This living document is a list of all of the resources I have found that I think will help me become an astronaut. I hope they help you do the same.
I'm looking for more, especially on chemical engineering, fluid dynamics, and engine design. If you have recommendations, please comment below or Tweet me at @jamesarosen.
✓ indicates I have finished at least one run through (for courses, books, videos) or have spent enough time with it to feel confident (for open-ended things like software)
These resources give an overview of a variety of topics. They are very accessible and don't delve too deeply into any one area.
- ✓ Hadfield: An Astronaut's Guide to Living on Earth
- ✓ Rogers: It's ONLY Rocket Science
- ✓ The Orbital Mechanics podcast
- ✓ Zubrin: The Case for Mars
- Aldrin: Mission to Mars
Stay on top of what's happening in space these days.
- The Orbital Mechanics podcast
- @nasa
- @csa_asc
- @spacex
- @planetlabs
- @godeepspace
- @firefly_space
- @rocketlabusa
- @spaceguy87 and his people in space list
- @elakdawalla
- ✓ Goodstein: Feynman's Lost Lecture: a fantastic take on Kepler and Newton
- ✓ Orbital Mechanics 101: Part 1, Part 2
- Manley: Orbital Mechanics on Paper: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
- Kerbal Space Program: everybody I've talked to says they learned more from this in a few months than in university
- The University of Delft: Flight and Orbital Mechanics
- ✓ NASA: Apollo Lunar Landing Launch Window
- Belbruno: Capture Dynamics and Chaotic Motions in Celestial Mechanics
- Bate, Mueller, White: Fundamentals of Astrodynamics
- edX: Intro to Aerodynamics
- The University of Delft: Flight and Orbital Mechanics
- MIT Opencourseware: Aircraft Systems Engineering
- ✓ Blank: The Secret History of Silicon Valley
- Teitel: Vintage Space
- Mindell: Digital Apollo
- Collins: Carrying the Fire
- ✓ Belbruno: Fly Me to the Moon
- Neufeld: Von Braun
- Kranz: Failure is Not an Option
- Wolfe: The Right Stuff
- ✓ SCUBA open-water certification
- Small-aircraft pilot's license
Part of space exploration is communicating the value to the rest of the world -- teaching and building enthusiasm.
- Weir: The Martian
- Bean: Painting Apollo
- Banks: Consider Phlebas
- Michener: Space
- Hadfield: You Are Here
- FAA Search
- Maddalena, Michael A San Carlos Airport, 655 Skyway RD 108, San Mateo, San Carlos, CA, 94070, 6505934330, First Class, Western Pacific Region, Civilian-Domestic
- Cowan, Michael N., 655 Skyway RD #108, San Mateo, San Carlos, CA, 94070, 6505934330, First Class, Western Pacific Region, Civilian-Domestic
- Kanen, Nani, 1838 El Camino Real Ste 100, San Mateo, Burlingame, CA, 94010, 6506970361, Second/Third Class, Western Pacific Region, Civilian-Domestic
- Davies, Tiffany, 360 Dardanelli Lane #2E, Santa Clara, Los Gatos, CA, 95032, 4083781101, First Class, Western Pacific Region, Civilian-Domestic
- Dubowitz, Gerald 1600, Divisadero Street Room C307, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94143, 4158857655, First Class, Western Pacific Region, Civilian-Domestic
- Kottler, Aann E 450 Sutter Street, Suite 1530, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94108, 4157935987, First Class Western, Pacific Region, Civilian-Domestic
- Bello, Sergio R. 1 Shrader Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA , 94117 4153921386 Second/Third Class, Western Pacific Region, Civilian-Domestic
Maybe also:
Reaching For The Moon - Buzz Aldrin (http://www.amazon.com/Reaching-Moon-Buzz-Aldrin/dp/0060554479/)
Magnifience Desolation - Buzz Aldrin (http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Desolation-Long-Journey-Home/dp/1408804166)
Moon Dust - Andrew Smith (http://www.amazon.com/Moondust-Search-Men-Fell-Earth/dp/1408802384)
A Man On The Moon - Andrew Chaikin (http://www.amazon.com/Man-Moon-Voyages-Apollo-Astronauts/dp/014311235X)
Riding Rockets - Mike Mullane (http://www.amazon.com/Riding-Rockets-Outrageous-Shuttle-Astronaut/dp/0743276833)
Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Race to the Moon, 1945-1974 - Asif Siddiqi/NASA (http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt1.pdf & http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt2.pdf)
Anything else by Asif Siddiqi (http://www.amazon.com/Asif-A.-Siddiqi/e/B001KHTSB4)
Apollo - Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox (http://www.amazon.com/Apollo-Charles-Murray/dp/0976000806/)
Digital Apollo - David Mindell (http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Apollo-Human-Machine-Spaceflight/dp/0262134977)
Packing for Mars - Mary Roach (http://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life/dp/0393339912/)
Flight - Chris Kraft (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EXYZR2/)
Advice For Rocket Scientists - Jim Longuski (http://www.amazon.com/Advice-Rocket-Scientists-Survival-Engineers/dp/156347655X/)
Think Like A Rocket Scients - Jim Longuski (http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Secrets-Think-Rocket-Scientist/dp/0387308768/)
Introduction to Space Dynamics - William Thomson (http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Space-Dynamics-Aeronautical-Engineering/dp/0486651134/)
Aiming At Targets - Robert Seamans (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1410218317/)
Fifty Years On The Space Frontier Robert Farquhar (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1432776061/)
Seveneves - Neal Stephenson (http://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062190377)
Accelerando - Charles Stross (http://www.amazon.com/Accelerando-Charles-Stross/dp/1841493899)
Anything else from
http://www.spacehistory101.com/category_s/1827.htm 😸