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Robust Energy Procurement of Large Electricity Consumers
by Sayyad Nojavan Mahdi Shafieezadeh Noradin GhadimiThis book identifies the challenges faced by large electricity consumers when they use several sources to procure their energy. The huge penetration of distributed energy resources and the intermittent nature of renewables can put the operations of the large electricity consumer at risk. The book discusses the different types of energy sources including the pool market, bilateral contracts, electrical vehicles, energy storage systems, and demand response programs in detail and presents solutions for robust and risk based scheduling. The author provides models for determining and considering uncertainties and optimal bidding strategies. The book is useful to engineers and students involved in the integration of various energy types as well as those working in state and federal governmental organizations who regulate different aspects of electricity market operation and planning.Presents solutions for robust and risk based scheduling;Discusses the operation and planning of energy storage systems;Presents the most-up-to-date technological approaches to energy integration.
Robust Filtering and Fault Detection for T-S Fuzzy Systems
by Xiao-Lei Wang Guang-Hong Yang Yu-Long WangThis book conducts an in-depth research on robust filtering and fault detection for a class of T-S fuzzy systems. On the basis of the existing research on T-S fuzzy theory, robust filtering theory, and fault diagnosis theory, some new and effective technologies are proposed to solve the problems of robust filtering and fault detection for a class T-S fuzzy systems, while overcoming the shortcomings and limitations of the existing solutions. This book introduces new design solutions for a class of T-S fuzzy systems to address the existing problems in the research of robust filtering and fault detection, namely 1) two new filtering methods are explored to obtain better filtering results than the existing approaches; 2) a new event-triggered filtering scheme is proposed for T-S fuzzy systems with bounded disturbances, which realizes that the designed observer gains in the absence of event-triggered mechanisms are also applicable to the case with event-triggered mechanisms; 3) two new methods are constructed to deal with the asynchronous problems of premise variables effectively, which overcome the defects and limitations of the existing ones; and 4) an effective fault detection scheme for handling measurement outliers is constructed, which can avoid the occurrence of false alarms. This book is intended to inspire researchers and engineers, offering deeper insights into robust filtering and fault detection for T-S fuzzy systems, and equipping them with the latest advancements in fuzzy system theory, robust filtering, and fault diagnosis. It also provides valuable theoretical references for engineers tackling practical engineering problems.
Robust Integration of Model-Based Fault Estimation and Fault-Tolerant Control (Advances in Industrial Control)
by Jianglin Lan Ronald J. PattonRobust Integration of Model-Based Fault Estimation and Fault-Tolerant Control is a systematic examination of methods used to overcome the inevitable system uncertainties arising when a fault estimation (FE) function and a fault-tolerant controller interact as they are employed together to compensate for system faults and maintain robustly acceptable system performance. It covers the important subject of robust integration of FE and FTC with the aim of guaranteeing closed-loop stability. The reader’s understanding of the theory is supported by the extensive use of tutorial examples, including some MATLAB®-based material available from the Springer website and by industrial-applications-based material. The text is structured into three parts:Part I examines the basic concepts of FE and FTC, providing extensive insight into the importance of and challenges involved in their integration;Part II describes five effective strategies for the integration of FE and FTC: sequential, iterative, simultaneous, adaptive-decoupling, and robust decoupling; andPart III begins to extend the proposed strategies to nonlinear and large-scale systems and covers their application in the fields of renewable energy, robotics and networked systems. The strategies presented are applicable to a broad range of control problems, because in the absence of faults the FE-based FTC naturally reverts to conventional observer-based control. The book is a useful resource for researchers and engineers working in the area of fault-tolerant control systems, and supplementary material for a graduate- or postgraduate-level course on fault diagnosis and FTC.Advances in Industrial Control reports and encourages the transfer of technology in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of new work in all aspects of industrial control.
