Did you savor the Pluto closeups returned by NASA's
New Horizons probe in July 2015? Of
course you did -- it's the kind of thing that appeals to the kind of folk who visit
SF and Nonsense.
 |
| Fascinating! |
The saga of
New Horizons itself is every bit as fascinating, written (to be precise, coauthored) by the man who first dreamed of the mission and eventually became its principal investigator. The book covers the guerilla struggle to interest NASA in the mission concept, the funding wars, the mad dash (once funding was finally approved) to complete the probe while Jupiter and Pluto still had the proper alignment (celestial mechanics is a harsh mistress), the
long flight, and the hectic close encounter with Pluto.
In short, I
highly recommend
Chasing New Horizons
