Entering Space - Hardcover

Zubrin, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0874779758 ISBN 13: 9780874779752

Publisher: Tarcher, 1999

Synopsis

The author of The Case for Mars provides an insider's look at the future of space exploration and travel, examining the true potential for human expeditions into outer space, the prospects for colonization of the outer planets of the solar system, and their implications for the future of humankind. 35,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Humans are not native to the Earth. So posits astronautical engineer Bob Zubrin in the opening of Entering Space. We're native to just a small sliver of it, the spot where our species originated in tropical Kenya. We set out from that paradise about 50,000 years ago, north into "the teeth of the Ice Age," and all the ground we've gained since then has been thanks to our tenacity and our tools.

Zubrin reasons that it's time we cover a little more ground. Written with a boyish enthusiasm and formidable techie know-how, Entering Space urges us to realize "the feasibility, the necessity, and the promise" of becoming a space-faring civilization, of colonizing our own solar system and beyond. And Zubrin, author of the influential and widely acclaimed The Case for Mars, knows his stuff--NASA adapted his plans for near-term human exploration of Mars, and Carl Sagan gave the author no less credit: "Bob Zubrin really, nearly alone, changed our thinking on this issue." Entering Space plots the second and third phases of humanity's course--now that we've mastered our own planet, Zubrin says we must first look to settling our solar system (beginning with Mars) and then to the galaxy beyond.

With its practicable visions of using "iceteroids" to terraform Mars and harnessing the power of the outlying gas giants ("the solar system's Persian Gulf"), Entering Space succeeds at making the fantastic seem attainable, the stuff of science fiction, science fact. --Paul Hughes

About the Author:

Robert Zubrin is an internationally renowned astronautical engineer and the acclaimed author of The Case for Mars. NASA recently adapted his humans-to-Mars mission plan. A former senior engineer at Lockheed Martin, Zubrin is the founder of Pioneer Astronautics, a successful space exploration and development firm.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tarcher
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0874779758
• ISBN 13: 9780874779752
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 305