Robust Manufacturing Control
by Katja WindtThis contributed volume collects research papers, presented at the CIRP Sponsored Conference Robust Manufacturing Control: Innovative and Interdisciplinary Approaches for Global Networks (RoMaC 2012, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany, June 18th-20th 2012). These research papers present the latest developments and new ideas focusing on robust manufacturing control for global networks. Today, Global Production Networks (i.e. the nexus of interconnected material and information flows through which products and services are manufactured, assembled and distributed) are confronted with and expected to adapt to: sudden and unpredictable large-scale changes of important parameters which are occurring more and more frequently,event propagation in networks with high degree of interconnectivity which leads to unforeseen fluctuations, andnon-equilibrium states which increasingly characterize daily business. These multi-scale changes deeply influence logistic target achievement and call for robust planning and control strategies. Therefore, understanding the cause and effects of multi-scale changes in production networks is of major interest. New methodological approaches from different science disciplines are promising to contribute to a new level comprehension of network processes. Unconventional methods from biology, perturbation ecology or auditory display are gaining increasing importance as they are confronted with similar challenges. Advancements from the classical disciplines such as mathematics, physics and engineering are also becoming of continuing importance.
Robust Multimodal Cognitive Load Measurement
by Fang Chen Yang Wang Jianlong Zhou Kun Yu Syed Z. Arshad Ahmad Khawaji Dan ConwayThis book explores robust multimodal cognitiveload measurement with physiological and behavioural modalities, which involve theeye, Galvanic Skin Response, speech, language, pen input, mouse movement andmultimodality fusions. Factors including stress, trust, and environmentalfactors such as illumination are discussed regarding their implications forcognitive load measurement. Furthermore, dynamic workload adjustment andreal-time cognitive load measurement with data streaming are presented in orderto make cognitive load measurement accessible by more widespread applicationsand users. Finally, application examples are reviewed demonstrating thefeasibility of multimodal cognitive load measurement in practical applications. This is thefirst book of its kind to systematically introduce various computationalmethods for automatic and real-time cognitive load measurement and by doing somoves the practical application of cognitive load measurement from the domainof the computer scientist and psychologist to more general end-users, ready forwidespread implementation. Robust Multimodal CognitiveLoad Measurement is intended for researchers and practitioners involved with cognitiveload studies and communities within the computer, cognitive, and socialsciences. The book will especially benefit researchers in areas like behaviouranalysis, social analytics, human-computer interaction (HCI), intelligentinformation processing, and decision support systems.
Robust Observer-Based Fault Diagnosis for Nonlinear Systems Using MATLAB®
by Jian Zhang Akshya Kumar Kumar Swain Sing Kiong Kiong NguangThis book introduces several observer-based methods, including: the sliding-mode observer; the adaptive observer; the unknown-input observer; and the descriptor observer for the problem of fault detection, isolation and estimation. The reader can compare and contrast these different approaches to this problem. The authors present basic material on Lyapunov stability theory, H¥ control theory, sliding-mode control theory and linear matrix inequality problems in a self-contained and step-by-step manner. Detailed and rigorous mathematical proofs are provided for all the results developed in the text so that readers can understand the material quickly and thoroughly. MATLAB® and Simulink® codes for all the examples, which can be downloaded from http://extras. springer. com, enable students to follow the methods and illustrative examples easily. The systems used in examples give the book a real connection to problems of industrial control engineering and include a seventh-order aircraft model, a single-link flexible joint robot arm and a satellite controller. To help readers to get what they need from the book without having to ingest more material than necessary and to improve readability the individual chapters are written to be semi-independent of each other. Robust Oberserver-Based Fault Diagnosis for Nonlinear Systems Using MATLAB® will be of interest to process, aerospace, robotics and control engineers, engineering students and researchers with a control engineering background.
