Worlds Unnumbered: The Search for Extrasolar Planets
by Donald Goldsmith
University Science Books, 1997
hardcover, 256pp., illus.
ISBN 0-935702-97-0
US$28.50

Less than two years after the discovery of the first planet orbiting a sun-like star, 51 Pegasi, nearly a dozen other such worlds have been discovered by astronomers in the United States and Europe. While none of the planets discovered would remotely resemble the Earth, and most are very peculiar worlds with large masses orbit near their Suns, the discovery of other solar systems raises the hope that there places in the universe that could be the home of other life, including intelligent civilizations. These prospects, and the discovery process, is discussed in Donald Goldsmith's book Worlds Unnumbered.
     Goldsmith starts by briefly discussing the recent history of extrasolar planet discoveries, but then immediately discusses whether these new worlds could be the home of life. He then goes into some of the scientific background behind planet formation and discovery techniques before returning to the question of life and intelligence on other worlds. He concludes with notes about new plans to discover additional worlds and follow up on previous discoveries.
     The discontinuous course of the book, zigzagging from subject to subject, can be a little disconcerting. After reading the initial chapter I expected to learn more about the newly-discovered worlds and the astronomers like Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler who discovered them, but we hardly return to those people after that first chapter, after learning just a little bit about them. The two chapters about the possibilities of life should have been pushed together (they were chapters 2 and 8 of a nine-chapter book), and an extended tangent debunking UFOs, while useful, doesn't seem quite in place in a book about the discovery of other worlds.
     For those looking for a basic introduction to the newly-discovered planets around other stars, as well as some science background about them, Worlds Unnumbered is a good place to start, and one of the few books on the market today that discusses them in any detail. I do hope, though, that a future edition of the book goes into more detail about the discoveries and the discoverers themselves.

Countdown: A History of Space Flight
by T. A. Heppenheimer
John Wiley and Sons, 1997
hardcover, 398pp., illus.
ISBN 0-471-14439-8
US$30.00/C$42.50

The fortieth anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1 is just two months away, which means it's time to start examining retrospectives of the Space Age to date. Noted author T. A. Heppenheimer provides one of the better one-volume comprehensive looks at the space age in his book Countdown
     While Countdown is billed as "A History of Space Flight" it lives up more to its primary title. Just as a countdown is the process leading up to a launch, this book spends a large fraction of its pages discussing the events in America and the Soviet Union leading up to the launch of Sputnik in October 1957. The launch of Sputnik takes place on page 122 of 357 pages of text, and Yuri Gagarin doesn't reach orbit until page 189. Much more detail is provided on development of rockets in the 1950s than, say, the actual Apollo missions that flew to the Moon. A similar compression of modern history takes place, although the book's history goes up to 1996 and the discovery of possible evidence of ancient life in a Martian meteorite.
     This division of emphasis in space history isn't necessarily a bad thing: the average person, and even the average space enthusiast, is less knowledgeable about development of the Atlas and Titan and their Soviet counterparts during the 1950s than the more well-known manned and unmanned missions of the 60s and beyond. Moreover, this book discusses in detail military space efforts and includes detailed information on Soviet and European space efforts, in addition to American civilian space history. If the reader keeps these facts in mind, they'll find Countdown one of the better one-volume histories of the Space Age yet published.

Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon
by James Harford
John Wiley and Sons, 1997
hardcover, 400 pp., illus.
ISBN 0-471-14853-9
US$30.00/C$42.50

