He coauthored an entire book about the science behind the the plot and visual effects of Interstellar. Absolutely fascinating, especially after a few hits of the old space dust.
Edit: here’s a link to the book on Amazon - The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne and Christopher Nolan Enjoy!
For a more realistic concept of Martian colonization, The Case For Mars by Robert Zubrin is an excellent read. Zubrin focuses on a smaller scale, less expensive method of colonizing Mars which involves three Ares class launches, one for a MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle), an ERV (Earth Return Vehicle), and habituation module. The MAV will use in-situ, or on planet resources to produce methane rocket propellant and fuel the crew’s method of leaving the planet once their stay ends. They will dock with the ERV in LMO (Low Martian Oribit), where the ERV will perform a transfer burn to get back home. This plan is known as Mars Semi-Direct (the original, known as Mars Direct, combined the MAV and ERV, but NASA necessitated the modifications that created Semi-Direct) and has been a vision of Zubrin since he originally proposed it to NASA in the 1990s. It should be noted, however, that one needs at least a small scientific background to understand Zubrin’s book. (Concepts such as ISP, deltaV, orbital mechanics ex. Hohmann Transfer, and chemistry involving synthesis of propellants as well as catalyst reactions. Most of it is explained but a minimal background in rocket science is helpful)
EDIT: this plan comprises NASA’s most recent Mars plan, which was actually designed around Zubrin’s suggestions and collaboration with NASA as part of the SEI. This plan can be found in more detail here
> Easy job for her.
Just finished https://www.amazon.com/Liftoff-Desperate-Early-Launched-SpaceX/dp/0062979973
Holy shit, NOT an easy job for the first decade+!
Strongly recommend that book by the way. It reads almost like a techno thriller.
"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." - Carl Sagan
Do Stephen a solid and read A Brief History of Time. And never forget the importance of knowledge. The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan is another great one.
RIP Stephen Hawking, one of the truest niggas who ever walked the face of the earth.
Love these guys. Downloaded.
PS Eric Berger also wrote a book about the early days of SpaceX called Liftoff. I'm in the middle of it and very interesting.
I remember reading A Brief History of Time while in middle school. I picked it up out of the public library on a whim. I was surprised at how easy of a read it was for a topic that is so complex. It was at that point I understood that the most complex topics in human history were easy to understand at a high level if explained simply, that the knowledge was easily accessible to someone like me.
It's one of the few books that I can point to that I can say legitimately changed my life.
Nice to know. I was only aware of Kip Thorne book, The Science of Interstellar.. Which is also a good book if someone wants to know more about the scientific theory behind the movie.
He can get a used copy of the Fundamentals of Astrodynamics on Amazon for just $16.95
You cant but help to love Bill Cooper.... and how he destroyed Star Trek for me...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GChemEEDRNM&index=1&list=PL5llvwa-5byTu0wrp9AU_SuC6hK4yKr66
If you read the reviews on his book on amazon, people are woke
A good place to start is Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, by Carroll and Ostlie: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Modern-Astrophysics-2nd/dp/0805304029 It's a good upper-undergrad to grad-level textbook that covers a lot of topics.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson is a really good, simple explanation of many processes of the universe!
Play Kerbal Space Program (seriously). Then pick a book (like this one), it's a much better way to go.
Actually, if you're interested, there's a book on this exact subject called A Universe from Nothing that explains how this can happen.
But also, you're forgetting that you're applying that logic to the universe and then making god "immune" to that same logic. So what you're saying is logically inconsistent and would not qualify as a viable explanation of the universe's existence.
It's covered in technical detail in A Case For Mars
Basically with some rather simple chemistry and energy, you can reverse the rocket exhaust and hydrogen into rocket fuel. In the book, Zubrin mentions his team was able to make a setup for...I think $50k that would make enough methane+O2 for a rocket. Don't recall the exact amount but it would be over 2 or 4 years.
It is a small case filled with fiddly little bits which work in concert to differentiate between right now, while ago, and in a little bit.
A higher level explanation can be found within the pages of: https://smile.amazon.com/Brief-History-Time-Stephen-Hawking/dp/0553380168
Beyond a Pale Horse would be a great read right now. How do I convince you guys?
I read this in the 90s and found it to be very entertaining. It’s got plenty of pseudo science and even more conspiracy theories.