Robust and Adaptive Control
by Eugene Lavretsky Kevin WiseRobust and Adaptive Control shows the reader how to produce consistent and accurate controllers that operate in the presence of uncertainties and unforeseen events. Driven by aerospace applications the focus of the book is primarily on continuous-dynamical systems. The text is a three-part treatment, beginning with robust and optimal linear control methods and moving on to a self-contained presentation of the design and analysis of model reference adaptive control (MRAC) for nonlinear uncertain dynamical systems. Recent extensions and modifications to MRAC design are included, as are guidelines for combining robust optimal and MRAC controllers. Features of the text include: · case studies that demonstrate the benefits of robust and adaptive control for piloted, autonomous and experimental aerial platforms; · detailed background material for each chapter to motivate theoretical developments; · realistic examples and simulation data illustrating key features of the methods described; and · problem solutions for instructors and MATLAB® code provided electronically. The theoretical content and practical applications reported address real-life aerospace problems, being based on numerous transitions of control-theoretic results into operational systems and airborne vehicles that are drawn from the authors' extensive professional experience with The Boeing Company. The systems covered are challenging, often open-loop unstable, with uncertainties in their dynamics, and thus requiring both persistently reliable control and the ability to track commands either from a pilot or a guidance computer. Readers are assumed to have a basic understanding of root locus, Bode diagrams, and Nyquist plots, as well as linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and the use of state-space methods in analysis and modeling of dynamical systems. Robust and Adaptive Control is intended to methodically teach senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value.assumed to have a basic understanding of root locus, Bode diagrams, and Nyquist plots, as well as linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and the use of state-space methods in analysis and modeling of dynamical systems. Robust and Adaptive Control is intended to methodically teach senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value. Robust and Adaptive Control is intended to methodically teach senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value. Readers are assumed to have a basic understanding of root locus, Bode diagrams, and Nyquist plots, as well as linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and the use of state-space methods in analysis and modeling of dynamical systems. Robust and Adaptive Control is intended to methodically teach senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value. Robust and Adaptive Control is intended to methodically teach senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value. Robust and Adaptive Control is intended to methodically teach senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial application...
Robust and Adaptive Control: With Aerospace Applications (Advanced Textbooks in Control and Signal Processing)
by Eugene Lavretsky Kevin A. WiseRobust and Adaptive Control (second edition) shows readers how to produce consistent and accurate controllers that operate in the presence of uncertainties and unforeseen events. Driven by aerospace applications, the focus of the book is primarily on continuous-time dynamical systems.The two-part text begins with robust and optimal linear control methods and moves on to a self-contained presentation of the design and analysis of model reference adaptive control for nonlinear uncertain dynamical systems. Features of the second edition include:sufficient conditions for closed-loop stability under output feedback observer-based loop-transfer recovery (OBLTR) with adaptive augmentation;OBLTR applications to aerospace systems;case studies that demonstrate the benefits of robust and adaptive control for piloted, autonomous and experimental aerial platforms;realistic examples and simulation data illustrating key features of the methods described; andproblem solutions for instructors and MATLAB® code provided electronically.The theory and practical applications address real-life aerospace problems, being based on numerous transitions of control-theoretic results into operational systems and airborne vehicles drawn from the authors’ extensive professional experience with The Boeing Company. The systems covered are challenging—often open-loop unstable with uncertainties in their dynamics—and thus require both persistently reliable control and the ability to track commands either from a pilot or a guidance computer.Readers should have a basic understanding of root locus, Bode diagrams, and Nyquist plots, as well as linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, and the use of state-space methods in analysis and modeling of dynamical systems. The second edition contains a background summary of linear systems and control systems and an introduction to state observers and output feedback control, helping to make it self-contained.Robust and Adaptive Control teaches senior undergraduate and graduate students how to construct stable and predictable control algorithms for realistic industrial applications. Practicing engineers and academic researchers will also find the book of great instructional value.