Most people aware of the heated space race between America and the Soviet Union in the 1960s are knowledgeable of the central role Wernher von Braun played in America's temporary conquest of the Moon. However, far fewer people are aware of his counterpart in Russia, Sergei Korolev, who helped direct the Soviet space program to its early successes as far more dominant in the Soviet program than von Braun was in the American. James Harford, a space historian and former longtime executive director of the AIAA, sheds some well-deserved light on the life of the "Chief Designer" in Korolev.
     Korolev's relative anonymity isn't an accident, Harford explains. Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and other Soviet leaders kept Korolev hidden while working on the Soviet space program, fearing that American agents would kidnap or kill him. Korolev thus remained unknown to the outside world until his death in early 1966. The death of Korolev turned out to be a crippling blow to the Soviet space program at the time, as they continued to fall behind the accelerating American program: a testament of the power and influence of Korolev throughout the Soviet program.
     Harford writes a detailed biography of Korolev, who grew up in the Ukraine and went to school in Moscow. Korolev was arrested during Stalin's purges in the 1930s, when he was working as an aerospace engineer, and was sent to one of the worst Siberian gulags before being reassigned to a special prison for scientists and engineers, where he worked though World War II. Harford goes into great detail about Korolev's professional work designing the Soviet space program. Along the way we learn a lot about Korolev the person, who had a great ego, powerful temper, and a failed marriage and estranged daughter.
     While Harford points out there were many differences between Korolev and von Braun, there were some key similarities as well. Perhaps the most important similarity between the two great pioneers of the Space Age is that they both dreamed of eventually sending people not just to the Moon, but to Mars. It is one of the tragedies of the modern era that neither lived to carry out their goals, leaving their dreams in our hands.

Do Your Ears Pop in Space? And 500 Other Surprising Questions about Space Travel
by R. Mike Mullane
John Wiley and Sons, 1997
softcover, 240pp., illus.
ISBN 0-471-15404-0
US$14.95/C$20.95

Yes, three-time former shuttle astronaut Mike Mullane confirms in his book, the question most often asked of astronauts is the infamous, "How do you go to the bathroom in space?". But did you know that the next most-often asked question was whether astronauts had seen UFOs? (By the way, the answer is no, no astronaut has.) Mullane answers these questions and many more in this entertaining, education book.
     Such a book would seem best targeted towards kids and adults who know little about space travel. But even those who have followed the space program and know quit a bit about space flight will pick up a new fact or two reading this book. Mullane covers all aspects of shuttle missions as well as the astronaut selection process and life as an astronaut. The book uses a question and answer format, so it's easy to skip over the questions you already know the answers to and find the ones you don't know, or would never have thought to ask. Do Your Ears Pop in Space? is a great resource for space junkies and neophytes alike. (And the answer to the title question? Only if the cabin pressure changes, such as in preparation for a spacewalk.)

Where Do You Go After You've Been to the Moon?
by Francis T. Hoben
Krieger Publishing, 1997
hardcover, 223 pp., illus.
ISBN 0-89464-060-7

Twenty years before Dan Goldin drilled the mantra of "Better, Faster, Cheaper" into the NASA culture, one administrator tried his own efforts to reduce the costs of space operations. George Low, conscious of the fact that NASA's budget would not return to the high levels of support that existed in the Apollo program, thought that the space agency needed to reform the way it operated, particularly in its interactions with aerospace companies, to reduce costs and survive. The rise and fall of the Lost Cost Systems Effort of the early 1970s is chronicled in Francis Hoben's Where Do You Go After You've Been to the Moon?
     The answer to that question, Low thought, was to rework the way NASA built spacecraft, reducing the costs by procuring standardized items like tape recorders and transponders in bulk and using those on a variety of spacecraft. He also sought to change the culture of the NASA centers and the aerospace companies that worked with them, who had grown accustomed to getting bailed out of problems with additional funds, and winning bonuses for "best effort" jobs. However, a generation before "reengineering" became a corporate and government buzzword, Low's efforts met staunch opposition from the centers and industry. Hoben notes that many companies were willing to cut cuts in exchange for greater risk, but Low seemed to want it both ways: lower costs and no risk to spacecraft missions.
     Low's effort to cut the costs of doing space missions was ahead of his time, Hoben concludes, and his book is a strong argument for that case. He intersperses modern space news about reorganization efforts in the current NASA. Hoben doesn't make the conclusion clear, but readers can see that the difference between George Low's NASA and the present space agency is that today's NASA is beginning, every so slowly, to cut costs by becoming a little more comfortable with risk.