Capture Dynamics and Chaotic Motions in Celestial Mechanics: With Applications to the Construction of Low Energy Transfers

Book Description

This book describes a revolutionary new approach to determining low energy routes for spacecraft and comets by exploiting regions in space where motion is very sensitive (or chaotic). It also represents an ideal introductory text to celestial mechanics, dynamical systems, and dynamical astronomy. Bringing together wide-ranging research by others with his own original work, much of it new or previously unpublished, Edward Belbruno argues that regions supporting chaotic motions, termed weak stability boundaries, can be estimated. Although controversial until quite recently, this method was in fact first applied in 1991, when Belbruno used a new route developed from this theory to get a stray Japanese satellite back on course to the moon. This application provided a major verification of his theory, representing the first application of chaos to space travel.

Since that time, the theory has been used in other space missions, and NASA is implementing new applications under Belbruno's direction. The use of invariant manifolds to find low energy orbits is another method here addressed. Recent work on estimating weak stability boundaries and related regions has also given mathematical insight into chaotic motion in the three-body problem. Belbruno further considers different capture and escape mechanisms, and resonance transitions.

Providing a rigorous theoretical framework that incorporates both recent developments such as Aubrey-Mather theory and established fundamentals like Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser theory, this book represents an indispensable resource for graduate students and researchers in the disciplines concerned as well as practitioners in fields such as aerospace engineering.

Book Description

Thrilling action, an intuitive feeling for animal life, a sense of justice that often works itself out through violence: these are the qualities that made Jack London phenomenally popular in his own day and continue to make him, at home and abroad, one of the most widely read of all American writers. "The Call of the Wild," perhaps the best novel ever written about animals, traces a dog's education for survival in the ways of the wolfpack. "White Fang," in which a wolf-dog becomes domesticated out of love for a man, is an unforgettable portrayal of a world of "hunting and being hunted, eating and being eaten, all in blindness and confusion." In "The Sea-Wolf," the primitive takes human form in the ruthless, indomitable Wolf Larsen, captain of a crew of outcasts on the lawless Alaskan seas. Set in the Klondike, California, Mexico, and the South Seas, the short stories collected here--many for the first time--show London as one of the great American storytellers.

Customer Reviews:

An American Master..........2007-06-07

You can't lump too many people into the same sphere with London...Twain, Poe, and Lovecraft are a few that spring to mind. He's an American Titan, and he gets the fawning treatment you'd expect from the Library of America in this exemplary, extraordinary, green-registered book.

Call of the Wild is a page-turning yarn about a dog that becomes a wolf. It's listed on the MLA 100, but any competent kid of ten could tackle it...and enjoy it.

White Fang is a canine bildungsroman that inverts the plot of Call of the Wild, with the wolf becoming a dog. Also a page-turner, also something a kid would read without having to be coerced, and possessed of a truly classic scene where White Fang fights a bulldog.

The Klondike Short Stories are all superb--some people think London's metier was the short story rather than the novel--with Batard being a personal favorite.

The Sea-Wolf is a work of genius...until it all comes crashing down with the introduction of Maud Brewster, and the escape to Endeavour Island. What had heretofore been a truly transcendent work of art transmogrifies into a clunky, melodramatic, and tedious chore, where London's love of sailing jargon threatens to overwhelm the reader.

The Selected Short Stories show that London wasn't just a Yukon guy...he had some other arrows in his quiver. A few stories demonstrate his--at the time--devout socialism, which lasted up until he himself got rich. The Apostate is the weakest of these, but The Strength of the Strong is a pretty good allegory for fin-de-siecle capitalism, with all its gory excesses. London also writes convincingly about such diverse topics as boxing, South Sea cannibals, and straight-up science fiction.

This book of books is excellent, and any American who fancies himself a lover of literature would be remiss in not reading it.

Amazing on multiple levels!.......2007-02-24

Novels and Stories was the first of a two volume set that I scored for cheap on ebay a few years ago. The second, Novels and Social writings concentrates on his political/social novels and essays while this one is comprised of his Alaskan and sea bearing adventure stories.

This book weighs in at over 1000 pages and includes three GREAT novels in Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf and White Fang as well as multitudes of his short stories.

I can't say enough about how much I love Londons writings and how much admiration I have for him as a man as well. I've read Call of the Wild about every two years or so since the first time I read it as a child and I get more out of it every time I re-read it. His adventure stories on one level are just great red blooded adventure stories that anyone who has any heart or spirit would enjoy and there is a deeper level to London as well. His stories are highly spiritual if you are able to look at them on another level. Although thats something that you have to "feel" from within I suppose.

