Curtis Peebles
Author of Dark Eagles: A History of Top Secret U.S. Aircraft Programs
About the Author
Veteran freelance writer & historian Curtis Peebles ("Dark Eagles," "Watch the Skies!," "The Corona Project," & "Guardians") lives on Palomar Mountain, California. He graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 1985 with a BA in history. A writer specializing in satellites, space flight, & military show more aviation, Mr. Peebles is also a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society & a frequent contributor to its journal, as well as "Space Education Magazine" & "Spaceflight Magazine." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Curtis Peebles in 2004 [credit: Tom Tschida]
Works by Curtis Peebles
Asteroids: A History (Smithsonian History of Aviation & Spaceflight Series) (2000) 40 copies, 2 reviews
Road to Mach 10: Lessons Learned from the X-43a Flight Research Program (Library of Flight Series) (2008) 12 copies
Probing the Sky : Selected NACA Research Airplanes and Their Contributions to Flight (2014) 10 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Peebles, Curtis
- Birthdate
- 1955-05-04
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- aerospace historian
- Organizations
- Smithsonian Institution
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Nationality
- USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
http://nhw.livejournal.com/894197.html
This is a good book, but infuriatingly a bit thin on scholarship. There isn't a single reference to any article published in an academic history of science journal. I found this truly bizarre. More than half the references are to articles in Sky and Telescope, which is all very well, but has the academic community working on history of science completely ignored this topic? And perhaps a few references to the primary scientific literature might have been show more helpful?
Having said that, Peebles' heart is clearly in the right place. There's a whole chapter about the politics of street-lighting in San Diego, California, which is of marginal relevance to the history of asteroids but of great interest to those of us interested in the science/politics interface. There's a chapter on the naming of asteroids, which ends with the emphatic statement that "Mr Spock is a mythological figure." There's lots of interesting circumstantial detail on the personalities and life experiences of those who participated in the search for asteroids.
The scientific point I was left wondering about was the hardness of the boundaries between asteroids, comets and dwarf planets. The book was published before the recent downgrading of Pluto, but it's pretty clear that Pluto is in the same continuum of objects as Neptune's moon Triton – they just happen to orbit different primaries – and that at the other end of the scale various asteroids are pretty comet-like and vice versa, including the case of Comet Wilson-Harrington, now reclassified as asteroid 4015 Wilson-Harrington. show less
This is a good book, but infuriatingly a bit thin on scholarship. There isn't a single reference to any article published in an academic history of science journal. I found this truly bizarre. More than half the references are to articles in Sky and Telescope, which is all very well, but has the academic community working on history of science completely ignored this topic? And perhaps a few references to the primary scientific literature might have been show more helpful?
Having said that, Peebles' heart is clearly in the right place. There's a whole chapter about the politics of street-lighting in San Diego, California, which is of marginal relevance to the history of asteroids but of great interest to those of us interested in the science/politics interface. There's a chapter on the naming of asteroids, which ends with the emphatic statement that "Mr Spock is a mythological figure." There's lots of interesting circumstantial detail on the personalities and life experiences of those who participated in the search for asteroids.
The scientific point I was left wondering about was the hardness of the boundaries between asteroids, comets and dwarf planets. The book was published before the recent downgrading of Pluto, but it's pretty clear that Pluto is in the same continuum of objects as Neptune's moon Triton – they just happen to orbit different primaries – and that at the other end of the scale various asteroids are pretty comet-like and vice versa, including the case of Comet Wilson-Harrington, now reclassified as asteroid 4015 Wilson-Harrington. show less
A very good book to anyone that desires to acquire a good glimmer about the subject of Near Earth Objects and their threat to our civilization.
It covers all aspects from technical to politics and is a real tribute to many dedicated professionals and amateurs astronomers, geologist and other various scientists which are making history in asteroid and comets hunting. It also make me disappointed to know that the Southern hemisphere, were I live, is like a blind concerning the NEOs search show more effort.
Only one aspect prevent me too score 5 stars: In my opinion, the too long discussion on chapter 8 about he streetlights issue of San Diego.
A wonderful start book for anyone who intend to initiate in the NEOs study. show less
It covers all aspects from technical to politics and is a real tribute to many dedicated professionals and amateurs astronomers, geologist and other various scientists which are making history in asteroid and comets hunting. It also make me disappointed to know that the Southern hemisphere, were I live, is like a blind concerning the NEOs search show more effort.
Only one aspect prevent me too score 5 stars: In my opinion, the too long discussion on chapter 8 about he streetlights issue of San Diego.
A wonderful start book for anyone who intend to initiate in the NEOs study. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 15
- Members
- 395
- Popularity
- #61,386
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 2
- ISBNs
- 32
- Favorited
- 1