A celebration of space exploration told through the visual imagination of great dreamers from the seventeenth century to the present day.
An endless source of fascination, space is both alluring and mysterious, a place of wonder and terror. Space Journal is a visual celebration of our perception of the cosmos across centuries and cultures. In drawings and diagrams, plans, charts, and paintings, a great range of scientists and dreamers each tell their own story of an element of space exploration. Their visions were largely based in the scientific understanding of their time, but as it turns out, many of the principles remain.
Moving beyond a collection of space snapshots, this book benefits from the unmatched insights of journalist and collector Dallas Campbell, who weaves together priceless memorabilia, revolutionary experiments, and spectacular scenes to map both real and potential encounters with the unknown throughout history. From Galileo’s shopping list to speeches annotated in President John F. Kennedy’s own hand, from The War of the Worlds to Space Invaders, Campbell’s lavishly illustrated orbit sets out the radical thinkers and creatives who envisioned us leaving our planet—or having guests stop by—and in some cases, made it happen.
Dallas Campbell is a broadcaster and author who has presented some of television’s highest-profile factual programmes for the BBC and beyond, including: The Gadget Show, Bang Goes the Theory, Supersized Earth, Stargazing Live, The Sky at Night, City in the Sky, Britain Beneath your Feet, Egypt’s Lost Cities and The Science of Stupid. His television work has taken him around the world giving audiences a backstage pass into the hidden workings of the human made world. He’s filmed in some extraordinary locations: rocket launches in Kazakhstan, on top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, secret chambers in the Great Pyramid of Giza, Area-51 in Nevada, the bottom of a Mexico City mega-sewer and everywhere in between.
His many podcasts include: Patented: History of Inventions and, In-Orbit, for the Satellite Applications Catapult
He has written two books on the history and wider culture of space of space exploration: Ad, Astra an Illustrated Guide to Leaving the Planet (Simon & Schuster) and Space Journal: The Art and Science of Cosmic Exploration (Thames & Hudson), as well as contributing to several others.
He is an honorary Fellow of the British Science Association, a Pro Chancellor of the University of Northampton, and a BBC Mastermind champion.