Synopses & Reviews
From a leading planetary scientist and an award-winning science writer, a propulsive account of the developments and initiatives that have transformed the dream of space colonization into something that may well be achievable.
We are at the cusp of a golden age in space science, as increasingly more entrepreneurs Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos are seduced by the commercial potential of human access to space. But Beyond Earth does not offer another wide-eyed technology fantasy: instead, it is grounded not only in the human capacity for invention and the appeal of adventure but also in the bureaucratic, political, and scientific realities that present obstacles to space travel realities that have hampered NASA s efforts ever since the Challenger disaster.
In Beyond Earth, Charles Wohlforth and Amanda R.Hendrix offer groundbreaking research and argue persuasively that not Mars, but Titan a moon of Saturn with a nitrogen atmosphere, a weather cycle, and an inexhaustible supply of cheap energy, where we will even be able to fly like birds in the minimal gravitational field offers the most realistic and thrilling prospect of life without support from Earth.
Review
"Beyond Earth is an important contribution. It’s a thought-provoking introduction to our unlimited future in the outer solar system and beyond." S. Pete Worden, Executive Director, Breakthrough StarShot, and Former NASA Ames Center Director
Review
"Promising not to offer another ‘wide-eyed technology fantasy,’ Hendrix and Wohlforth dive into the gritty bureaucratic, political, and scientific hoops humans will have to jump through to make life on other planets a reality. The book also delivers its own form of a mic drop with the argument that it is Titan, not Mars, that will eventually serve as Earth’s next frontier." Inverse, Science Books to Read this Fall
Review
"This wonderful book imagines the future and, most of all, made me think — a rewarding journey even when I disagreed. As enjoyable as any science fiction, it isn’t fiction, but a fascinating extrapolation of facts leading to a possible future. Everyone should read it." Julian Nott, space scientist, pilot, inventor, and holder of seventy-nine world aviation records in balloons
Review
"Long ago I’d come to doubt that humans might ever leave this planet to homestead another. But this impeccably researched, imaginative, and gracefully written book seized me right from its introduction and kept me rapt to the end, rooting for our future. Beyond Earth is epic science writing, the rare kind that I can’t get out of my mind – or my dreams." Alan Weisman, author of Countdown and The World Without Us
About the Author
Charles Wohlforth is the author of more than ten previous books. He writes a column for Alaska Dispatch News, hosts a weekly interview program for public radio stations in Alaska (where he lives), and has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology, among many other awards.
Amanda R. Hendrix, Ph.D., a planetary scientist, worked for twelve years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has been a scientific investigator on the Galileo and Lunar Reconnaissance missions, a principal investigator on NASA research and Hubble Space Telescope observing programs, and is the author of many scientific papers. As an investigator on the Cassini mission to Saturn, she has focused her research on the moons of Saturn.
Charles Wohlforth, Amanda R. Hendrix on PowellsBooks.Blog
There is a place in our solar system, beyond Earth, where, if you could get there, you could live in an inflated plastic building and go outside without a pressure suit...
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