While Hackaday’s bread and butter is, of course, hacks, we sometimes cover things that most of us are interested in that are probably out of reach for the typical hacker. Space, for example, is undeniably cool, even though your chances of putting yourself or even your own rover on the Moon aren’t very good at the moment (but, of course, give it time). If you are looking for something to put on your e-reader and you are also interested in space, save your money and get some downloadable books directly from NASA.
There’s something for everyone on the site. The site has four main categories: aeronautics, Hubble, science, and NASA history. Aeronautics has two volumes of “NASA’s Contributions to Aeronautics,” a book on the X-15, and a book about aviation pressure suits. Want to know more about the giant wind tunnel at Langley?
For the Hubble, you’ll find titles that have great images, of course, but also a book with an overview of the telescope or, if you prefer, about gravitational lensing.
The science titles go really deep with books on black holes, Landsat, the Cassini mission, and the Spitzer telescope. If you prefer history, there’s everything from a history of near-Earth object research to lessons from the Columbia tragedy for engineers, managers, and leaders. We were also interested in the book “Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication.”
The books are typically available in EPUB or PDF, and they are all free. Just what you need for your next plane trip or to round out your Calibre library.
We do love free books, we just can’t get enough.
If you prefer the pictures, or just want something to use for a different wallpaper every day, there’s always this, https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepixFull.html
Scott Manley was at NASA’s heat shield laboratory recently, along with other YouTube content providers.
A very telling bit of history came at the 7:20 mark here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HxaPVRh3Bgs&pp=ygUMc2NvdHQgbWFubGV5
That exchange smacked of SpaceX arrogance–and remember… Elon’s stooge administrator and the King in Orange want to gut NASA centers…. something I will remember come the mid-terms.
The inventor of BART and LISA was far too nice, but I thank him for laying the smack down on the NewSpace brats.
The only thing I laughed at harder was when Adam Savage talked about another aerospace outfit that had something that only “looked like a shop.”
Moller…that was Moller, btw.
The next time you hear one of these hate-government fools (who don’t mind robbing your tax dollars for war-mongering)–remember this video.
Remember it all you want, just also remember that itty bit of brown heat shield on the table that was valued at over $1M
The Government (what’s left of it) has been doing that for years. You used to have to write away to National Technical Information Service (NTIS) to order paper copies of stuff. And if they were out of print, too bad.
Nice to see NASA (of course, they’re required to make the science they do available to the rest of us) entering the Internet Age. The Apollo Lunar Surface Journals are worth it as well. Your brain (if you’re old enough) will supply the audio and video as you read along.
And while the documents are, technically, “free”, it’s more accurate to say that you’ve already paid for the with your taxes. Perhaps one of the last great bargains. 🙂
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