---
product_id: 376458108
title: "Mercury Paperback – 15 Aug. 2005"
brand: "ben bova"
price: "₪64"
currency: ILS
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 6
url: https://www.desertcart.co.il/products/376458108-mercury-paperback-15-aug-2005
store_origin: IL
region: Israel
---

# Mercury Paperback – 15 Aug. 2005

**Brand:** ben bova
**Price:** ₪64
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Mercury Paperback – 15 Aug. 2005 by ben bova
- **How much does it cost?** ₪64 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.il](https://www.desertcart.co.il/products/376458108-mercury-paperback-15-aug-2005)

## Best For

- ben bova enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted ben bova brand quality
- Free international shipping included
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## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![Mercury Paperback – 15 Aug. 2005 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71gXiswWJ0L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ben Bova does it again
*by C***E on 13 December 2012*

As always, Ben Bova combines his Scifi with the intrigues of human relationships. An excellent read. I highly recomment it.

### ⭐⭐⭐ Enjoyable Read
*by G***N on 6 September 2008*

This book is easy to read, its story line is straightforward and once started you will want to finish it. The image of mercury is hot, hot, hot, so no surprises there then, but it's well done. Yes we have seen space elevator's before done by Kim Stanley Robinson and Arthur C. Clarke but I had no problem with that and rather enjoyed the technical realisation of the structure. Overall I enjoyed the book and will continue to pick up more of this author's work.

### ⭐⭐ Badly structured book with faulty physics
*by B***Y on 20 February 2024*

I agree with most of the other 2 star reviews regarding the flaws in this book, compared to others in the Grand Tour of the Solar system series. What I particularly disliked was that the second (more than) half of the book was a flashback to cover the collapse of the skytower (often called a space elevator elsewhere). This is not a spoiler because the collapse was well covered in the first part, so there was no surprise or anticipation in reading the second part, only a wait for the inevitable collapse.But what I have not seen commented elsewhere are the flaws in the fundamental physics regarding the skytower, which I would not have expected from an experienced author like Ben Bova. First, the characters visit a platform on the low Earth orbit station on the tower where the characters find themselves WEIGHTLESS. But that is quite impossible for a sky tower. It inevitably rotates with the Earth itself with a period of 24 hours, so weightlessness will only occur at the geosynchronous station on the elevator, over 22,000 miles above the Earth (where by definition the stable orbit has a 24 hour period). At the low Earth orbit station, only 300 miles high, weightlessness occurs for orbits of about one and a half hours period, not 24 hours, and on the skytower the reduction in weight would be scarcely noticeable!Secondly, when the tower (which is based in Ecuador) collapses, it is supposed to fall (presumably along the line of the equator) across the Pacific ocean. But the geosynchronous station, where the break occurs, is rotating (like the Earth beneath) West to East at about 6000 mph, compared to the surface rotational velocity of about 1000 mph. So that the huge rotational momentum of the tower would fling the falling tower FORWARDS, across Brazil and the Atlantic ocean!

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*Product available on Desertcart Israel*
*Store origin: IL*
*Last updated: 2026-01-22*