the dream machines book on vaporware spacecraft ron miller is a space artist with a long and distinguished career i ve admired both his paintings remember the usps solar system exploration stamps last year and his writings on the history of spaceflight for several years he s been working on a big project which is almost ready to hit the streets a brochure from his publisher has landed in my mailbox and i thought it was cool enough to type in part of it it s rather long especially given the net s strong interest in vaporware spacecraft the dream machines an illustrated history of the spaceship in art science and literature by ron miller with foreword by arthur c clarke krieger publishing company melbourne florida usa orig ed pre publication isbn this text is a history of the spaceship as both a cultural and a technological phenomenon the idea of a vehicle for traversing the space betwen worlds did not spring full blown into existence in the tlatter half of theis century the need preceded the ability ot make such a device by several hundred years as soon as it was realized that there were other worlds than this one human beings wanted to reach them tracing the history of the many imaginative and often prescient attempts to solve this problem also reflects the history of technology science astronomy and engineering once space travel became feasible there were many more spacecraft concepts developed than ever got off the drawing board or off the ground for that matter these also are described in theis book for the same reason as the pre space age and pre flight ideas are they are all accurate reflections of their particular era s dreams abilities and knowledge virtually every spaceship concept invented since as well as selected events important in developing the idea of extraterrestrial travel is listed chronologically the chronological entries allow comparisons between actual astronautical events and speculative ventures they also allow comparisons between simultaneous events taking place in different countries they reveal connections influences and evolutions hitherto unsuspected every entry is accompanied by at least one illustration nearly every spacecraft concept is illustrated with a schematic drawing this allows accurate comparisons to be made between designss to visualize differences similarities and influences this text will be of interest to students of astronautical history and also to model builders who would be interested in the schematic diagrams science fiction fans as well as aviation history buffs and historians of science will also find this book to be fascinating the unique collection of illustrations makes it a visually attractive and very interesting history of the spaceship special features includes scale drawings of several hundred spacecraft both real and fictional contains scores of illustrations artwork drawings and photos contemporary with the subject this includes extremely rare illustrations from scarce books and novels exclusive photos and drawings fromsoviet spacecraft rare stills from both famous and obscure science fiction films and unpublished photographs from nasa archives an index bibliography and appendices are included contents part i the archaeology of the spaceship b c to a d part ii the invention of the spaceship part iii the experimenters part iv the world war part v the golden age of the spaceship part vi the dawn of the space age to the present about ron miller the brochure has a page of stuff here i ll try to hit the high spots former art director for albert einstein planetarium at smithsonian s national air and space museum member of international association for astronomical arts member of international astronautical association fellow of the british interplanetary society consulting editor for air space smithsonian magazine author co author editor or sole illustrator on many books since including space art cycles of fire the grand tour and many others as well as many articles and papers book jackets and interior art for over a dozen publishers contributor to ibm traveling exhibition and book blueprint for space production illustrator for movies dune and total recall designer of ten stamp set of commemorative space postage stamps for u s postal service in solar system exploration ordering information pre publication price before may afterwards price will be krieger publishing company po box melbourne fl usa direct order line fax add for shipping by ups within usa for first book for each additional book for foreign orders add for first book for each additional additional charges for airmail shipments o zap bill higgins fermi national accelerator laboratory bitnet higgins fnal bitnet internet higgins fnal fnal gov span hepnet physnet higgins
