Drifting on Alien Winds: Exploring the Skies and Weather of Other Worlds

by Michael Carroll

Ever since the Montgolfier's hot air balloon carried a chicken, a goat, and a duck into the Parisian skies, scientists have dreamed of contraptions to explore the atmosphere. With the advent of the space age, new airborne inventions were needed. From the Soviet Venus balloons to advanced studies of blimps and airplanes for use in Mars' and Titan's atmospheres, Drifting on Alien Winds surveys the many creative and often wacky ideas astronautical engineers and space scientists have had for exploring alien skies. Through historical photographs and stunning original paintings by the author, readers also explore the weather on various planets and moons, from the simmering acid-laden winds of Venus to the liquid methane-soaked skies of Titan. Louis Friedman of the Planetary Society and Jacques Blamont of CNES (both involved in Mars and Venus balloon projects) are both interviewed, along with Victor Kerzhanovich of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (planetary balloon systems), Julian Nott (balloonist adventurer and Titan balloon enthusiast), Ralph Lorenz (John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab, team member of the proposed Montgolfier balloon on NASA's flagship mission to Titan), Lockheed Martin's Ben Clark (early atmospheric probe designer), Joe Palaia (UAV tests to Devon Island, Canadian Arctic), Joel Levine, Langley Research Center's principal investigator for the Mars ARES (Aerial Regional Environmental Survey), and Andrew Ingersoll, planetary atmospheres expert at California Institute of Technology, among others.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Reference

251 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Michael Carroll (also Michael W. Carroll), a renowned astronomical and paleo artist for more than twenty years, has done work for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His art has appeared in many magazines, including Time, National Geographic, Sky & Telescope, and Asimov’s Science Fiction. One of his paintings flew aboard MIR; another is resting at the bottom of the Atlantic, aboard Russia’s ill-fated Mars 96 spacecraft. He lives in Littleton, Colorado.

Reviews

[Marco Maia Carneiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book that I intend to reread.
Accessible for all audiences it provides detailed information of all planets and a few of the moons of our solar system, all past missions to each of them as well as expected future missions at the time of writing.
On that sense, Drifting... feels a bit outdated. Perhaps a revision or a link to an updated page that would inform of the latest missions would be a good improvement.
However, don't let this stain your impression of the book: this is a high standard book about our knowledge of the solar system, the comprehension of our findings and the future of our missions.

[James Wedge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drifting on Alien Winds is as much about what we don't know about weather as what we do. It explores weather on Earth and extends to the outer planets with emphasis on the various probes sent to explore our solar system (viking, phobos,veneera from the USSR and many others0 which are detailed at the end of the book. It was an interesting book filled with much technical information about weather that was written in an easily understandable manner with pictures that ranged from the mundane of black and white of technicians handling the Galileo probe to the wonderous artist rendering of nights on Saturn.
I enjoyed reading the book, and knew I was in for smething special when the first thing in the preface was an old joke (a groaner but a joke nonetheless) about a restaurant on the moon. A description of a particular palce on Mars as a beer belly made me crack a smile. I have a twelve year old grandson who will enjoy Drifting. It is not a book to read at one sitting. It is a book that will make you think and keep you coming back for more.

[Purple Tiki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed, yet friendly. A lot of information delivered in a very readable manner.

[Jeffrey]

I won this book from Goodreads First Reads. Looking forward to reading it. Thanks. Looks good.

[Landy]

Thank you Goodreads First Reads for this free book. Looking forward to reading it when I get it. Review to follow.

[shinfu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just won this book from First Reads. A very wonderful book. Thanks.