Robust and Optimal Control
by Da-Wei Gu Mi-Ching TsaiA Two-port Framework for Robust and Optimal Control introduces an alternative approach to robust and optimal controller synthesis procedures for linear, time-invariant systems, based on the two-port system widespread in electrical engineering. The novel use of the two-port system in this context allows straightforward engineering-oriented solution-finding procedures to be developed, requiring no mathematics beyond linear algebra. A chain-scattering description provides a unified framework for constructing the stabilizing controller set and for synthesizing H2 optimal and H8 sub-optimal controllers. Simple yet illustrative examples explain each step. A Two-port Framework for Robust and Optimal Controla features: Aaaaaaaaa a hands-on, tutorial-style presentation giving the reader the opportunity to repeat the designs presented and easily to modify them for their own programs;Aaaaaaaaa an abundance of examples illustrating the most important steps in robust and optimal design; andAaaaaaaaa end-of-chapter exercises. To further demonstrate the proposed approaches, in the last chapter an application case study is presented which demonstrates the use of the framework in a real-world control system design and helps the reader quickly move on with their own challenges. MATLAB- codes used in examples throughout the book and solutions to selected exercise questions are available for download. The text will have particular resonance for researchers in control with an electrical engineering background, who wish to avoid spending excessive time in learning complex mathematical, theoretical developments but need to know how to deal with robust and optimal control synthesis problems. Please see http: //km. emotors. ncku. edu. tw/class/hw1. html] for solutions to the exercises provided in this book. "
Robustness, Plasticity, and Evolvability in Mammals
by Clara B. JonesAmong the unresolved topics in evolutionary biology and behavioral ecology are the origins, mechanisms, evolution, and consequences of developmental and phenotypic diversity. In an attempt to address these challenges, plasticity has been investigated empirically and theoretically at all levels of biological organization--from biochemical to whole organism and beyond to the population, community, and ecosystem levels. Less commonly explored are constraints (e.g., ecological), costs (e.g., increased response error), perturbations (e.g., alterations in selection intensity), and stressors (e.g., resource limitation) influencing not only selective values of heritable phenotypic components but, also, decisions and choices (not necessarily conscious ones) available to individuals in populations. Treating extant mammals, the primary purpose of the proposed work is to provide new perspectives on common themes in the literature on robustness ("functional diversity"; differential resistance to "deconstraint" of conserved elements) and weak robustness (the potential to restrict plasticity and evolvability), plasticity (variation expressed throughout the lifetimes of individuals in a population setting "evolvability potential"), and evolvability (non-lethal phenotypic novelties induced by endogenous and/or exogenous stimuli). The proposed project will place particular emphasis upon the adaptive complex in relation to endogenous (e.g., genomes, neurophysiology) and exogenous (abiotic and biotic, including social environments) organismal features discussed as regulatory and environmental perturbations with the potential to induce, and, often, constrain variability and novelty of form and function
Rock Blasting and Explosives Engineering
by Per-Anders Persson Roger Holmberg Jaimin LeeRock Blasting and Explosives Engineering covers the practical engineering aspects of many different kinds of rock blasting. It includes a thorough analysis of the cost of the entire process of tunneling by drilling and blasting in comparison with full-face boring. Also covered are the fundamental sciences of rock mass and material strength, the thermal decomposition, burning, shock initiation, and detonation behavior of commercial and military explosives, and systems for charging explosives into drillholes. Functional descriptions of all current detonators and initiation systems are provided. The book includes chapters on flyrock, toxic fumes, the safety of explosives, and even explosives applied in metal working as a fine art. Fundamental in its approach, the text is based on the practical industrial experience of its authors. It is supported by an abundance of tables, diagrams, and figures. This combined textbook and handbook provides students, practitioners, and researchers in mining, mechanical, building construction, geological, and petroleum engineering with a source from which to gain a thorough understanding of the constructive use of explosives.
Rock Fractures And Fluid Flow: Contemporary Understanding and Applications
by Committee on Fracture Characterization Fluid FlowScientific understanding of fluid flow in rock fractures--a process underlying contemporary earth science problems from the search for petroleum to the controversy over nuclear waste storage--has grown significantly in the past 20 years. This volume presents a comprehensive report on the state of the field, with an interdisciplinary viewpoint, case studies of fracture sites, illustrations, conclusions, and research recommendations.The book addresses these questions: How can fractures that are significant hydraulic conductors be identified, located, and characterized? How do flow and transport occur in fracture systems? How can changes in fracture systems be predicted and controlled?Among other topics, the committee provides a geomechanical understanding of fracture formation, reviews methods for detecting subsurface fractures, and looks at the use of hydraulic and tracer tests to investigate fluid flow. The volume examines the state of conceptual and mathematical modeling, and it provides a useful framework for understanding the complexity of fracture changes that occur during fluid pumping and other engineering practices.With a practical and multidisciplinary outlook, this volume will be welcomed by geologists, petroleum geologists, geoengineers, geophysicists, hydrologists, researchers, educators and students in these fields, and public officials involved in geological projects.
