The Star Drive
The True Story of a Genius, an Engine and Our Future
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Narrated by:
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Tom Perkins
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By:
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Phillip Hills
About this listen
In May 2018, NASA called a press conference to announce the successful test-run of their tiny nuclear reactor KRUSTY (Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology). This revolutionary technology, which runs on heat alone, may have profound consequences for the future of mankind, enabling us to maintain permanent bases on the Moon, on Mars, and other planets, and eventually power a starship. On earth too it could have enormous benefits as a new way to generate power at a time when climate change is threatening our very existence.
This book is the amazing story behind this invention, which began with Robert Stirling's original designs for a heat exchange engine in 1816. An invention truly ahead of its time, the practical application of the Stirling Engine has taxed the minds of scientists and inventors for almost 200 years. Only now is it possible for its full potential to be realized. Phillip Hills weaves science and history together to tell the story of one of the most exciting scientific developments the world has ever seen.
©2021 Phillip Hills (P)2022 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Ignition! is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety. John Drury Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise that eventually took men to the moon.
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Science man lists names of chemicals for 9 hours
- By Adrian on 05-06-19
By: John Drury Clark, and others
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Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper
- How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong
- By: Robert Bryce
- Narrated by: Steven Menasche
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In this provocative and optimistic rebuke to the catastrophists, Robert Bryce shows how innovation and the inexorable human desire to make things Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper is providing consumers with Cheaper and more abundant energy, Faster computing, Lighter vehicles, and myriad other goods. That same desire is fostering unprecedented prosperity, greater liberty, and yes, better environmental protection.
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I thought I was getting a book on the future.
- By Grant on 08-02-14
By: Robert Bryce
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Merlin
- The Power Behind the Spitfire, Mosquito and Lancaster: The Story of the Engine That Won the Battle of Britain and WWII
- By: Graham Hoyland
- Narrated by: Chris Courtenay, Philip Pope
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The most iconic planes of WWII, the Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, DeHavilland Mosquito and the Avro Lancaster, were all powered by one engine, the Rolls-Royce Merlin. The story of the Merlin is one of British ingenuity at its height, of artistry and problem-solving that resulted in a war-winning design.
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Mostly a history of Rolls Royce
- By Rafael on 09-07-21
By: Graham Hoyland
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Tesla
- Inventor of the Electrical Age
- By: W. Bernard Carlson
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the 20th century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius.
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A detailed examination of Tesla's work
- By Jean on 02-01-14
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The Chip
- How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution
- By: T.R. Reid
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Barely 50 years ago a computer was a gargantuan, vastly expensive thing that only a handful of scientists had ever seen. The world's brightest engineers were stymied in their quest to make these machines small and affordable until the solution finally came from two ingenious young Americans. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce hit upon the stunning discovery that would make possible the silicon microchip, a work that would ultimately earn Kilby the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000.
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Great narration, sloppy writing
- By Constantly Learning on 10-06-22
By: T.R. Reid
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Simply Electrifying
- The Technology That Transformed the World, from Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk
- By: Craig R. Roach
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Simply Electrifying: The Technology That Transformed the World, from Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk brings to life the 250-year history of electricity through the stories of the men and women who used it to transform our world: Benjamin Franklin, James Watt, Michael Faraday, Samuel F.B. Morse, Thomas Edison, Samuel Insull, Albert Einstein, Rachel Carson, Elon Musk, and more. In the process, it reveals for the first time the complete, thrilling, and often dangerous story of electricity's historic discovery, development, and worldwide application.
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decent, but ended up disappointing.
- By Alexander Douglass on 12-28-18
By: Craig R. Roach
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The Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution
- A Captivating Guide to the Age of Reason and a Period of Major Industrialization
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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If you want to discover the captivating history of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, then this two-in-one books bundle is for you. Includes: Age of Enlightenment and The Industrial Revolution.
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Great overview of the subject
- By Vanimal on 09-20-23
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Drive!
- Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age
- By: Lawrence Goldstone
- Narrated by: Christopher Price
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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From the acclaimed author of Birdmen comes a revelatory new history of the birth of the automobile - an illuminating and entertaining true tale of invention, competition, and the visionaries, hustlers, and swindlers who came together to transform the world. With a narrative as propulsive as its subject, Drive! plunges us headlong into a time unlike any in history, when manic innovation and consumerist zeal coalesced to forever change the way people got from one place to another.
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Ford Detractor.
- By Eric Johnston on 08-15-22
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The Vanishing Face of Gaia
- A Final Warning
- By: James Lovelock
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Vanishing Face of Gaia, British scientist James Lovelock predicts global warming will lead to a Hot Epoch. Lovelock is best known for formulating the controversial Gaia theory in the 1970s, with Ruth Margulis of the University of Massachusetts, which states that organisms interact with and regulate Earth's surface and atmosphere. We ignore this interaction at our peril.
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A New Perspective - A Must Listen - Very Moving
- By Thomas on 01-29-12
By: James Lovelock
What listeners say about The Star Drive
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- TangoDeltaDelta
- 04-23-22
Interesting Info
The narrator was really good. His soothing voice reminds me of Tom Shane, owner of the Shane Company (a diamond jewelry store in Minnesota), who does most of his own radio commercials.
As an audiobook I found it would have been nice to have a few pictures or diagrams at times. Everything is well described, but a few pictures would have been worth more than a thousand more words.
As for the stories, by the end you feel like you know quite a bit about the people, and some of their motivations, but you aren't always given a reason to care about some of them. While many of the people-stories aren't overly inspiring, the technology story does inspire me to want to learn more, and to pay more attention when things like Stirling engines, Kilopwer or KRUSTY are mentioned in the news.
If learning, being inspired and gaining or shifting perspectives are some of your goals, you'll at least appreciate this book. As pure entertainment, it falls a little short, but that's probably not why you read (or listen to) a nonfiction book like this.
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- Pier
- 03-23-22
Some genius, little future, a lot about engines
Who was Stirling, and why is his old forgotten invention showing up in the KRUSTY reactor, slated by some as a candidate solution for space propulsion?
This book focuses almost exclusively on the Stirling engine and its place during the times of its development. A mysterious inventor with an even more enigmatic and counter-intuitive technology. If we want to understand its reappearance today, we need to understand what happened: how it came about, what the nature of its design was, and why it was forgotten. It is a good premise, and what is the future but an extrapolation of the past? Except, because the book is very uneven it comes across as not being much about the future or its "star drive" at all.
Overall I find that it accomplishes what it sets out to do, however, and the narration is very good. There aren't enough audiobooks exploring the ins and outs of technologies in inspired ways, and that's enough to make this stand out. I wish it would've expanded more on the future context surrounding the KRUSTY reactor, and maybe more about potential star drives beyond it to give it a better payoff, but I still recommend this to anyone interested in technologies or particularly the enigma that is the Stirling.
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- Andrew Bernier
- 03-22-22
Nothing about the Star Drive engine.
Nothing but a long history lesson. Almost nothing about the title.
Star Drive engine. Sterling.
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