The Martian Almanac presents a 669-sol almanac of the coming Martian year, drawing from writings of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was widely believed that the planet Mars harbored an advanced civilization, and "first contact" was thought to be only a few years in the future. It features observations by Percival Lowell and other early observers of Mars as well as newspaper reportage, including accounts of Tesla's and Marconi's attempts to communicate with Martians by radio and spiritualists' claims of astral travel to Mars. Serious reports and satirical editorials from this all but forgotten past will thrill and amuse the reader, and make plain that the vision of an optimistic and exciting future of humans engaging with sentient extraterrestrials preceded Star Trek by a century... a future that was imagined to be just around the corner!
The book also celebrates the birthdays of early astronomers, science fiction authors, artists, film contributors, and musical performers, the release dates of science fiction publications, films, and television programs, and describes sol by sol the events of past exploration flybys, orbiters, landers, and rovers.
The Martian Almanac is richly illustrated with the drawings by early astronomers documenting what they thought they saw on Mars... but what were that actually looking at? Computer-generated graphics are presented alongside these ancient depictions to show the Martian surface features that were turned toward Earth at the time astronomers drew them.
Gangale, Thomas: - Thomas Gangale holds a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California, a Master of Arts degree in international relations from San Francisco State University, and a Juridical Sciences Doctorate in space, cyber, and telecommunications law from the University of Nebraska.Upon graduating from USC, Gangale reluctantly turned down an offer from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to join the Voyager mission control team due to his prior commitment to the United States Air Force. He was both an airman and an officer in the USAF, serving as an air traffic controller, an F-4 weapon systems officer, and an historian. Also while on active duty, he served on the technical management teams of several satellite projects of the highest national priority involving national technical means of verification of strategic arms control agreements, as well as a Strategic Defense Initiative satellite program and two Space Shuttle payloads (STS-4 and STS-39).He has published numerous articles in aerospace and social science journals, has presented papers at several aerospace symposia, has written opinion editorials in major metropolitan newspapers, and has appeared as a guest on international radio and television programs. He is a leading authority on timekeeping systems for other planets, and is the inventor of a class of orbits that will be essential to communication between Earth and crews in the vicinity of Mars. He was an original member of the Design and Project Management Team for the Mars Arctic Research Station, a NASA-related Mars analog research facility located near the Haughton Meteor Crater on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic. His work on property rights and the international law of outer space has been briefed to senior NASA leaders. His soon-to-be-published doctoral dissertation addresses a fundamental question in space law which has confounded jurists for 60 years: where does sovereign national airspace end and outer space begin?Along with space exploration, Gangale has had a lifelong interest in history, politics, and international relations. He is the author of the American Plan for reforming the presidential nomination process, which is has the support of the California Democratic Party and has been recommended for consideration within the Democratic National Committee.
