This book discusses the resources and infrastructure that NASA developed and applied to support space missions in the early 1960's. When the first U. S. satellite, Vanguard, went up in 1958, there was no world-wide network of tracking stations. Thus, a series of ground stations, tracking ships, and tracking aircraft were required. When the crewed capsules of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs splashed down in the ocean, they were retrieved by U. S. Naval vessels for NASA. NASA has a ...

This book covers the topic of Astronomy in the context of STEM Education. Astronomy is the branch of Science that deals with other objects in the Universe. At night, we can see other stars, the moon, sometimes planets, and, if we are lucky, comets. Astronomy dates back far in the history of mankind, starting with observations of the sky, and the development of theories of what it all meant, and how it all worked. The initial assumption was that the Earth was the center of the Universe, and...

This book explores the interaction of the various transportation technologies, driven by the profit motives and political situations of the time. The interaction of the Canal and the Railroads with the National Road is also touched upon.

This book will help you understand the fundamentals of robotics and telerobotics for the space environment. It will point out what the robotic systems can and can’t do. Examples of systems, case study’s, and design examples will be presented.We will review the basics and definitions of robotic and telerobotic systems, as well as the unique characteristics of the space environment to determine where the trade-offs lie. We will compare and contrast with underwater, military, commerci...

This book discusses the next generation of robot explorers for the surface of the Earth, our Moon and Mars. Up to this point, surface exploration has used one or two car-sized vehicles, operating on their own, or perhaps just a drone. Mars exploration has involved one or two rovers covering a small area around a landing site.A paradigm ship in spacecraft architecture has been the Cubesat approach, a standardized, open source design. Cubesats have become more capable. The standardiz...

This book covers the topic of Orbital debris, what it is, where it comes from, what problems it introduces, and how to deal with it. . Putting a communications satellite in synchronous orbit will set you back 100’s of millions of dollars. Once on orbit, you hope it survived the launch environment, and operates correctly. You further hope it works at least for its design lifetime, and as long as possible. This approach, based on good engineering design practices, lessons learned, and hope, ...

In 1983, the British company Acorn Computers Ltd. was shopping for a new 16-bit processor to replace the 8-bit Mostek 6502 that they were then using. Some say that Acorn was rejected by Intel, others say that Acorn didn’t like either the Intel 80286 or the Motorola MC 68000. In any case, the company decided to develop its own processor called the Acorn RISC Machine, or ARM. The company had been started in Cambridge, UK, in 1978. The name Acorn was supposed to suggest expandability and grow...

This book discusses the floating point data format in computation. It is somewhat architecture-neutral, but does restrict the discussion to binary computation in digital computers based on software and microelectronics technology. To understand why we need the complexity of floating point for scientific, engineering, and financial calculations, we need to review number systems, integer calculations in binary and decimal, and other representations systems, as well as the concept of negative...

This book is an introduction to Cubesats, those popular and relatively inexpensive modular spacecraft that are upending the aerospace world. They have been built and deployed by colleges and Universities around the world, as well as high schools and elementary schools, even individuals. This is because Cubesats are modular, standard, and relatively low cost. The expensive part is the launch, but that is addressed by launch fixtures compatible with essentially every launch vehicle on the pl...

This book covers the topic of what is popularly referred to as Rocket Science, seen as a daunting topic, completely incomprehensible. This is targeted to the non-specialist as well. I am not a rocket scientist, but I know a lot of them. I are a Rocket Engineer. I'll explain the difference later.This material will not prepare you for a career in Aerospace, but hopefully it will get your interest going, and explain some of the basics.This book could be used in a STEM Program,...

This is a book on energy storage. Most electrical energy is AC, and is used when generated. Direct current is stored in battery, but there is no such things as an AC battery. There are other ways to store the energy. Solar cells only produce electricity during the day, and we might need the energy at night. Hydro power system generate power when there is a sufficient amount of water flow. Nuclear plants generate power as needed. Power from geothermal wells is generally available 24x7.

The book discusses the Engineering process, a road map developed over time to simplify design, implementation, and testing of systems. It is applicable across a broad range of applications, from building a cathedral, to designing ap software.One key part of the process is that it can be enhanced and modified, to incorporated new knowledge. The key to a good process to follow is, it should define the actual problem that is to be solved.