Rock Fragmentation by Blasting: Proceedings of the 9th Int. Symp. on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting - Fragblast 9, Sept. 2009, Granada Spain
by José A. SanchidriánThis volume contains the papers presented at the 9th International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, held in Granada, Spain, 13-17 August 2009. A state-of-the-art collection of articles on developments in rock blasting and explosives engineering, with contributions on rock characterization, explosives and initiation systems, blast design and monitoring, fragmentation assessment, numerical modeling, vibrations from blasting, environmental and economical aspects of rock blasting, and more. Containing unique knowledge, case studies, ideas and insights, this volume is must-have literature for researchers and practitioners in the field of explosives and blasting.
Rock Legends
by Paul MurdinThis book relates the history ofasteroid discoveries and christenings, from those of the early pioneeringgiants of Hersehel and Piazzi to modern-day amateurs. Moving from history andanecdotal information to science, the book's structure is provided by the namesof the asteroids, including one named after the author. Free from a need to conform toscientific naming conventions, the names evidence hero-worship, sycophancy,avarice, vanity, whimsy, erudition and wit, revealing the human side ofastronomers, especially where controversy has followed the christening. Murdindraws from extensive historical records to explore the debate over these names. Each age reveals its own biases and preferences in the naming process. Originally regarded as "vermin ofthe skies," asteroids are minor planets, rocky scraps left over from theformation of the larger planets, or broken fragments of worlds that havecollided. Their scientific classification as "minor" planets makes them seemunimportant, but over the past decades asteroids have been acknowledged to bekey players in the Solar System. This view of their starring role even alters thetrajectories of spacecraft: NASA's policy for new space missions en route tothe outer planets is that they must divert to study passing asteroids wheneverpossible. This book provides for readers a complete tour of the fascinatingworld of asteroids.
Rock Secrets
by Betsy JamesEvery single rock has a secret story to tell about what the earth was like long ago.
Rock Star #1
by Vanessa Brantley-Newton Kelly Starling LyonsFans of Princess Posey and Ivy and Bean will enjoy engaging with science-loving Jada Jones in this easy-to-read chapter book.When Jada Jones's best friend moves away, school feels like the last place she wants to be. She'd much rather wander outside looking for cool rocks to add to her collection, since finding rocks is much easier than finding friends. So when Jada's teacher announces a class project on rocks and minerals, Jada finally feels like she's in her element. The only problem: one of her teammates doesn't seem to like any of Jada's ideas. She doesn't seem to like Jada all that much, either. Can Jada figure out a way to make a winning science project and a new friend? The early chapter book bridges between leveled readers and chapter books for fluent readers adjusting to the chapter book format. At about 5,000 words, with short chapters and two-color art on almost every page, it will appeal to this unique reader. The two-color art throughout will help readers transition from the familiar four-color art of leveled readers and ease them into black-and-white chapter books.
Rock and Pop Venues: Acoustic and Architectural Design
by Niels Werner Adelman-LarsenThis new edition of this standard work adds several new information the book, so that sound engineering and architects can better assess the acoustic value of a Rock and Pop Venue. In particular, new insights to the influence of sound absorbers in reflected and important ISO standards are included into the new edition. Based on the first ever scientific investigations on recommendable acoustics for amplified music conducted by the author, this book sets forward precise guidelines for acoustical engineers to optimize the acoustics in existing or future halls for amplified music. It Gives precise guidelines on how to design the acoustics in venues that present amplified music Debates essential construction details, including placement of sound system and use of possible building materials, in the architectural design of new venues or the renovation of old ones Portrays 75 well-known European Rock & Pop venues, their architecture and acoustic properties. 20 venues were rated for their acoustics by music professionals leading to an easy-to-use assessment methodology
Rock | Water | Life: Ecology and Humanities for a Decolonial South Africa
by Lesley GreenIn Rock | Water | Life Lesley Green examines the interwoven realities of inequality, racism, colonialism, and environmental destruction in South Africa, calling for environmental research and governance to transition to an ecopolitical approach that could address South Africa's history of racial oppression and environmental exploitation. Green analyzes conflicting accounts of nature in environmental sciences that claim neutrality amid ongoing struggles for land restitution and environmental justice. Offering in-depth studies of environmental conflict in contemporary South Africa, Green addresses the history of contested water access in Cape Town; struggles over natural gas fracking in the Karoo; debates about decolonizing science; the potential for a politics of soil in the call for land restitution; urban baboon management; and the consequences of sending sewage to urban oceans.