Call of the Wild.......2005-05-17

This book was really good, but I believe that White Fang was better. Many settings took place, but I will start with the main ones. The first setting in this book was Judge Millers Mansion. The second is the dog breakers place, in which Buck (the main character, a dog,) learns the "law of Club and Fang." The third place is where Buck learns the method of husky fighting, and because the other dog died, he lived a long and well-lived life. The first major event in this book is when a person steals Buck from Judge Miller, and he is starved and strangled and is thrown in a shed to wait for a train to the dog breaker. There, he is introduced to the primitive law of club and fang. After that, he, and a Newfoundland, are taken to Alaska. There, he is introduced to the method of Husky Fighting, and then is put into the harness, and is put to work on the mushing sled. The next major event is when Buck is taken of his first mushing trip in the wild. There he learns how to keep warm in the harsh winters by digging into the snow and having your body heat heat up the space. The next area is when Buck and Spitz finally fight to the death, and Buck takes the position of lead dog on the mushing track. Finally, the last major setting is when Buck finaly turns to the wild, and he attacks the YeeHats with a vengance, because they had killed his LOVED master. The conflict in this book is Buck is a spoilled rotten dog, until he reaches the North and finds that he has wild ancestors. They eventually take over Buck and he lives with the wild.

Reality or Fantasy... Which one is it?.......2003-05-18

After reading this book for school, (not that I was forced to) I gave it a 4/5 star rating. It was excellent when it came to the setting of the story. Even though it is a very short, it crams alot of suspensfull and interesting moments into 100 some odd pages. This book is quite good and page turning. I highly recommend it to readers who like a mix of reality and fantasy in one. Masterful piece of writing.

THE GREATES.......2002-09-17

Jack London was one of the greatest American writers. I love everything he wrote and I wish I could write as well as he did.

The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)

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A Classic book review
Great stories with a few odd elements
White Fang
The strong and whole hearted dog
Really thrilling, but not quite a five

The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)
Jack London
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192835149

Book Description

Of all Jack London's fictions none have been so popular as his dog stories. In addition to The Call of the Wild, the epic tale of a Californian dog's adventures during the Klondike gold rush, this edition includes White Fang, and five famous short stories - `Batard', `Moon-Face', `Brown Wolf', `That Spot', and `To Build a Fire.

Customer Reviews:

A Classic book review.......2006-01-11

In the book, The Call of the Wild and other stories, a dog name Buck is forced to leave his home in Santa Clara Valley, California after he is sold to two men that are going up north for the gold rush. They are headed to the region of Klondike Canada and once they get there Buck soon realizes that it is a very uncivilized place compared to his home. Buck competes with the rest of the sled dogs for head dog and it becomes a very violent contest in which Buck wins. After a while, Buck and the rest of the sled dogs become very weak after the long and treacherous journey. Buck is sold to an experienced gold hunter named John Thornton and they build a great relationship. After John Thornton dies Buck is forced to survive on his own and it is truly a Call of the Wild.

I enjoyed the book Call of the Wild because it was a great adventure story and a story that I think people of all ages would enjoy. I also liked how the author Jack London depicted the relationship between dog and man. He described how Buck felt towards all of his owners and how he learned that humans were only superior to him if they had one thing, a weapon. London went into more detail about Buck and John Thornton's relationship by describing how they were the best of friends. He showed that Buck was so obedient towards John that he would jump off a cliff if he were told to do so.

London did a great job of using imagery to enhance the book. I believe the plot of the book itself is what makes it a classic but the imagery and diction London chooses to use makes it just more interesting than it already is. I really think people of all ages would enjoy reading this book and even if you aren't into the wilderness type of book I think you will still enjoy the story.

Great stories with a few odd elements.......2005-05-10

I'm reviewing a shorter compilation of Jack London stories not currently available on Amazon, but all of the stories are also in this book.

I bought the book to revisit the "cold weather stories" such as Call of the Wild and To Build a Fire while holed up last winter in my snowy mountain redoubt. I enjoyed the cold adventures and descriptions of living and working outdoors in subzero weather before the era of goose down, Thinsulate, Gore-Tex and nylon. I was not too surprised to learn my recollection of these stories that I first encountered forty-odd years ago was not particularly accurate (not unlike other distant memories I investigate) and I enjoyed reading them.

