It's (Just) Rocket Science by Muro, Trisha;

Long description:

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the fascinating physics behind space exploration.

It's (Just) Rocket Science delivers on a bold promise: spaceflight isn't just for engineers or physicists. Science writer Trisha Muro introduces readers to the physics principles behind how rockets, satellites, and space telescopes reach their destinations by making the science behind these technological marvels both meaningful and accessible.

Muro untangles the concepts and calculations that make space exploration possible. Addressing a handful of core topics—including motion, forces, waves, and energy—each section demonstrates how to see physics at work in easy-to-understand explanations. Chapters center on the challenges faced by real spaceflight missions, such as Voyager's deep space dispatches, the James Webb Space Telescope's distant perch beyond the Moon, and DART's asteroid-deflecting impact, while connecting the physics behind these missions to readers' daily lives. Muro introduces essential physics concepts and makes abstract principles tangible through true stories of human ingenuity and cosmic ambition.

Covering topics such as orbits, gravity, momentum, light, and relativity, this book explains the surprising science behind familiar headlines, like: How do missions like Psyche use a gravitational slingshot to reach their destinations? Why does the Webb telescope orbit a million miles away from Earth? How do we land rovers like Perseverance safely on Mars? Whether readers are seasoned stargazers or hesitant explorers, It's (Just) Rocket Science invites you to see the science behind space exploration —and recognize how those missions connect back to us.

Table of Contents:

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
I. What's Got You Down? (Let's Talk About Gravity)
1. How to Find an Exoplanet: TESS and the Geometry of Orbits
2. A Seemingly Magical Orbit: JWST and Gravitation
3. From a Relativistic Point of View: Hubble and Relativity
4. Initial Conditions: Voyager and Our Place in Space
II. Let's GO
5. We Are 'Go' For Launch! Sounding Rockets and the Physics of Launch
6. To Mars We Go: Perseverance and the Physics of Orbit
7. A Balance of Forces: Dragonfly and Newton's Laws
Interlude — The Speed You Need, Part 1: Orbits
III. There's No Free Lunch, But There Might be Some Tasty Snacks
8. To Shift a Space Rock: DART and the momentum of collisions
9. Gravitational Slingshots: Psyche and angular momentum
10. Spaceflight's Not-Quite-Free Lunch: Apollo and Conservation of Energy
Interlude — The Speed You Need, Part 2: Escape
IV. Rockets Can't Surf, But They Still Need Waves
11. How to Phone Home From Space: the Deep Space Network and waves
12. Beyond the Rainbow: DAVINCI and the electromagnetic spectrum
13. Seeing the Unseeable: Chandra and optics
V. Look Deeper, and Dream On
14. Sailing on Starlight: Two Solar Sail Spacecraft and Photon physics
15. Spaceflight, Differently: Solar Electric Propulsion Reframes the Rocket Equation
16. Doing the Impossible: Parker Solar Probe and Radiation
VI. Appendices
17. The Metric System
18. The Math of Gravity, Once More
Afterword
Notes on Sources
Bibliography