Hacia La Conquista Del Universo.

A Spanish popular survey of astronautics in the Colección Odisea of Aymá, “illustrated with photographs,” first edition, October 1957. The author is a civil engineer and honorary president of the Agrupación Astronáutica Española and a life member of the British Interplanetary Society.

His prologue warns against both scepticism and the sensationalism of “interplanetary agencies,” arguing that space will be conquered step by step through sacrifices and failures, not by a sudden invention. He avoids formulas in the text and gathers technical notes in an appendix.

Four parts and 16 chapters run from the “prehistory” of astronautics, reaction propulsion and the great rockets, through artificial satellites, automatic and manned vehicles, orbital refuelling, space stations and the conquest of the Moon, to distant stages: the planets, nuclear propulsion, colonisation of the solar system and a closing look at the stars.