I've requested a review copy for the Society -- we'll see if they send one.

To be published on Nov. 8, "Lakes on Mars" (edited by Nathalie Cabrol & Edmond Grin) is a book that may be of interest to many readers here. It has relevance to MSL, with an entire chapter devoted to Holden Crater. I assume Eberswalde is mentioned somewhere as well. Here's the Amazon.com link:

http://www.amazon.com/Lakes-Mars-Nathalie-...5144&sr=1-3

The Kaguya Lunar Atlas: The Moon in High Resolution
174 pages and a very reasonable price.

"The Kaguya Lunar Atlas: The Moon in High Resolution"
You can see thumbnails of all images contained in the book. I recommend to see.
It will be absolutely fantastic book. I have already ordered.

it landed in my "boite à lettres" this week. it looks quite good, my only negative remark is on the pictures, which are often of mediocre quality

I'm very pleased to be able to say that my Mars book, The International Atlas of Mars Exploration (subtitle: The First Five Decades: 1953 to 2003) is now complete and ready to ship to the publisher.

The 'five decades' begin in 1953 with Wernher Von Braun's book The Mars Project, and end with Beagle 2. A second volume will go from MER to the end of Curiosity's primary mission, covering 2004-2014.

Matt Golombek has very generously given me a foreword for the book, and several UMSF contributors have given me images as well. Olivier de Goursac has provided cover art (I should say that Cambridge will decide on the cover art as it's a major marketing decision, but I am proposing the use of one of two images by Olivier. I hope they will agree to the proposal.) Ted Stryk has let me use a variety of images he has processed, from Mars 3, Mars 4, Mars 5, Phobos 2 and Deep Space 1. Mike Malaska is letting me use a Mars Express VMC image mosaic. Thanks to all of you.

Look for it next winter some time. Now, on to Volume 2!

http://publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/marsatlas.htm

Phil

It looks very interesting, as well as very long time to wait (late 2012) .

Then don't wait. Do something else. Then, in late 2012 - the book will be waiting for you.

That kind of timeline is not unusual for a large fact-filled atlas like the ones Phil so masterfully creates. Even a fiction novel which requires very little fact-checking and has no images or graphics takes a minimum of six to eight months from completion to release.

Good luck Phil. I am looking forward to getting my copy.

This is exactly, what I'm doing.




I have no doubt about it.

Don't worry, Machi, you're going to be so busy producing more of those jaw-droppingly gorgeous images of the solar system's most spectacular places, when Phil's book comes out you'll wonder where the time has gone...

And my own congrats, Phil. I know how chuffed (and relieved!) I feel when I finish one of my kids books. These titles of yours are going to be magnificent I'm sure, well done.

The Mars atlas went to the publisher on Monday, after some last tweaks. Now to get on with this:

http://publish.uwo.ca/~pjstooke/marsatlas-v2.htm


Phil

just landed on my "boite à lettres": Fifty Years on the Space Frontier, the autobiography of spaceflight mechanics guru Robert Farquahr. from a first look, a fantastic book with lots of details of planetary missions like ICE, NEAR, CONTOUR, New Horizons and lots of unflown ones

I see that Phil Stooke's "International Atlas of Mars Exploration: Volume 1" is listed on Amazon.com (US), with a release date of August 31, 2012, much sooner than previously estimated. The link is:

http://www.amazon.com/The-International-At...6308&sr=1-1

It's an incredibly long link name, so if I've transcribed incorrectly, just go to www.amazon.com and type the book name into the search box.

Phil, if you read this, can you tell us if August 31 is a placeholder date or the true target date of release? You know which answer we're all hoping for.

You can always cut out the referral stuff at the end of the link... in that regard you might be giving click-though cash to the wrong folks.

Hi - I don't yet know about the final release date. I was expecting it to be later. I am still checking page proofs now. But the cover looks good! The cover image is by Olivier (vikingmars on UMSF)

The Cambridge page:

http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn...te_locale=en_GB

says 'from September'

Phil

Phil I am looking forward to the release. Good things are worth waiting for.

WOW ! It really looks great ! Thanks a lot Phil for sharing this amazing & huge work of yours with us

It would be nothing without that great cover image, Olivier!

