Mark Thompson (11)

A Space Traveler’s Guide to The Solar System is pretty much what it sounds like. Using his imagination, Mark Thompson takes us on a tour of the solar system, attempting to confront the problems we would face on such a trip. Now it isn’t to say that Thompson completely ignores reality but some of the technology he mentions doesn’t seem to be feasible. I suppose in the future the chances of such a journey would be more believable, but when it comes right down to it, Space travel isn’t show more really possible with our current level of technology.

So Thompson starts with the Sun, our own local star, and goes outward from there. So he discusses the problems one would have with going to Mercury, Venus, Mars and other places in our Solar System. For instance, if you were to go to Venus, you wouldn’t get a very pleasant welcome, though it would be quite warm. Other planets in the Solar System have their own issues with habitation, but you might already know about those problems. Take Jupiter for instance. As a Gas Giant, you would be hard-pressed to find a surface to land on. It isn’t as simple as that though, even though Jupiter is gaseous it isn’t like you can fly through it.

So that’s pretty much the entirety of the book. It talks about the different things you would see in the Solar System and how you would go and deal with the loneliness and boredom of space travel. It does include a lot of facts that I hadn’t heard before about our local space area. The book was quite interesting, but it went from possibility to impossibility at the drop of a hat and I didn’t know what to think about that. show less

I got this book as a prize for the home schooling program I did’s wrighting competition!

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Contents
Introduction
1. Choosing The Right Equipment
2. Getting Images Without A Telescope
3. Solar System Photography
4. Deep-Sky Images
5. Astronomical Image Processing
6. A Typical Imaging Run
Appendix: Common Autoguiding Problems
Index