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The author of the international bestseller The Case for
Mars ("ingenious" - The New York Times Book Review) brings
us to the brink of human exploration in this visionary yet practical blueprint
of how we can settle new planets and reach new stars. Using
nuts-and-bolts engineering and a unique grasp of human history, the man celebrated
as the "Tom Paine of space" brings us to the not-very-distant future,
when our global society will branch out to become a spacefaring one. From the
current-day prospects of lunar bases and Mars settlements to the colonization
of the galaxy, engineer and space visionary Robert Zubrin delivers the most important
and forward-looking work on space and the true possibilities of human exploration
since Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Sagan said of Zubrin's
own humans-to-Mars plan, "Bob Zubrin really, nearly alone, changed our thinking
on this issue." Now Zubrin takes us further, into the prospect of human expansion
to the outer planets of our solar system and beyond. In
Entering Space, Zubrin surveys: - How the
race for new satellite-launch technology is giving birth to a more economical,
reusable form of rocketry that will be able to carry more people into space more
inexpensively than ever before.
- How Mars represents
humanity's next home, offering an ideal and compelling locale for the first colonization
of space and a launching pad for deeper settlement and exploration.
- How
asteroids represent one of the greatest opportunities for mining and other forms
of space commerce -- but also pose a potential threat to life on our own planet.
- How
rocket planes, solar and magnetic sails, controlled fusion, and other technologies
stand untapped as unique resources that will allow us to be more mobile and to
reach farther into the stars than we have ever dreamed.
- How
humans will meet the challenges of terra-forming other worlds, interstellar travel,
and eventual contact with other intelligent species.
These
are just a few of the themes in a book already being celebrated as the manifesto
of a new era in space travel and exploration. "After reading it," says
bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson, "you have a clearer idea than before
of where you stand in the universe." Dr. Robert
Zubrin is an internationally renowned astronomical engineer and the acclaimed
author of The Case for Mars which Arthur C. Clarke called "the most
comprehensive account of the past and the future of Mars that I have ever encountered."
NASA recently adapted Zubrin's humans-to-Mars mission plan. A former senior engineer
at Lockheed Martin, Zubrin is the president of the Mars Society, and the founder
of Pioneer Astronautics, a successful space exploration and development firm.
He lives with his family in Indian Hills, Colorado. |
