Beyond: Visions Of The Interplanetary Probes [ハードカバー]

Michael Benson has spent years compiling images collected by the unmanned probes that NASA has been sending into space to explore the solar system since the 1960s. The resulting book consists of two parts: the first is a visual tour of the solar system; and the second is a series of essays that explain the how and why of these photographs - the history of the journeys of the probes, how they work and why they were built. The volume has a foreword by Sir Arthur C. Clarke and an afterword by Lawrence Weschler.

"These images are a spectacular reaffirmation that we are privileged to live in the greatest age of exploration the world has ever known."-From Arthur C. Clarke's foreword

Since the 1960s the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been sending unmanned satellites to explore the planets, moons, and sun. These probes have amassed a stunning visual record of other worlds, revealing not one but scores of new frontiers, from rust-red Mars to the ethereal rings of Saturn.

Author Michael Benson has spent years compiling and digitally processing the best of these images. In Beyond this "deskbound cosmic pilgrim" (Atlantic Monthly) has pulled together the most spectacular of them into one volume that presents these photographs for the first time as art. The resulting book consists of two parts: the first is a spectacular visual tour of the solar system, with views every bit as compelling as the work of the great landscape photographers on earth; the second is a series of beautifully written essays that explain the story behind these photographs: the history of the probes' journeys, how they work, and why they were built. This book shows us how modern science has revealed the astonishing beauty and mystery of the solar system and its awe-inspiring worlds far beyond any places human beings have ever directly observed.

Michael Benson is a filmmaker and journalist. He has written, directed, and/or produced several documentary films. Predictions of Fire (1995) won the Best Documentary Feature Award from the National Film Board of Canada, First Prize at the St. Petersburg International Film Festival, and was an official selection of the Sundance and Berlin film festivals. He has published numerous essays in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The International Herald Tribune, Interview, The Nation, The Village Voice, Sight and Sound, and other European media outlets. Sir Arthur C. Clarke is the greatest living prophet of the space age. Best known for his science fiction novels (2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End), he was awarded a knighthood for "services to literature." Lawrence Weschler is one the leading writers of non-fiction prose in the United States. He was a staff writer at the New Yorker for twenty years, covering the arts and politics. His most recent book was the popular Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders.