solar Electric Propulsion Reframes the Rocket Equation
- 16. Doing the Impossible: Parker Solar Probe and Radiation
- Afterword
- Appendix A
- Leapfrogging with 10s: The Metric System
- Appendix B
- Once more, but this time with falling
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Sources
- Bibliography
- Index.