Giancarlo Genta – författare

The aim of the book is to be a reference book in automotive technology, as far as automotive chassis (i.e. everything that is inside a vehicle except the engine and the body) is concerned. The book is a result of a decade of work heavily sponsored by the FIAT group (who supplied material, together with other automotive companies, and sponsored the work). The first volume deals with the design of automotive components and the second volume treats the various aspects of the design of a vehicle as a system.

This work serves as a reference concerning the automotive chassis, i.e. everything that is inside a vehicle except the engine and the body. It is the result of a decade of work mostly done by the FIAT group, who supplied material, together with other automotive companies, and sponsored the work. The first volume deals with the design of automotive components and the second volume treats the various aspects of the design of a vehicle as a system.

The aim of the book is to be a reference book in automotive technology, as far as automotive chassis (i.e. everything that is inside a vehicle except the engine and the body) is concerned. The book is a result of a decade of work heavily sponsored by the FIAT group (who supplied material, together with other automotive companies, and sponsored the work). The first volume deals with the design of automotive components and the second volume treats the various aspects of the design of a vehicle as a system.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future … unbeknownst to Earth, the Galaxy is home to a number of spacefaring societies. This confederation enforces a strict protocol forbidding any contact with civilizations that have not yet achieved both a substantial spacefaring capability and sufficient maturity to control the technology explosion before triggering their own extinction.

While this policy is intended to only bring in peaceful new members, matters change entirely when the confederation is threatened by some unknown entity—is the menace real or imagined? The confederation decides to break with the rules and sends a delegate to Earth to hire one of the supposedly belligerent Earthlings to investigate and to revive the confederation’s long-unused starfleet. The Earthman agrees, but demands a high price: should he succeed, the confederation will have to accept Earth as a new member. As the threat becomes ever more acute, the question soon becomes which mission will prove harder—saving the confederation or convincing it to accept the deal!

The extensive appendix, written in nontechnical language, reviews the scientific and technological topics underlying the plot—ranging from the Fermi Paradox, space travel, and artificial/collective intelligence to theories on possible universal convergences in technological and biological development.

The twenty-fourth century: humankind has become a spacefaring civilization, colonizing the solar system and beyond. While no alien forms of life have yet been encountered in this expansion into space, colonists suddenly encounter machines of alien origin—huge robots able to reproduce themselves. Called replicators by the colonists, they seem to have but a single goal: to destroy all organic life they come in contact with.

Since the colonial governments have no means to fight this menace directly, they instead promise huge rewards to whoever destroys a replicator. As a result, the frontier attracts a new kind of adventurer, the Hunters, who work to find and destroy the replicators. Mike Edwards, a skilled young maintenance technician and robotics expert at a faraway outpost, will not only become one of them—but be the very first one to unlock the secret behind the replicators’ origin and mission.

Our natural world has been irretrievably altered by humans, for humans. From domesticated wheat fields to nuclear power plants and spacecraft, everything we see and interact with has in some way been changed by the presence of our species, starting from the Neolithic era so many centuries ago. 

This book provides a crash course on the issues and debates surrounding technology’s shifting place in our society. It covers the history of our increasingly black-box world, which some theorize will end with technology accelerating beyond our understanding. At the same time, it analyzes competing trends and theories, the lack of scientific knowledge of large sections of the population, the dogmas of pseudoscience, and the growing suspicion of science and technology, which may inevitably lead to scientific stagnation. 

This textbook draws on the authors’ experience gained by teaching courses for engineering students on e.g. vehicle mechanics, vehicle system design, and chassis design; and on their practical experience as engineering designers for vehicle and chassis components at a major automotive company. The book is primarily intended for students of automotive engineering, but also for all technicians and designers working in this field. Other enthusiastic engineers will also find it to be a useful technical guide.

The present volume (The Automotive Chassis – Volume 2: System Design) focuses on the automotive chassis as a system, providing readers with the knowledge needed to integrate the individual components described in Volume 1 in a complex system that satisfies customers’ expectations. Special emphasis is given to factors influencing system performance, including:

 -  the influence of the powertrain on vehicle performance. Conventional, hybrid and electric powertrains are considered;

 -  factors influencing vehicles’ handling performance;

 -  factors influencing vehicles’ comfort performance; and

 -  factors influencing vehicles’ stability and strategies for accident avoidance (active safety).

In addition, this second volume thoroughly covers topics that are usually neglected in other books about the automotive chassis, such as:

 - the basics of vehicle aerodynamics;

 - internal combustion engines, electric motors and batteries; and

This thoroughly revised second edition has been updated to reflect the latest advances in electric and hybrid vehicles, electronic control systems and autonomous driving.

This book gives an account, as little biased as possible, on human space missions beyond low Earth orbit in general, and specifically to the planets of the solar system. The importance of advanced propulsion is stressed and the mathematical methods needed to design missions based on them are described. The included computer code allows the user to assess the feasibility of the various missions using different propulsion systems and how advancements in propulsion can allow humankind to become a true spacefaring civilization.

As opposite to the majority of books dealing with mission design, where the subject is usually dealt with in a highly mathematical way, here an attempt is made to avoid as much as possible the mathematical complexities and to focus on the practical aspects of the design. However, the equations needed to make numerical analysis and simulations of the missions are described and discussed.

An original computer code is included in the book, and an appendix helps the reader to understand how to use it. The code is different from existing ones since its main aim is to be user friendly and to allow the user to make a preliminary design of interplanetary missions aimed to planets and their satellites, comets or asteroids.