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Stories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
Five years after Atlantis' last launch, five favorite stories about the shuttle program
On the five-year anniversary of the final space shuttle launch, Jason Davis shares five of his favorite stories about the program.
2015 Reviews of childrens' books about space
Continuing an annual tradition, Emily Lakdawalla reviews children's books about space -- what's out there, how we explore, and why. Many of the books on this list aren't just for kids!
Community service: Vetting my local library's children's space books
Space fans, here is a valuable community service that you can perform in your neighborhood: Vet your school library's space book collections. My kids' elementary school librarian asked me to take a look at the nonfiction space book collection and cull any outdated or just wrong books. I culled quite a few, and am now recommending some replacements.
Book Review: “The Art of Space: The History of Space Art, From the Earliest Visions to the Graphics of the Modern Era”
Mat Kaplan reviews a comprehensive new collection of historic and modern space art from author and superb space artist Ron Miller.
Reviews of space-themed books for kids (2014)
It's that time of year again! I have a pile of great space-themed books for kids of all ages to recommend, both fiction and nonfiction.
Interstellar: The movie that deserves to be called “Gravity”
Mat Kaplan gives his thoughts on the newest space film to hit theatres,
The Birth of the Modern Universe
Amir Alexander reviews Alan Hirshfeld's newest book,
Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight By Jay Barbree
Mat Kaplan reviews a wonderful new biography on Neil Armstrong, written with the support of Armstrong and many of the other pioneering astronauts.
Book Review: Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer, by Rob Manning and William Simon
I am both elated and relieved that Rob Manning and William Simon have written Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer. The book delivers on the promise of its title, in a slender volume that is full of great stories you'll read nowhere else.
On writing Infinitesimal
Amir Alexander's new book about an epic battle over a mathematical concept that shook the old order and shaped the world as we know it.
Cosmos with Cosmos Episode 12: Encyclopedia Galactica
Cosmos returns in fine form in its penultimate episode. Sagan explores the historical and scientific precedents for the search for extraterrestrial life (SETI) and our human desires to not be alone in the universe.
Cosmos with Cosmos Episode 11: The Persistence of Memory
Cosmos stumbles with an episode that is plodding, scattered, and more than a little preachy. This episode will only persist in my memory as a shadow of what could have been.
Cosmos with Cosmos Episode 10: The Edge of Forever
Carl Sagan takes us from the birth to the death of the universe. How do we reconcile our place within a universe that will die? Join us for the latest discussion on episode 10 of Cosmos.
Book Review: This Is Mars
This is Mars is a stunning book that treats the HiRISE camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as an art photographer, exploring the variety of shapes and patterns created by wind, water, impacts, and gravity on the Martian surface.
Cosmos with Cosmos Episode 9: The Lives of the Stars
This episode highlights the other big idea in Cosmos: that we are profoundly connected with the universe around us. Our constituent parts are forged in the bellies of massive stars; we exist through their deaths.
Book reviews: On habitable environments, and the rovers that explore them
I've got some books to recommend on astrobiology, planet Earth and its living creatures, impact cratering, and Mars rovers.
Book Review: Alien Seas, and so much more
Alien Seas is ostensibly a book about
Cosmos with Cosmos Episode 8: Journeys Through Space and Time
Sagan makes us confront the limitations of our mortality given the immensities of space and time presented to us by the cosmos.
Cosmos with Cosmos Episode 7: The Backbone of Night
We return to the big idea of the series – that the universe can be known and we better ourselves in our efforts to understand it – in the best episode of Cosmos so far.
Cosmos with Cosmos Episode 6: Travellers' Tales
The Voyager mission may be the ultimate expression of our desire to explore, but why does that will exist in the first place? Why is it unique to humans?
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