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
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. :-)
Yeah I miss the GPO bookstores. Plus you could order a bunch of free books from GPO.
At least with downloadable books it keeps them out of the hands of the AI tech bros who would otherwise bandsaw off the spines before scanning and throwing them away.
If you really want to read about rocket science, I recommend “Ignition!” by John D. Clark
I don’t know that anti-science and pro-Christianist necessariily go together?
The concept of the Big Bang was first put forth by a Catholic priest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre
“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).”
As a child in the 80s I thought I might actually live long enough to see that. But everything just seemed to stagnate for 30 years. Now with the far-right takeover of pretty much everything I’ll be happy just to avoid a return to the stone age.