Having said that, a lot of these stories are downright DEPRESSING...London was a well regarded writer and commercial success in his short lifetime. But he was apparently a tormented person, driven to alcohol and suicide by age 40. His dark view of human nature and the need for and desirability of radical socialist revolution is a theme of several stories. One of them, The Dream of Debs, fantasizes about a bazaar socialist rebellion in San Francisco. The "working class" secretly colludes to hide away food for themselves and then calls a general strike that brings the "ruling class" to its knees by imminent starvation. The result is that everyone gets their pre-strike jobs back with greatly improved income and working conditions for all the strikers. It never occurs to London, apparently a "true believer", that some of the "rulers" might not reopen their businesses as they would lose money or that they would cover their increased costs by raising prices to the workers' detriment as consumers. Oddly, London could not fathom that his story's affluent protagonist would do anything after the strike except rehire his house full of domestic servants at much increased wages, even welcoming back those who stole his food and abandoned him to battle starvation. Weird...

Nevertheless, these stories are well written with vivid, pithy language, colorful descriptions and surprising plot twists. They are excellent reading for would-be writers of all ages and, at least regarding the "traditional" stories, are excellent tales of heroic adventure in the frigid late-19th century north country.

White Fang .......2005-03-10

I once read this book when I was around 11 years old. Back then I pretty much got all of the details of the book. I again read White Fang this summer. White fang is about a fearsome wolf named Buck. Buck always stood above all of the dogs. He led his team of fellow wolfs on a race over 2,000 miles long. In the book Buck proves his strength and his courage time and time again. I must give a warning to the younger readers out there that there are some violent dog fights that Buck gets into so if you are not into the whole fighting scene you might just want to skip those parts. If you like a classic book with action and adventure than White Fang is the book for you.

The strong and whole hearted dog.......2002-11-12

The cold Alaskan air could burn anybody's skin and heart, but not this wolf named Buck. He showed he had heart in everything that he did. One of the many things Buck did during his three thousand miles was earning ownership from all the dogs on the team and from all of the men and women who owned him. He showed courage by pulling twenty five-pound sacks of flour for one hundred yards all by himself. This book is a good one to read if you love adventure, excitement and danger. I would recommend this book to anybody, but mostly the younger children because of its many fun adventures.

Really thrilling, but not quite a five.......2002-10-17

This review is by a family of three kids. Our mom read this book aloud to us. Here are our opinions:
Anne (12): I think this was a really moving book, but some of the writer's opinions, I didn't quite agree with. Jack London says that we are shaped by our society, but I believe that we can change ourselves, because we have free will.
Michelle (11): It was a great book, but I didn't like the middle portion, because White Fang was all hatred, killing all the dogs he met.
John (9): The best part was when White Fang was sitting at the shore as boats came up, waiting to kill all the dogs. I think White Fang was good and bad. He would be a good guard dog. But he was bad because he tried to kill. He never let any dog retreat to save themselves.
Mom: This was really a good book, but I recommend it as a read aloud. The reading level is way above my kids heads, but they understood it in context as a read aloud. There are some very ferocious parts that I skipped as I read, because I thought them too graphic. But the book did inspire us to discuss the idea that we are shaped by our surroundings, and that we have free will to make our way. But also, we shape other's lives by our own choices -- so we are responsible before God to others.

The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and other stories

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The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and other stories
Jack London
Manufacturer: Oxford
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0192510568

The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories (American Library)

Average customer rating:

The birth of the animal-rights movement
Powerful, gripping tales of nature and survival
Dogs, Dogs, Dogs
Wonderful
Required reading for any literate person

The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories (American Library)
Jack London
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140390014

Customer Reviews:

The birth of the animal-rights movement.......2007-09-29

Long before TV, the written word was the wellstone of many political movements. This is as true in America as it is in Europe, and many modern American books are testament to this. Upton Sinclair's Jungle started the food safety movement, Nader's Unsafe at any Speed brought public and Congress's attention to car safety, and the Grapes of Wrath put white poverty into the attention of the mainstream media. This book, more than any other single work of American literature, can be argued as giving birth to the animal-rights movement; a very unique feature of American society as animals have almost no rights everywhere else in the world. This story itself is short and accessible to most elementary school students. What it does is create a parallel between human suffering and the suffering of animals; and in doing so, it puts a human face on animals. As such, it deserves to be on any list of great works of English literature, and as part of any middle school curriculum.

