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Description
Infinity Beckoned: Adventuring Through the Inner Solar System, 1969-1989Infinity Beckoned illuminates a critical period of space history when humans dared an expansive leap into the inner solar system. With an irreverent and engaging style, Jay Gallentine conveys the trials and triumphs of the people on the ground who conceived and engineered the missions that put robotic spacecraft on the heavenly bodies nearest our own. These dedicated space pioneers include such individuals as Soviet Russia's director of planetary
Infinity Beckoned illuminates a critical period of space history when humans dared an expansive leap into the inner solar system. With an irreverent and engaging style, Jay Gallentine conveys the trials and triumphs of the people on the ground who conceived and engineered the missions that put robotic spacecraft on the heavenly bodies nearest our own. These dedicated space pioneers include such individuals as Soviet Russia's director of planetary missions, who hated his job but kept at it for fifteen years, enduring a paranoid bureaucracy where even the copy machines were strictly regulated. Based on numerous interviews, Gallentine delivers a rich variety of stories involving the men and women, American and Russian, responsible for such groundbreaking endeavors as the Mars Viking missions of the 1970s and the Soviet Venera flights to Venus in the 1980s. From the dreamers responsible for the Venus landing who discovered that dropping down through heavy clouds of sulfuric acid and 900-degree heat was best accomplished by surfing to the five-man teams puppeteering the Soviet moon rovers from a top-secret, off-the-map town without a name, the people who come to life in these pages persevered in often trying, thankless circumstances. Their legacy is our better understanding of our own planet and our place in the cosmos. Purchase the audio edition.Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 01/01/2016
ISBN: 9780803234468
Pages: 496
Weight: 1.92lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.07w x 1.54d
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4.2 ★★★★★
Based on 77 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Entertaining, imformative, important and compassionate
Format: Hardcover
I bought this book thinking (1), it'll be easy to consume, (2) I'll learn something about Canadian culture, (3) it'll at some point shed a light on the environmental harms that oil drilling causes, and (4) there'll be a redeeming ending. I was right about (2) and (3). Easy to consume? Not as easy as I thought and whether or not the ending is redeeming, the author Beaton leaves to the reader to determine. It is autobiographical based on the author's experiences, and she does go on after her experiences to become a renowned author/cartoonist. However, one questions whether these experiences, that were part of her path to get there, justify the means, and there is no overarching message that wraps everything up neatly "in a bow".
This book was even more important that I anticipated it to be and while it does speak to certain aspects of Canadian culture (mostly regional), the lessons can be applied beyond that context. My favorite aspects of the book were that it addressed difficult topics with humanity and compassion and even though this topics are intellectually and emotionally difficult, the medium is easier to consumer than perhaps other mediums. Highly recommend.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2024
★★★★★ 4
Fascinating story and great graphics
Format: Hardcover
Fascinating story of a young girl from Nova Scotia working in the oil sands in a male dominated work force. Great graphics.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2024
★★★★★ 5
Great No Fuss Service
Format: Hardcover
Product as advertised and on time.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Compelling - Beautifully done
Format: Kindle
I was surprised how much I enjoyed reading this. Ms Beaton has done an amazing job of storytelling.
So thankful for the recommendation from John Warner - The “BibliOracle” of the Chicago Tribune.
Several male members of my family worked in the Tar Sands projects over the last 30 years - mostly on Oil Exploration and the crew management side. But rumors about the rough environment were confirmed in this book. Reading this explains why one important family marriage failed from the “Wild West” behavior that took place there.
As Ms Beaton acknowledged, this work provided important income for those who worked the Tar Sands projects. My family included.
But the harm to the First Nations People and the environment are just terribly, horribly sad.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2022
★★★★★ 5
A human story of how our society operates
Format: Kindle
There's a lot of terms you could use to describe the themes in this book. Capitalism, patriarchy, settler-colonialism, climate change but the book doesn't need to throw these terms around. It just shows them through the eyes of a person who experienced them. There's also a feeling of "there but by the grace of god go I" having been tempted by the possibility of oil work myself during the Great Recession. The story of how our drive for oil eats at our humanity is vital and helps show the cost of how we've structured our society at a personal level. At times funny, heartwarming, and tragic, a fantastically written and drawn work that I have to highly recommend!
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Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2023