Behold a Pale Horse https://www.amazon.com/dp/0929385225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_9SFGHM9NTZYJC2G04KBK
In 2001, the author was killed in a shootout with deputies in Arizona … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_William_Cooper
Meh. You’ll use university physics 5ever, I kept my thermo book, I kept Griffith’s E&M, and I would advise keeping any bvp, numerical analysis, and complex analysis books you get. Oh and BOB if you go into Astro.
Beyond a Pale Horse would be a great read right now. How do I convince you guys?
Reading thru the comments, I see a few people slamming Interstellar for its creative license towards the end and for its use of typical movie-science tropes like “solving the gravity equation”. In my view, those are legitimate beefs to an extent but they also apply to every other sci-fi movie ever made.
If one is interested in judging Interstellar solely on the basis of the physics that it portrays and on how accurately it does so, then I suggest reading this book:
Science of Interstellar
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0393351378/
Edit (a day later): For a more technical - and also more critical - analysis of the physics in Interstellar, one might be interested in reading this paper, available as a preprint from arXiv:
The Warped Science of Interstellar
Well 1) you didn’t tell us what you’re learning out of and 2) if you transfer, your credits might not.
But generally, with my physics students, I use University Physics, Introduction to Optics by Pedrotti^3 , BOB, the Big Orange Book, Modern Physics by Harris, Classical Dynamics by Thornton and Marion, Griffiths Introduction to Electromagnetism, Pierret's Semiconductor Device Fundamentals, Sakurai or Griffiths Quantum Mechanics, not Schroeder for Thermodynamics (I use Kardar with some success), Hartle’s Gravity, and a special relativity book.
For the math side, literally any calculus book should be fine, I don’t recall what we use for differential equations but it needs to cover matrix DE, discrete and combinatorial algebra by Grimaldi, linear.ups online for Lin al, the vector calculus professor is using their own book, Rudin’s Real Analysis, The Geometry of Physics, Boundary Value Problems by Powers, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computation by Leader, and Adventures in Group Theory by Joyner
You might also want Introduction to High Performance Computing for Scientists and Engineers.
There are two kinds of creation: creating a thing from another thing, like making a chair from a tree, and creating something from nothing, which has only happened once that we know of, and it is usually referred to as the Big Bang.
However, matter can be created from energy, and virtual particles can be created from empty space. Neither truly qualifies as creating something from nothing, but they come kind of close.
While we're on the topic, here's a book: A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing. Here's a lecture based on the book, by the book's author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo (65 minutes).
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time
A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin—and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending—or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends?
you won't find it with the protocols of the elders of zion in it. I recommend buying the light publishing version https://www.amazon.com/Behold-Horse-Milton-William-Cooper/dp/0929385225 and then reading the missing chapter on bill coopers website: https://archive.org/details/BeholdAPaleHorse_201807/behold_a_pale_horse_split_1/page/n5/mode/2up or just read it in full at that link
edit: the amazon link I sent you is the book I own, its missing the chapter
Yes, that's the one. Looks like I was paraphrasing the secondary title. And miss spelling the author's name a bit.
Here's the Amazon link.
https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Nothing-There-Something-Rather/dp/1451624468
I love <em>Fundamentals of Astrodynamics</em> by Bate, Mueller, and White. Usually just referred to as "BMW." It's a really popular intro to orbital mechanics (it's what I learned on), and I think it was originally written for the Air Force Academy. Bonus is that it's on Amazon for like $16, and it's a pretty compact book.
University physics is usually a good start. It does spec rel at the end. As for cosmology... I can’t immediately think of a non graduate level book except BOB, but you might have to work on your math to get through that one. Good luck!
It's mainly from the Doppler Effect. Article explaining it: https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-truth-behind-interstellars-scientifically-accurate-1686120318
I'd also recommend Kip Thorne's The Science of Interstellar. He gets into the details a lot deeper.
More elegant but not necessarily better
Read Lift Off by Eric Berger and hear the answer coming from SpaceX employees themselves. That book helped me a lot to understand what makes SpaceX an outlier. Spoilers: it's hard to exclude the upper management..
https://www.amazon.com/Liftoff-Desperate-Early-Launched-SpaceX/dp/0062979973