Lost in Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a New Space Age

商家名称	信用等级	购买信息	订购本书
		Lost in Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a New Space Age
		Lost in Space: The Fall of NASA and the Dream of a New Space Age

基本信息·出版社：Vintage Books USA
·页码：432 页
·出版日期：2005年01月
·ISBN：0375727736
·条形码：9780375727733
·装帧：平装
·正文语种：英语

内容简介 The daring, revolutionary NASA that sent Neil Armstrong to the moon has lost its meteoric vision, says journalist and space enthusiast Greg Klerkx. NASA, he contends, has devolved from a pioneer of space exploration into a factionalized bureaucracy focused primarily on its own survival. And as a result, humans haven’t ventured beyond Earth orbit for three decades. Klerkx argues that after its wildly successful Apollo program, NASA clung fiercely to the spotlight by creating a government-sheltered monopoly with a few Big Aerospace companies. Although committed in theory to supporting commercial spaceflight, in practice it smothered vital private-sector innovation. In striking descriptions of space milestones spanning the golden 1960s Space Age and the 2003 Columbia tragedy, Klerkx exposes the “real” NASA and envisions exciting public-private cooperation that could send humans back to the moon and beyond.
作者简介 Greg Klerkx is a former senior manager of the SETI Institute, an independent space exploration and research institution based in California's Silicon Valley. Trained as a journalist, he won numerous news-writing awards and now divides his time between London and San Francisco. Lost in Space is his first book.
编辑推荐 From Publishers Weekly
In this sprawling and sometimes polemical account, Klerkx, formerly associated with the SETI Institute, excoriates what he sees as NASA's present-day loss of vision. During the Apollo program, NASA's goal was manned space exploration. But over the last 29 years, the agency has scaled down its vision, content to send unmanned missions to the other planets and keep human beings in earth orbit with the short-lived Skylab, the troubled shuttle fleet and the "money-gobbling" International Space Station. Klerkx draws out some of the threads in the tangled web that connects the perpetually feuding NASA fiefdoms, NASA's major suppliers (and major congressional contributors), like Boeing, and the politicians who write the checks. He believes that private-sector entrepreneurs will wrest future space exploration away from the self-serving NASA bureaucracy, which too often views space in terms of military and strategic applications. Klerkx presents the nouveaux riches businessmen investing millions in space-related projects, like Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Elon Musk, founder of Paypal, as well as eccentric visionaries like Robert Zubrin and his Mars Society. The Columbia disaster hangs over Klerkx's tale like a dark shadow.. Some readers may think Klerkx is still under the spell of his boyhood dream of being an astronaut and giving short shrift to arguments against human space exploration. But readers who share Klerkx's dream will be captivated by his vision of what needs to be done to resume manned space flights and of what humankind is capable of achieving.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine
What happened to the promising Space Age of 30 years ago? Klerkx offers a compelling if biased critique of NASA and its benefactors in Lost in Space. He delves into insider politics, showing how NASA bows to its major suppliers and congressional contributors. The result? Instead of Klerkx's claimed colonies on Mars, we have an unfinished, increasingly costly space station. The narrative generally flows well, even with some confusing acronyms, heavy financial issues, and erroneous history. The bigger issue is Klerkx's bias. Although he researched NASA's competitors and focused on two private endeavors, he did not interview NASA officials, weakening his indictment of the agency. Still, he's largely correct about the direction of our current Space Age efforts: spend your down payment on that Mars home elsewhere.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Wedded to the space shuttle and the International Space Station, NASA long ago lost its Apollo-era elan. Klerkx is familiar with the organization because of his work with the search-for-extraterrestrial-intelligence program. Here he rambles through a variety of explanations for the dissipation of NASA's ability to excite public interest in its space programs. He interviews a number of dissatisfied employees, often ex-NASA engineers with entrepreneurial schemes. Inevitably, a tone of exasperation creeps into Klerkx's presentation, but more of lamentation than condemnation. Describing numerous examples of the conflict between private enterprise and NASA, Klerkx shows how NASA's institutional resistance to the commercialization of human space flight is a fundamental impediment to re-energizing the space program. NASA is, after all, a government bureaucracy beholden to congressional barons and its client contractors--a classic example of a Washington iron triangle that upholds the status quo rather than the public interest. Chock-full of interesting activity in the so-called alternative-space community, Klerkx's situation report, while critical, does possess enough optimism to encourage space enthusiasts. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"A penetrating indictment . . . an absorbing jeremiad for those who . . . look beyond the PR shots of jubilant Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists.” —Newsweek

“A battle cry for the alternative space programÉan engaging counterpoint to the can-do rhetoric headed our way via . . . NASA officials.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A clear-eyed analysis . . .with vivid examples.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Thoughtful and . . . informational. . . . It is clear that [Klerkx] has done a great deal of research and knowsÉa lot about efforts at space travel and exploration as well as its finance and politics.” —Los Angeles Times

"Compelling. . . . Essential reading." --Buzz Aldrin

“Readable and smart. . . . A summary of all the things that happened while the rest of us weren’t paying attention. . . . . [Bush said] America should return to the moon. . . . After reading this history of America’s space agency, one might be inclined to take NASA off the job.” --Charleston Post & Courier

"Informative, passionate. . . . Klerkx excoriates NASA relentlessly, effectively." --The Guardian

"An important book that provides a context for understanding the decline of NASA and the rise of the alternative space community." --The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Fascinating. . . . Raises points that should be included in any debate on the issue.” --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A very sound and readable analysis of the cause and cure of the present malaise in this planet's space programme. . . . Klerkx backs up his analysis with compelling evidence and insight." --The Times Literary Supplement (London)

"A must-read for space enthusiasts who may be interested in being part of the future revolution in... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review
"A penetrating indictment . . . an absorbing jeremiad for those who . . . look beyond the PR shots of jubilant Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists.” —Newsweek

“A battle cry for the alternative space programÉan engaging counterpoint to the can-do rhetoric headed our way via . . . NASA officials.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A clear-eyed analysis . . .with vivid examples.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Thoughtful and . . . informational. . . . It is clear that [Klerkx] has done a great deal of research and knowsÉa lot about efforts at space travel and exploration as well as its finance and politics.” —Los Angeles Times

"Compelling. . . . Essential reading." --Buzz Aldrin

“Readable and smart. . . . A summary of all the things that happened while the rest of us weren’t paying attention. . . . . [Bush said] America should return to the moon. . . . After reading this history of America’s space agency, one might be inclined to take NASA off the job.” --Charleston Post & Courier

"Informative, passionate. . . . Klerkx excoriates NASA relentlessly, effectively." --The Guardian

"An important book that provides a context for understanding the decline of NASA and the rise of the alternative space community." --The San Diego Union-Tribune

“Fascinating. . . . Raises points that should be included in any debate on the issue.” --The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A very sound and readable analysis of the cause and cure of the present malaise in this planet's space programme. . . . Klerkx backs up his analysis with compelling evidence and insight." --The Times Literary Supplement (London)

"A must-read for space enthusiasts who may be interested in being part of the future revolution in affordable space access. Greg Klerkx has gathered a wealth of historical information, old and recent, and presents it in a readable story that is hard to put down." --Burt Rutan, aircraft and spacecraft developer

“Convincing. . . . [An] eleg[y] to human space travel.” --The New York Sun

"A clear, informed and poignant analysis of how the space agency lost its way. . . . Klerkx's report could not be more timely." --Keay Davidson, author of Carl Sagan: A Life

"Lost in Space is a must-read. . . . Klerkx presents a masterful argument on why the space program is in a deep rut and what needs to happen to get out of it. . . . He offers a healthy outside perspective when it is sorely needed." --Dayton Beach News Journal

"This lively, well-reported, and unapologetic work will give new hope to anyone who's clung to the dream of human spaceflight during the three long decades since the last Apollo mission." --Thomas Mallon, author of Aurora 7 and Two Moons

“Passionate. . . . Provocative. . . . Important.” --Sci Fi

“Those working on changing NASA need to review this book if they want to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.” --The Huntsville Times

"Excellent. . . . You can't sit on the fence after reading this book. . . . If you want to know where NASA has gone wrong or of the many ideas that people have been and are expounding for space access, Lost in Space is the book." --Universe Today

"Klerkx documents how [NASA] stamped on every form of external competition. . . . One reads with the certain conviction that this had to be said." --New Statesman

“Well-researched. . . . Klerkx provides ample evidence and maddening examples of NASA’s ‘fractitious bureaucracy.'” --East Bay Express

"Fascinating. . . . Klerkx backs up [his] argument with extensive research. . . . A very interesting book." --The Space Review


文摘 Chapter 1

The Price of "Peace"

Our twin-prop Brasilia leapt off the runway like a startled bird, the turbocharged engines groaning as they struggled to pull the plane upward through the steamy funk that passes for air in the late-summer tropics. We had only a few seconds to watch the Fijian capital city of Suva-a hodgepodge of tin-roofed jungle, architectural brutalism-melt from view like a hazy ghost town. Then the world outside went white, and we became part of the clouds.

In the low-pressure turbulence the Brasilia popped and bobbed like a bathtub toy, but we sat in contented silence, happy to be airborne. It had been raining all day, sometimes in scattered wisps of mist, more often in pounding sheets of practically solid liquid. Our group, about thirty in all, had traveled for nearly three hours by bus from our base outside of the town of Nadi, a creaky tourist trap on the rounded curve of Fiji's southwest side. The rain had made for slow, treacherous driving on the island's snaking roads, which seemed to be losing the battle against the jungle's tireless campaign to reclaim them. In the end, the roads and the jungle had cost us time, a commodity we had only in the sparest quantity.

Nevertheless, here we were. We had traveled from all over the world and spent an anxious week in Fiji for a chance at witnessing two hundred seconds of history. As our plane roared through the late afternoon sky, none of us were thinking about the hoops we'd jumped through to shoehorn ourselves into a small plane buzzing southeast toward what one member of our group had dubbed the loneliest place on the planet. Instead, we were thinking about Mir.

The Brasilia was on course to a position where we could observe the aging Russian space station as it plummeted from the sky. For more than two years, space engineers around the world had done computer modeling and other scientific soothsaying to anticipate what Mir would do when it plo
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