"Martin H. Greenberg - Space Stations" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenberg Martin H)

No matter how sophisticated the technology, satellites and machines cannot
replace man when it comes to exploration, at least, not completely. Space
stations, platforms where men and women can study the galaxy around the
clock, have become the best way to gain practical results from space,
whether it is manufacturing new medicines and materials in the weightless
conditions, or exploring the heavens and planning to use the space station as
a jumping off point fop trips beyond.
There have been several permanently manned space stations during the
history of space exploration. The Russians beat America into space again
with the launch of the first orbiting station, Salyut, in 1971. A Russian crew
was the first to live in space for approximately twenty-four days, but
tragically died upon returning to Earth. The U.S.'s first space outpost,
Skylab, was launched in 1973. It was not intended to be a permanent station,
but was used to study long-term effects of space and weightlessness on
humans and animals. The longest-running manned space station, the Russian
Mir station, managed to stay aloft for fifteen years despite being used for
years after its proposed duration and suffering several accidents that at times
severely hampered its capabilities. In 2001 Mir was guided back into Earth's
atmosphere, where it was destroyed.
The most exciting development in the field of manned space exploration
today is the International Space Station, a joint project that began
construction in 1998. Funded and supplied by sixteen countries around the
world, its purpose is to create a permanent station to take the world's space
program into the next century and millennium. When the station is
completed in 2006, we will have the best platform to begin the next stage of
exploration, leading back to the Moon, perhaps to Mars, and beyond.
The ISS has fired the imaginations of people around the world, and
science fiction authors are no different. Fourteen of today's best writers
have given us their ideas of what the next generation of space stations will
look like. From Timothy Zahn comes a story of a station that everyone
thought was past its prime, until the time came for it to take part in a most
unusual battle. Alan Dean Foster explores a space station that takes care of
even its smallest inhabitant in a very special way. Brendan DuBois takes us
to a future Earth where the dream of space stations took a detour that
grounded humanity forever. And Gregory Benford reveals a completely
different view of a space station in our final story.
Fourteen visions of the future created by the finest authors of speculative
fiction. So turn the page and prepare for adventures beyond your wildest
imagination on these space stations of tomorrow.
 THE BATTLE OF SPACE FORT JEFFERSON
by Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn was born in 1951 in Chicago and spent his first forty years in the
Midwest. Somewhere along the way toward a Ph.D. in physics, he got sidetracked into
writing science fiction and has been at it ever since. He is the author of over seventy
short stories and twenty novels, of which his most well-known are his five Star Wars
books: The Thrawn trilogy and Hand of Thrawn duology. His most recent book is the
Star Wars novel Survivor's Quest, published in 2004. Though most of his time is now
spent writing novels, he still enjoys tackling the occasional short story. This is one of
them. The Zahn family lives on the Oregon coast.
"EIGHTEENTH April, 2230," Ranger Bob Epstein said into his log