From the vantage points of the other planets in the Solar System,
it’s increasingly clear that a form of life capable of
space travel lives on the third sphere from the Sun. If the rolling,
rust-red topography of Mars, or Jupiter’s eruptive moon
Io, or the ethereal rings of Saturn could speak, they might even
be able to describe what that life-form looks like. It invariably
comes in a carapace of hardened metal. Moving at an extremely
high rate of speed, it pans and scans ceaselessly, using glass
eyes and other senses. It either absorbs energy from the Sun,
or feeds itself with radioactive power—the former via beautifully
symmetrical wings, the latter from radioactive cells distended,
at a strut-like arm’s length, a safe distance from its
hyperactive sensory organs. And it always reports everything
it sees and senses—everything—back to its home planet.
This is achieved through an umbrella-shaped high-gain antenna,
capable of projecting a “voice” consisting of a high-speed,
digitized chain of zeroes and ones, back to its home world.
That voice doesn’t report in words. It sends pictures. Thousands of them.
In the past four decades, the small squadron of robots that have been launched
to explore the Solar System has produced an eye-openingly visionary body of
work, one that easily ranks with the greatest achievements of landscape photography.
Extensive archival research and years of image-processing have produced the
first comprehensive assessment of this genre. "Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary
Probes" pulls together 295 of the most spectacular images from the history
of robotic space exploration – including four 45-inch-wide panoramic
gatefolds – to
create an awe-inspiring visual narrative journey through the planets. The book
also features a foreword by science fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke, the
author of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Childhood’s
End” and afterword by Lawrence Weschler, the author of “Mr. Wilson’s
Cabinet of Wonder.”
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