Powerful, gripping tales of nature and survival.......2001-12-16

I have to admit that I have not really given Jack London his proper due up to now. Perhaps it is because I don't by my nature like outdoor adventure type stories, or perhaps it is because I associate White Fang and "To Build a Fire" with my youth. The fact is that Jack London is a tremendously talented writer. His understanding of the basics of life matches his great knowledge of the snow-enshrouded world of the upper latitudes. The Call of the Wild, despite its relative brevity and the fact that it is (at least on its surface) a dog's story, contains as much truth and reality of man's own struggles as that which can be sifted from the life's work of many other respected authors. The story he tells is starkly real; as such, it is not pretty, and it is not elevating. As an animal lover, I found parts of this story heartbreaking: Buck's removal from the civilized Southland in which he reigned supreme among his animal kindred to the brutal cold and even more brutal machinations of hard, weathered men who literally beat him and whipped him full of lashes is supremely sad and bothersome. Even more sad are the stories of the dogs that fill the sled's traces around him. Poor good-spirited Curly never has a chance, while Dave's story is made the more unbearable by his brave, undying spirit. Even the harsh taskmaster Spitz has to be pitied, despite his harsh nature, for the reader knows full well that this harsh nature was forced upon him by man and his thirst for gold. Buck's travails are long and hard, but the nobility of his spirit makes of him a hero--this despite the fact that his primitive animal instincts and urges continually come to dominate him, pushing away the memory and reality of his younger, softer days among civilized man. Buck not only conquers all--the weather, the harshness of the men who harness his powers in turn, the other dogs and wolves he comes into contact with--he thrives. The redemption he seems to gain with the fortunate encounter with John Thornton is also dashed in the end, after which Buck finally gives in fully to "the call of the wild" and becomes a creature of nature only. While this is a sad ending of sorts, one also feels joy and satisfaction at Buck's refusal to surrender to nature's harsh trials and his ability to find his own kind of happiness in the transplanted world in which he was placed. This isn't a story to read when you are depressed. London's writing is beautiful, poignant, and powerful, but it is also somber, sometimes morose, infinitely real, and at times gut-wrenching and heartbreaking.

The other stories are also powerful tales of survival (or demise) in the face of nature's harshness. I feel I am not alone in saying that I cannot recall most of the stories I had to read in school in my younger years but I distinctly recall "To Build a Fire." London's real, visceral language and description is hard to forget, as is the human pride and stupidity that characterizes the protagonist--London seems to be saying that we must respect and understand nature in order to survive and prosper. The protagonist's demise is more comical than tragic because of his lack of understanding and appreciation for the harsh realities of his environment. All of the stories bear the same general themes as the two I have mentioned. In each, man or beast is forced to battle against nature; survival is largely determined by each one's willingness or freedom to recede into primitiveness and let the blood of his ancestors rise up within his veins. Those who refuse to give in to their lowest instincts and who do not truly respect nature do not survive. I feel that London sometimes went a little overboard in "The Call of the Wild" when describing Buck's visions and instinctual memories of his ancestors among the first men, but his writing certainly remains compelling and beautiful, an important reminder to those of us today who are soft and take nature for granted that nature must be respected and that even her harshest realities are in some ways beautiful and noble, and that the law of survival applies just as much to us as it does to the beasts of the field.

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs.......2000-06-02

Ok, this might just be me, but I found this book extremely boring. The author did an OK job on making it bearable for girls, yet I would definitely classify this as a "boy book." I found it impossible to enjoy, although guys may like it. I don't like reading about animals. I like reading about people, and how they react to different situations, a position no animal could fulfil. My favorite books are The Phantom of the Opera and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. If you like those books, you will probably not like this one.

Wonderful.......2000-02-07

The Call of the Wild is about a dog and his adventures. The writing of it and the action that takes place is excellent.

Required reading for any literate person.......1999-12-15

Jack London is still the most widely read American author in the whole world. He was one of the first to incorporate modern psychology into his fiction and gave birth to the 20th century short story. Great eye for detail

The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories: Library Edition

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The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories: Library Edition
Jack London
Manufacturer: Blackstone Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 0786148993

Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea-Wolf, Klondike and Other Stories

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Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea-Wolf, Klondike and Other Stories
Jack London
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TFDM2Y

The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea-Wolf, Klondike and Other Stories (The Library of America)

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The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea-Wolf, Klondike and Other Stories (The Library of America)
Jack London
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

White Fang + The Call of the Wild + The Sea-Wolf + To Build a Fire and Other Stories (Jack London Classics, 4 Volume Matched Set)

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White Fang + The Call of the Wild + The Sea-Wolf + To Build a Fire and Other Stories (Jack London Classics, 4 Volume Matched Set)

Manufacturer: Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000ERI4EI

The Call Of The Wild, Tales of the Fish Patrol, The Cruise of the 'Dazzler', The Son of the Wolf and other stories, White Fang

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The Call Of The Wild, Tales of the Fish Patrol, The Cruise of the 'Dazzler', The Son of the Wolf and other stories, White Fang

Manufacturer: Octopus Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

This is a collection of some of the most loved stories that Jack London ever wrote. His stories make you feel like you are right there in the story.

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THE CALL OF THE WILD, WHITE FANG, AND OTHER STORIES
JACK LONDON
Manufacturer: Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S5SW52

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