Home on Orbit (1975)

This is "Home on Orbit" (roughly translated by the book dealer) published in Ukrainian in 1979 and originally in Russian in 1975.  

Home on Orbit.  22cm x 20cm (8.8" x 8") and 104 pages. 1975.

The book covers the history of space exploration in Russia up through the 1st planned joint US/Russia space misson: Soyuz-Apollo. 

  One of the most interesting parts of this book is when it starts discussing space stations.  It first covers the Russian and American efforts to live in space and the possible benefit of having a station there.

 It goes on to discuss what space stations in the future might be like.  It shows a nice pictorial history of what designs have been considered in the past.

The book then goes on to discuss how a space shuttle system would work to keep the station permanently staffed. 

Finally it shows what a Russsian space station of the future would look like. The level of detail reminds me of the old Collier's illustrations. The Russian youth of 1975 were also told that this future was just around the corner.

The Next 50 Years on the Moon (1974) part 3

I continue my exploration of our alternative future of Moon exploration as outlined in:

Bergaust, Erik. The Next 50 Years on the Moon. New York: GP Putnam's Sons. (94 p.) 24 cm. 1974.

 The details laid out in their proposal are amazing.  By combining older aerospace paintings and NSA projections and timetables the author conveys an interesting possible future.

I like this prediction that by 2015 "this whole moon business" would become ordinary.  Little did they suspect that even by 1975 much of the American public had moved on from being concerned about what we were doing in space.

 A final science fiction note from the author suggesting that when the first baby is born in a new "territory" is when we really have started colonization.

The proud mom :)

The Next 50 Years on the Moon (1974) part 2

We move forward into the alternate future of our space program from:

Bergaust, Erik. The Next 50 Years on the Moon. New York: GP Putnam's Sons. (94 p.) 24 cm. 1974.


The Lunar colony under construction...

For the next posting we will look at what the the 2010s and 2020s will bring to our settlement of the Moon:

The Next 50 Years on the Moon (1974) part 1

This is my 300th posting!  When I started this back in Feb of 2009, I knew I had some cool stuff to share but I had also never done a blog before. 

http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-is-this-all-about.html

I was worried about "burn-out" and the rigor of having to come up with something interesting to show or say. But I am still going strong, with cool new stuff I have found and old stuff I am getting a chance to look at again.  Like some collectors there was a time when I could not seem to add stuff fast enough and some of it got briefly looked at before it got stored.

Thank you for your comments and support.  I repeat again: "I think this stuff is cool and it feels good that other people agree with me."

So as an example of going deeper I look back on this book from Jan 4, 2010:
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2010/01/next-50-years-on-moon-1974.html

Bergaust, Erik. The Next 50 Years on the Moon. New York: GP Putnam's Sons. (94 p.) 24 cm. 1974.

I love the illustrations in this book of what an alternative future of our time on the Moon might have looked like.  So I have scanned in almost all the illustrations and examples of this alternative timeline.  For the next few postings I will take you to the "further" exploration of the Moon as seen through NASA and the aerospace companies of the time.

This next set illustrates what Apollo 19-24 might have looked like:

The "souped-up Lunar Excursion Module (LEM)"

The variety of vehicles that never made it off the show room floor :)

Much more to come...

Conquering the Sun's Empire (1963) part 2

This is the second part of my posting about this book. For part 1 see here:
http://dreamsofspace.blogspot.com/2012/06/conquering-suns-empire-1963-part-1.html

Ordway, Frederick I and Wakeford, Ronald C. Illustrated by Lange, Harry H-K. Conquering the Sun’s Empire. New York : E.P. Dutton and Co. 128 pp. 23 cm. Cloth, DJ.

Mars from one of its moons

 Inside the Mars colony

 One use for the asteroid belt is to help with the interplanetary distances.

 I love all the hardware in the next few illustrations.  Rarely do we see how different planets might be used or explored.

 Everyone goes to Titan, go someplace new this summer: Callisto!

 I am not sure about manned expeditions exploring inside Saturn's rings. Above or below maybe, but not in them.

 When was the last time you saw a ship exploring Uranus? (ha ha He said Uranus)

The whole book has some great inspirational images. There was a similar book by the same author/artist pair called: "Life in other solar systems". Not as many interesting illustrations but still worth seeking out.

I was asked if this book is available. I am a big fan of the used book site bookfinder.com (http://www.bookfinder.com/). I see several copies available.