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Descrizione

"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

"Astronautical engineer Zubrin stirred up more than a few imaginations with his 1996 The Case for Mars, which explained how and why humans could visit the red planet cheaply and soon. Zubrin's confident followup divides its predictions and programs into three sections: the first covers near-term projects in Earth orbit, with a view to commercial possibilities. The second part takes on the Moon, Mars, asteroids and the outer solar system, and the third adopts an optimistic view of interstellar travel and extraterrestrial life. Zubrin's range can amaze: he begins with the Space Shuttle (misguided and inefficient, he argues) and ends with speculation about how humanity might "change the laws of the universe." In between, Zubrin (privy to some of the dealings involved) shows how American politics quashed recent chances of cheap space flight; how "shake-and-bake" processing can profitably mine helium from the Moon; what we can do to defend life on Earth against a real-life Armageddon asteroid; and how a magnetic sail might speed up and slow down a starship. Zubrin's engineering background and his crisp prose make him a confident explainer, as technical as he needs to be but rarely more so. Regular readers of science fiction and anyone else with high school chemistry and physics will understand his arguments about the engines, ships and industries he proposes to create. His gung-ho clarity may even raise suspicions, especially when he moves from physics to metaphysics: Will the species really stagnate unless we become a "Type II" civilization? But anyone who cares about space travel will care about some part of this book. While some will gravitate to the near-term proposals, others will happily escape their pull and reach, with Zubrin, for the stars." Agent, Laurie Fox of the Linda Chester Literary Agency. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Commenti

La colonizzazione dello spazio: prospettive, modelli, tecnologia.

Keywords

haust velocity, dry mass fraction, percent lightspeed, magnetic sail, photon rocket, nuclear electric propulsion, departure velocity, spacefaring civilization, thermal rocket, interstellar missions, cyclotron radiation, launch rate, outer solar system, launch prices, launch costs, interstellar flight, specific impulse, solar sails, exhaust velocities, fusion fuel, lunar base, reusable launch vehicle, extant life, interstellar travel, Main Belt, Oort Cloud, Mars Direct, Mars Society, Space Shuttle, Lunar Prospector, Pioneer Rocketplane, Kuiper Belt, Barnard's Star, Pax Mundana, The Challenge of Interstellar Travel, Big Bang, Hubble Space Telescope, Strategic Defense Initiative, Kistler Aerospace, space, spazio, astronautica, esplorazione, colonizzazione, colonies,