Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Gilster
Publisher: Springer
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 370210
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 302
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 038700436X
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.43
EAN: 9780387004365
ASIN: 038700436X
Publication Date: October 8, 2004
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Product Description
Why, today, would anyone undertake a plan to launch a spacecraft some 30 years in the future, and on a journey that would take some 40 years to complete? Paul Gilster investigates the science, and the spirit, of the NASA and JPL researchers who are actually at work on just such a project. From the reviews: "Gilster introduces the challenges of imagining and planning interstellar exploration by leading readers through the difficulties of reaching and exploring the nearest bright star, Alpha Centauri. Seeded by ideas and concepts of the late Robert Forward, the narrative is framed as a learning process undertaken simultaneously by writer and reader. Although Alpha Centauri is astronomically nearby, a postulated trip by robot spacecraft, followed by manned exploration, would take 50 to 1,000 years, depending on the type of spacecraft propulsion used. Various methods for interstellar travel are introduced and discussed, including solar sails that use the power of starlight, nuclear fusion, antimatter hybrid systems, and beamed laser propulsion. One challenge is to get there in a reasonable time so that funding support, public interest, and events on Earth will not divert attention from the mission. Another challenge is timing the mission relative to available technology, because with better technology it might be possible to send a later robot on the same mission in less time. The book has no figures, tables, or illustrations but does include 30 pages of notes and an adequate 14-page index. Though the concepts presented are often fanciful, this book will appeal to readers who wonder about the future of exploration beyond the solar system. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; professionals." (W. E. Howard III, CHOICE, March 2005)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Non-Technical Interviews of People in the Field April 14, 2008
I was hoping this book would be a technical discussion about robotic interstellar travel. I was disappointed to discover that it was largely a non-technical series of interviews of people working in the fields of interstellar space flight. I was hoping to get a real understanding of the energy required to attain relativistic velocities but I was disappointed. I also wanted to learn a lot more about ion propulsion but this was only lightly touched on. There was not a single illustration or graph in this book. I also did not follow the logic of the topics covered; it was as if the author just assembled chapters based on the people he was able to get interviews with.
 I don't like these sorts of books but that is just me May 4, 2007
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
What we have here is a reporter that is surveying what many scientist and engineers are planning for a spaceship to the closest stars based on current technology.
If your interested in this subject, don't want any mathematics or diagrams and don't want to get much into theory but have the reassurance that this is at least theoretical real and not fiction then this book is for you.
 Probing and Fun Trek Into the Stars January 6, 2007
Centauri Dreams was a fun book for the futurist some time ago. The book enables the reader to let go into the future and think about interstellar space travel. The book is well structured and enlightening to the non-scientist and non-engineer. The technologies the author discusses are being researched but the practical applications will be years, decades, perhaps centuries, into the future for travel outside of the solar system --- even if we do now have a structured human effort to find an Earth-like planets outside of our solar system. The book has an associated blog that is fun too and has caused me to reflect upon the book from time-to-time. I recommend the book if you want to sit back and think about how your great-great grand children will cross the Milky Way Galaxy with a dash of realism and a dash of science fiction. Every great adventure begins with a map. This book is a creative map into the future of space travel.
Wicked cool. December 6, 2006
I like that I have finally found a book that discusses interstellar travel in serious, but very readable way. It isn't too heavy on jargon, but gives you just enough to not make you feel like the book was dumbed down. I highly recommend this book as a purchase. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is I have some quibbles on the pacing and structure of the book. Chapters sometimes seem to end abruptly with no warning, and he occassionally gets a bit too chatty, but these are minor quibbles.
Space Exploration To A Star, Is Anyone Out There? July 10, 2005
1 out of 14 found this review helpful
NASA has a plan to send an unmarked craft (a possible robotic probe) to the Centari triple-star system. Because of the distance and inability to transmit back and forth messages, if the craft reaches its destination, which will take 40 years, the 4 yr. wait between messages is a long time to wait. Yet, those working on this project are optimistic about the importance and eventual success of their work. So far, it is only in the imagining and planning stages.
You can see these stars in the morning sky at the autumn equinox. Centuri A comes the closest to appearing like our sun, more than three times brighter than B, which is loosely connected to A. Alpha Centuri C (Proxima) is a small red dwarf which has periodic flares; it could very easily be just a passing star, not bound to the other two.
Astronomers have yet to make a valid claim that it is 'triple.' Recent studies show that Prosima is younger and independent -- a star just passing near A & B. The installation of a new device in March, 2002, called ACS (Advanced Camera for Surveys) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope can perhaps show whether Alpha Centuri has planets.
What we are searching for is to find another Earth-like planet 'somewhere out there' in space. Will we ever stop wondering "Is anyone intelligent (besides ET) out there for us to communicate with?" If so, they will be so far ahead of us intellectually that they won't be able to understand us, and vice versa. A new James E. Webb Space Telescope will be launched in 2011 to replace the Hubble which wasn't exactly what they had expected it to be even after the correction of the lens.
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