Has anyone here read this book? Looks interesting....

Edit: WHOA the whole thing is readabe online for free with color pictures and all! !!

Loads of other interesting .pdf files there, too!

The author, Mark Wolverton, also has his own Web site here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~exetermw/

Here is an article he wrote on Pioneer 10 online:

http://home.earthlink.net/~exetermw/Pioneer10.html

I just bought that book! Well, actually someone bought it for me, so I guess that's OK.

I have read it. Its pretty good, with lots of insight into the early JPL-Ames rivalry and the selection process. It puts the missions into the context of Pioneers 1-5, Pioneers 6-9 and Pioneer Venus. It also gives a good overview of what Pioneer really discovered, before Voyager reached the gas giants. For a while, sending Pioneer 11 to Uranus was seriously considered. And its a good story of longevity, and dedication of aging engineers scrambling for DSN time and to hold their ancient equipment together.

The NASA SP series ( Special Publications ) also have a few books on PIONEER...

You can check out this weblink for reference:
http://www.boggsspace.com/nasa.htm

Or try the NASA History Office website to see if it's already available online
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/history.html

The second edition of Pioneer Odyssey (1977) is online here:

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/sp349.htm

And if you go to this Web site and scroll down to the Pioneer section, you will find links to other documents on the probes online:

http://www.geocities.com/bobandrepont/unmannedpdf.htm

Another good book on Pioneer is NASA SP-268, a cute little paperback book entitled “ The Pioneer mission to Jupiter “ ( 1971 – 46 pages )

Some related online documents:

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntr..._1993073120.pdf

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntr..._1993074056.pdf

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntr..._1990009039.pdf

For those interested in a .pdf article of mine on 30th Anniversary of the Pioneer 10 mission, just drop me an e-mail