Probing the Universe

COMMENT BOOKS & ARTS imperative of these missions in a way that is accessible and interesting to specialists and generalists. NASA/STSCI I do take issue with the book’s subtly US- centric world view. There is no doubt that scientifically, the US space programme has been the dominant force. The Soviet Union achieved many great firsts — such as the first successful lunar soft lander, the 1966 Luna 9, as well as the first image of the far side of the Moon, and Venera 7, the first Venus lander. But, with some notable excep- tions, the scientific output of the Soviet, and subsequently Russian, programme has been relatively poor. More recently, the European Space Agency, Japan, India and China have had significant successes, including the first close fly-by of a cometary nucleus — that of Halley’s comet — by Europe’s Giotto spacecraft in 1986 and the return to Earth of par- The Hubble Space Telescope cruises above Earth in May 2009. ticles from the asteroid 25143 Itokawa by the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft in 2010. SPACE EXPLORATION Not to include a single mission from the Soviet Union, Russia or Japan seems to me myopic. One could easily make a case for the Venus landers Venera 13 and 14, which sur- Probing the vived for up to two hours on the surface of the planet; or the Franco–Soviet Vega balloons, which drifted for up to two days in the atmosphere of Venus; or the Hayabusa mission. Universe Impey and Henry do include two Euro- pean-led missions in their round dozen. These are Hipparcos, which between 1989 A celebration of uncrewed space missions is less than and 1993 measured the positions of more international in scope, finds John Zarnecki. than 100,000 stars and other objects to unprecedented accuracy, and the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), launched he space age has revolutionized our Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and James in 1995 and still operating, observing both knowledge and understanding of the Cameron’s films Avatar (2009) and Aliens of below and far beyond the Sun’s visible surface. Universe, near and far. The past 60 the Deep (2005). But, oddly, the authors first refer to SOHO as Tyears have seen a profusion of methods for Selecting just 12 missions is a bit like NASA’s, later writing that “SOHO was con- space exploration — from Earth-orbiting picking your all-time best football team or ceived by the European Space Agency; four- satellites that, freed from the absorbing top ten artists. It is impossible. Impey and teen countries and more than three hundred atmosphere, have opened up almost the Henry’s list includes examples that are well engineers were involved in its design and entire electromagnetic spectrum to our view, known beyond the scientific community, construction,” with NASA handling launch to mostly robotic probes that have allowed such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the and ground operations. Europe has also con- us to study most types of object in our Solar Voyager spacecraft, as well as the less widely tributed hardware and finance to the Hubble System close up. known Hipparcos star-mapping mission Space Telescope from the very start — but In Dreams of Other Worlds, Chris Impey and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. What- there is barely a mention of this. and Holly Henry submit 12 of these space ever your view of their choices, they are all The authors do point out that space missions to close scrutiny. They describe well-analysed and presented in a scholarly science is a truly international activity and how the missions were achieved and place yet engaging way. The authors remind us has generally been carried out in an open, them in a historical and even cultural — if we need reminding — that in addition generous and embracing spirit, despite the context — this is, after all, a collabora- to these missions being wonderful tech- occasional blip. However, the subtle but tion between an astronomer and a literary nological achievements, science is at their pervasive ‘space nationalism’ of Dreams of scholar. For those with a scientific back- core. Whether that is the high-energy Uni- Other Worlds tarnishes what is otherwise an ground, this provides a generally refreshing verse represented by X-ray astronomy, or the informative and engaging read. ■ perspective compared with many texts. For cold Universe revealed example, the chapter on the Mars Explora- through infrared Dreams of Other John Zarnecki is director of science at tion Rovers invokes the work of H. G. Wells observations — from Worlds: The the International Space Science Institute and Orson Welles, and, more surprisingly, the interior of the Sun Amazing Story of in Berne. He has more than 30 years of that of T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and Vita to the outer reaches Unmanned Space involvement in space-science missions, Exploration Sackville-West. And, to help to explain the of our Solar System CHRIS IMPEY AND including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer infrared space telescope and some of — Impey and Henry HOLLY HENRY Giotto mission and the Cassini–Huygens its discoveries, the authors make use of Jules are able guides. They Princeton University mission. Verne’s 1870 science-fiction classic Twenty explain the scientific Press: 2013. e-mail: [email protected] 32 | NATURE | VOL 501 | 5 SEPTEMBER 2013 © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

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