Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas, 25 Activities
Academy at West Point He began his career with the Air Force and flew 62 combat missions in the Korean War He was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA to be an astronaut in 1963 In 1966 he participated in the Gemini XII mission where he orbited the earth for four days In 1969 he joined Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon On July 20 1969 he became the second man to walk on the moon Aldrin earned a Ph D degree from the Mass achusetts Institute of Technology and helped NASA develop methods for space rendezvous and docking of vehicles He has written several books including Return to Earth about the Apollo 11 mission and several science fiction novels Buzz Aldrin on the moon
AUTHOR S NOTE N THIS BOOK I have tried to give readers a broad pic ture of Galileo’s life discussing his most important scientific discoveries along with the struggles of his personal and public life My goal was to give readers insight into the man and the world in which he lived Throughout the book I have used the text of letters to and from Galileo Luckily much of Galileo's corre spondence has been preserved Some of these have been borrowed from mid to late 19th century books on Galileo such as The Story of Galileo Karl von Gebler's Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia Philarête Chasle's Galileo Galilei sa vie son proces et ses contempo rains and Mary Allan Olney’s Private Life of Galileo For some excerpts I have taken the original Italian directly from Opere di Galileo Galilei or from Vincenzo Viviani's Racconto historico della vita di Signor Galileo Galilei Nobile Fiorentino and translated them into Eng lish In all cases the intent is to provide the reader with the best understanding of Galileo's life and times It is often hard to present in English the force ful yet melodic sense of Galileo's original Italian Any text in is an explanation I have supplied about the information given in the quotes There are a great deal of scientific and historical terms and personal names mentioned in the book To
help avoid confusion glossaries of key terms and key people in Galileo s story have been included in the back of the book There is also a list of key locations Galileo's key writings and the popes and grand dukes of Tuscany during Galileo s lifetime Note that the Jesuits Dominicans Benedictines Carmelites and Franciscans mentioned throughout the book are all orders of the Catholic
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS HANKS TO ALL those who have helped and encour aged me during my Galilean odyssey Very special thanks to the legendary Buzz Aldrin for inspiring me and for writing the foreword Thanks to Cynthia Sherry for helping me refine the book proposal and see it through the editorial process Also thanks to my wife Caren for her help and encouragement Thanks to Matthew and Elizabeth for allowing me a few minutes here and there to write this book And a special thanks to Matthew for helping me test some of the activities Sincere thanks to all those excellent researchers who have come before me with consider able work to shed some light upon Galileo s life and
