Fly Me to the Moon: An Insider's Guide to the New Science of Space Travel Hardcover - 2006

From the rear cover

"Almost fifty years after the beginning of space flight, Belbruno's work offers a realistic beginning for minimum--fuel and maximum--payload trajectories for interplanetary operations. It is a mark of sophistication in the evolution of space travel that simplified solutions to the vexing many-body problem are found to have practical applications. Belbruno's three-body solution for low-thrust minimum-fuel trajectories serves well not only the future of space flight but helps astronomy in understanding the sometimes erratic motions of celestial bodies."--Edgar D. Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut

"Fly Me to the Moon is a fast, easy read that explains in simple nonscientific terms very complex matters of celestial mechanics, and it is delightful reading for students and professionals to update or learn very important new background materials. It is also a must-read for the lawyer-scientist."--Ambassador Edward R. Finch, Jr.

"This is an excellent book. The author succeeds in writing an exciting story about his research on low-fuel space travel, a subject that is not widely known but that will interest many readers. Moreover, the mathematical aspects of chaos in the context of space missions is well treated at the level of the nonexpert."--Florin Diacu, University of Victoria

"This is a good story. It is rare to see a nonpedantic book on celestial mechanics that gives some backroom stories about trajectory geeks. Belbruno ties very abstract concepts to real problems and situations."--Wendell W. Mendell, NASA Johnson Space Center, Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science Directorate

"This is an excellent book. It is an inside look at the important new field of chaotic trajectories by one of the masters and originators of the field. As we continue into space, I think we will be hearing more and more about these clever trajectories. Ed Belbruno has covered in a beautiful and interesting way the important applications of chaos to astrophysics and spacecraft trajectories. He also tells a very interesting personal story of his battles to get these trajectories used, and how he was able to save the Hiten spacecraft and get it to the moon. This is a great story, and he tells it very well."--Richard Gott, Princeton University

"The author's newly discovered interplanetary highways offer a romantic reflection of the pre-rocket, pre-airplane era, where balloons would transport us, with hardly any energy of our own, from one unexplored vista to another."--From the foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History, author of Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries

Media reviews

Citations

• Booklist, 02/01/2007, Page 13
• Entertainment Weekly, 02/02/2007, Page 129
• Publishers Weekly, 01/08/2007, Page 0
• Science Books & Films, 09/01/2007, Page 222