Phil

I am happy to announce that part 3 of Robotic Exploration of the Solar System, covering missions launched between 1997 and 2003 (Cassini to MER) was just sent to the printer. It should be out in a couple of months.

Hi all. Does anyone know when the English edition of 'Lune' by Olivier De Goursac is to be published? Amazon UK had a release date of June 30 2012, but that came and went and now they say they don't know when it will become available.

UPDATE: Amazon.com now lists Phil Stooke's "International Atlas of Mars Exploration" book as having a release date of September 30, 2012. That seems fairly realistic in light of information we've seen previously in this thread, so it might hold.

I don't have any more specific information... I'll just wait for the royalties to start pouring in.

Phil

Robotic Exploration of the Solar System Part 3 (Covering Cassini to the MERs) is now available on Amazon (and for download on the Springer site)

Amazon delivered my copy yesterday, many thanks for yet another comprehensive episode of the story.

thanks, that's very kind of you. BTW, my author's copies have not yet landed in my "boite à lettres"

I think I found a (minor) error in Part 1: near the start (on page xxvii), it is written that Mercury's mass was determined by how it gravitational affects Eros, but that can't be right since Eros is a Mars-crossing asteroid, so its orbit definitely does not take it close to Mercury...
Was it some other body?

well spotted. I checked my references and it should have been Icarus

Just received Phil Stooke's "International Atlas of Mars Exploration" book from Amazon.com (USA). It was actually released September 24. This is an incredible reference work. I've been collecting Mars exploration publications for decades and I was amazed at how much this book contains that I had never seen before. No doubt many images/figures were the result of Phil's own work (and a lot of it). There's minimal information on Mars spacecraft (there are lots of other books for that), just endless images of Mars itself and proposed landing sites, instrument coverage plots, annotated photos from landers, etc. I was a bit disappointed that there were no color figures, but that's probably because I grew up in the psychedelic sixties. A very minor disappointment at any rate.

Congratulations on a job very well done, Phil. I recommend every Mars enthusiast buy this book so he will be encouraged to complete Volume 2! I can't say enough about how great this is (and I'm not even related to Phil).

I just got a press release about it from your University, and fired an email off to CUP -- they are shipping me a review copy

... and I got my copies today as well. Right now I am following Opportunity as it leaves Victoria and heads out into the wilderness. I'll post a few Opportunity goodies when I get a chance. Every stop has to be checked for location with one of my circular pans. Every stop!

Thanks for the kind words, monitorlizard.

Phil

My new book - "Comets, Asteroids and Meteors", part of the 'Astronaut Travel Guide' series published by Raintree, which emily recently reviewed on her blog in her annual round-up of kids astronomy books - is finally out. The cat is very impressed by my latest publication, as you can see...

Click to view attachment

Still, as they say on the ads, it's the "purrfect gift for Christmas"...

Either coming soon or now available - I saw a complete copy of the series at the Long Beach AAS meeting. Springer is publishing a 6-volume series, Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, which was conceived as more or less a combination of the coverage of the University of Chicago series on Stars and Stellar Systems and the Solar System from the 1960s and 1970s, for the new century. They seem to have finally broken down and offered to sell them individually, although at $500 a volume most access will naturally be via academic libraries or other institutions with online access bundles. (The staff must have gotten tired of my grousing, but short of firing me and finding a new editor they sort of had to put up with it). Most people here will not be so much interested in the volume I edited (shameless plug: Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology), but in Vol. 3 on Solar and Stellar Planetary Systems, edited by Linda French and Paul Kalas. There are substantial review chapters by Nadine Barlow, David Stevenson, Nancy Chanover, Fran Bagenal, Matt Tiscareno, Andrew Rivkin, Scott Gaudi, Jason Wright, Andrew Youdin, Scott Kenyon, Amaya Moro-Martin, and Alessandro Moridelli.

Versions of some of these are on arxiv, linked to authors above.

Not a book, but new trailer for Stephen van Vuuren's movie. He had some help from folks here, and it shows!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNce_8WHTGc

I'm happy to report that my latest book "Robotic Exploration of the Solar System - part 4" covering all missions from 2004 to 2013 is finally off to the printer!

Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer
by Rob Manning
Hardcover – Coming out October 21, 2014.

http://www.amazon.com/Mars-Rover-Curiosity...r/dp/1588344738

"[...] Manning's fascinating personal account--which includes information from his exclusive interviews with leading Curiosity scientists--is packed with tales of revolutionary feats of science, technology, and engineering. Readers experience firsthand the disappointment at encountering persistent technical problems, the agony of near defeat, the sense of victory at finding innovative solutions to these problems, the sheer terror of staking careers and reputations on a lander that couldn't be tested on Earth, and the rush of triumph at its successful touchdown on Mars on August 5, 2012. This is the story of persistence, dedication, and unrelenting curiosity."

- Looks like a must-read.

Ooo. Thanks for the tip, Mercure! That's GOTTA be good.

It is reviewed by Emily Lakdawalla here: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakda...mars-rover.html

I've pre-ordered!

Can't wait to get my hands on it.

My copy arrived yesterday. I'm halfway through...

My copy arrived yesterday, looks well worth the long wait.

great! hope you like it. I still have to get my copies...

Here's an excerpt of Rob Mannings book:

http://www.airspacemag.com/space/mars-dilemma-180952797/

It is a great book. Manning is a great story teller and you can definitely appreciate it in this book. I had a hard time putting it down to eat dinner ;-) Rob was kind enough to sign my copy

I wish mine was half as good.

Paolo

My copy of Rob's book is by my bedside along with Three Little Pigs, Silly Street, etc. Putting my 3-year-old son to bed tonight, I said, "one more book" and unexpectedly he says "your book." We thumbed through it looking at the pictures of the rover and reading the captions.

Then I thought he might like to watch Doug's video on YouTube. Indeed, he loved it.

I had to explain to him that the rover is on Mars all by itself. His question then was who washes the rover when he gets dirty?

Mars itself, of course!

Quick update on my current Mars Atlas.

The International Atlas of Mars Exploration, Vol. 2, 2004-2015: Spirit to Curiosity

This starts with MER site selection and ends at Opportunity sol 3700 and Curiosity sol 669, the end of its first full year on Mars and the end of the primary mission. By chance, those two sols are within a day of each other, a convenient marker in the middle of 2014. It includes Phoenix operations as well as descriptions of mission planning and proposals over that decade, the Dawn and Rosetta flybys and so on.

I finished it in early January. Now we are deep into copy editing etc. Publication is expected on December 1st this year.

Many of the maps in it, especially for Curiosity, have already been seen here on UMSF, as well as Phoenix maps and images. Typically, I present maps here as working documents, building up sol after sol. The atlas will have the final version, with corrections and improvements along the way, often with new names added from target listings in the PDS Analyst's Notebooks. But you saw a lot of it here first!

And since those sols I have been compiling maps and text for a future third volume, maybe in about 2020 to include ExoMars operations and the lead-up to the new NASA rover.

Phil

I have just published (through Springer-Praxis) two books on the work that went on at Kennedy Center to assemble, test, and launch the Apollo/Saturn missions.

"Rocket Ranch: The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center" is an exploration of the Apollo/Saturn processing and launch facilities - Launch complexes 34, 37, and 39, the Manned Spaceflight Operations Building (later the O&C Building), the VAB, the crawler and launcher/umbilical tower, the launch pads, and the test and checkout computer systems. The penultimate chapter is an exploration of what life was like working at the launch pad - hazards, training, walking across swing arms 400 feet in the air, even a detailed account of fighting the Apollo 1 fire.

"Countdown to a Moon Launch: Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey" follows the processing flow for Apollo 11 at KSC - receipt of the stages at the loading dock, spacecraft buildup and checkout in the altitude chambers, stacking the Saturn V, tests at the launch pad, countdown demonstration test, launch countdown, and post-launch pad safing. Included are many stories about things that went wrong during the processing of Apollo 11 and other missions - suspected sabotage on Apollo 11 in the VAB, the test that led to the Apollo 13 explosion, the Apollo 17 sequencer malfunction, even a mishap that almost destroyed the Skylab 2 mission without anyone realizing it was in danger until the next day.

Both books are heavily illustrated with hundreds of diagrams and photos, many of which have never been published before, and are richly told in the words of the 70+ engineers and technicians who I interviewed for the books.

They are at my amazon author page or you can order autographed copies at my website.

congrats ilbasso! welcome to the Springer-Praxis authors family!