Rock, Bone, and Ruin: An Optimist's Guide to the Historical Sciences (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)
by Adrian CurrieAn argument that we should be optimistic about the capacity of “methodologically omnivorous” geologists, paleontologists, and archaeologists to uncover truths about the deep past. The “historical sciences”—geology, paleontology, and archaeology—have made extraordinary progress in advancing our understanding of the deep past. How has this been possible, given that the evidence they have to work with offers mere traces of the past? In Rock, Bone, and Ruin, Adrian Currie explains that these scientists are “methodological omnivores,” with a variety of strategies and techniques at their disposal, and that this gives us every reason to be optimistic about their capacity to uncover truths about prehistory. Creative and opportunistic paleontologists, for example, discovered and described a new species of prehistoric duck-billed platypus from a single fossilized tooth. Examining the complex reasoning processes of historical science, Currie also considers philosophical and scientific reflection on the relationship between past and present, the nature of evidence, contingency, and scientific progress.Currie draws on varied examples from across the historical sciences, from Mayan ritual sacrifice to giant Mesozoic fleas to Mars's mysterious watery past, to develop an account of the nature of, and resources available to, historical science. He presents two major case studies: the emerging explanation of sauropod size, and the “snowball earth” hypothesis that accounts for signs of glaciation in Neoproterozoic tropics. He develops the Ripple Model of Evidence to analyze “unlucky circumstances” in scientific investigation; examines and refutes arguments for pessimism about the capacity of the historical sciences, defending the role of analogy and arguing that simulations have an experiment-like function. Currie argues for a creative, open-ended approach, “empirically grounded” speculation.
Rockburst in Extra-Thick Coal Seam Mining: Mechanism and Prevention
by Sitao Zhu Fuxing Jiang Xiufeng Zhang Jinhai LiuThis book provides a detailed introduction to the mechanism of rockburst in extremely thick coal seam mining and explores the mechanical mechanism on why the critical depth of rockburst in extremely thick coal seam mining is significantly smaller than that in thin to thick coal seams, it also proposes targeted monitoring, warning, and treatment technologies. The prevention and control of coal mine rockburst is a global problem, attracting engineers and scientists from various disciplines such as mining, geology, geophysics, and civil engineering to conduct research. This book provides multiple case studies of rockburst accidents in mining of ultra-thick coal seams and provides a detailed analysis of the mechanisms and treatment technologies of each rockburst accident. It aims at graduate students, researchers, and on-site engineers who are interested in the mechanism of rockburst occurrence, monitoring, early warning, and treatment technology. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. The present version has been revised technically and linguistically by the authors in collaboration with a professional translator.
Rocket Beams, Lunar Dreams
by Chiara ColombiThe follow-up to Rocket Ship, Solo Trip that is sure to delight fans of Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site and explores the complicated emotions around building friendships and overcoming disappointment; featuring art from New York Times bestselling illustrator Scott Magoon!"Rocket ship. Lunar trip.Such excitement on the strip.Launchpad's ready. Clouds, at bay.She's going to the moon today!"After embarking on her first solo mission to place a satellite into orbit, Rocket is back, and she&’s headed on a lunar expedition! But this time she&’s not going alone. Instead of exploring, Rocket&’s mission is to drop off the spacecraft, Lander, and then return to Earth while Lander investigates the Moon's surface.Rocket can&’t seem to muster up any friendly words on their journey into orbit—the Moon is big! Why can&’t they share?! But when she learns that Lander is afraid of heights and needs a helping hand, Rocket decides to put aside her disappointment and help Lander accomplish his goal.With delightful rhyming stanzas and pictures by New York Times bestselling illustrator Scott Magoon, Rocket Beams, Lunar Dreams explores the complicated emotions around overcoming fears, forging friendships, and making peace with the fact that things don't always turn out as expected.
Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race
by Tim FernholzThis &“smart analysis of the New Space sector&” goes inside the rapid rise and dramatic rivalry of private space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin (The New York Times Book Review). For the outsize personalities staking their fortunes on spaceships, the new race to explore space could be a dead end, a lucrative opportunity—or the key to humanity&’s survival. Rocket Billionaires shines a light on Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos as they attempt to make history, reinvent the space economy, and feed their own egos. Beyond these two towering figures, Tim Fernholz introduces a supporting cast of equally fascinating entrepreneurs, from the irrepressible British mogul Richard Branson to the satellite internet visionary Greg Wyler. Fernholz&’s fly‑on‑the‑wall reporting captures an industry in the midst of disruption. While NASA seeks to preserve its ambitious space program, traditional aerospace firms like Boeing and Lockheed Martin scramble to adapt to new competitors, lobbyists tussle over public funds, and lawmakers try to prevent this new space race from sparking global conflict. It&’s a high‑stakes marathon that Fernholz recounts with expert analysis and revealing detail. Featured on NPR and PBS&’s SciTech Now, and in Fast Company, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal
Rocket Boys (Coalwood #1)
by Homer H. Hickam Jr.The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir that inspired the film October Sky, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir—a powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the dawn of the 1960s, of a mother's love and a father's fears, of a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space . . . and who made those dreams come true. <p><p> With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible, even in a company town that swallowed its men alive. A story of romance and loss, of growing up and getting out, Homer Hickam's lush, lyrical memoir is a chronicle of triumph—at once exquisitely written and marvelously entertaining.
Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of the World
by Marina BenjaminIn 1958, mankind's centuries-long flirtation with space flight became a torrid love affair. For a decade, tens of millions of people were enraptured -- first, by the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon, and finally, as America outstripped its rival, by Project Apollo alone. It is now more than three decades since the last man walked on the moon...more time than between the first moonwalk and the beginning of World War II. Apollo did not, as had been promised by a generation of visionaries, herald the beginning of the Space Age, but its end. Or did it? Project Apollo, like a cannonball, reached its apogee and returned to earth, but the trajectory of that return was complex. America's atmosphere -- its economic, scientific, and cultural atmosphere -- made for a very complicated reentry that produced many solutions to the trajectory problem. Rocket Dreams is about those solutions...about the places where the space program landed. In Rocket Dreams, an extraordinarily talented young writer named Marina Benjamin will take you on a journey to those landing sites. A visit with retired astronauts at a celebrity autograph show is a starting point down the divergent paths taken by the pioneers, including Edgar Mitchell, founder of the "church" of Noëtic Sciences. Roswell, New Mexico is a landing site of a different order, the "magnetic north" of UFO belief in the United States -- a belief that began its most dramatic growth precisely at the time that the path of the space program began its descent. In the vernacular, the third law of motion states that what goes up, must come down. Thus the tremendous motive force that energized the space program didn't just vanish; it was conserved and transformed, making bestsellers out of fantasy literature, spawning Gaia, and giving symbolism to the environmental movement. Everything from the pop cultural boom in ufology to the worldwide Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) feeds on the energy given off by America's leap toward space. Rocket Dreams is an eloquent tour of this Apollo-scarred landscape. It is also an introduction to some of the most fascinating characters imaginable: Some long dead, like the crackpot visionary Alfred Lawson, who saw in space flight a new stage of human evolution ("Alti-Man"), or Robert Goddard, the father of rocketry, whose workshop in Roswell stands only half a mile from shops selling posters of alien visitors. Others are very much alive -- like Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog and partner with Gerard O'Neill in the drive to build free-floating space colonies, and SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, who has spent decades listening to the skies, hoping for the first contact with another intelligent species. Perceptive, original, and wonderfully written, informed by history, science, and an acute knowledge of popular culture, Rocket Dreams is a brilliant book by a remarkable talent.