The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must by Robert Zubrin, Richard Wagner Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
Book Review: A new technological and philisophical vision for the future
Summary: 5 Stars
This book offers a coherent and sensible approach to the manned exploration and eventual colonization of Mars using current technologies and workable budgets. But more than that it offers a poignant phlisophical reason that this project must be undertaken now, for the good of all mankind. I found his epilogue to be one of the most profound articulations for the case for Mars that I have ever heard. As far as his science, it is technical enough for the engineer but simplistic enough for the dreamy eyed teenager. Great read.Book Review: A must-buy by all standards!
Summary: 5 Stars
The fact that the Bible, and not a book such as this one ranks first among the most-read books is enough to render any rational person sad.Book Review: Inspiring! Best book I've read in a long time!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is too good to describe in words! I am a 13-year-old who is very interested in Mars and its colonization, so you can imagine my surprise when I found a book at Borders (offline) that seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. I thought it would be good, but not THIS good. Zubrin has an amazingly strong case, which is essentialy that people should have walked on Mars in about 3,000 B.C.E. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but Zubrin's point is that the technology a manned mission to Mars requires has been in existance for several years. The bottom line: Buy the book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Book Review: Intriguing Plan for Manned Mars Mission
Summary: 4 Stars
This book makes a promising case for the authors "Mars Direct" plan for an affordable manned mars mission using current technology. His proposal has great merit, and he illustrates its strengths well. But he definitely has a plan to sell, and one gets the feeling that surely there must be a tradeoff in this scheme SOMEWHERE! In short Zubrin's energy and optimism are contagious, and he carries himself along to positions that are almost certainly over-optimistic. Eventually the reader may even wonder if he's getting the whole story. The latter half of the book proposes methods for the colonization and eventual terraforming of mars. Necessarily, this involves speculations that at this point in time can only be very imaginative and rather wild. Still, the author has, I think, the right idea about the potential here, and makes a good case for at least the Mars Direct plan. In all, this is a very thought-provoking and stimulating book. It's not often that the gre! at events of history can be so clearly laid out ahead of time; even if things do not unfold as described in The Case For Mars, it lays out a marvelous vision worth the viewing.Book Review: imagine rafting down Martian riverbeds.....
Summary: 5 Stars
The past generation has responded to the mounting pressures of overpopulation, global warming ('98 has been the hottest year in recorded history - radar images of satellite observations show glacier shrinking in Anartica), nuclear and biological catastrophe, pollution, and plant and animal extinction with a succession of hopeful and spirited movements that call for the reduction of carbon monoxide emissions and the saving of a number of endangerd species, ranging from whales, spotted owls, to trees and even crustaceans (yes, there is a Hollywood group committed to saving the lobster). During this same period, billions of dollars have been committed towards AIDS research.Regardless of the effectiveness of any number of theses strategies, one thing is certain: ulitmately, if humanity is to perputuate itself, it must one day leave this planet and colonize the galaxy. We must become extra-terrestrials. But we only have a limited window. Pessimists have concluded tha! t the earth has never been visited from outer space because no civilization has yet to survive its own technology. This could be our fate.
However, through the creation of a multi-planet species, Robert Zubrin's plan to colonize Mars is the best chance mankind has right now to insure its perpetuity. The stakes are huge. Humans may be destined to know the farthest reaches of the universe and become something more than man, perhaps a kind of superman. Or we may simply become curious fossils for the next higher being to evolve from mud, slime, and the radiation resistant cockroach (try cooking one in the microwave).
Given the precarious state of life on this planet, the technology we now possess (your home PC is about is powerful as the one that directed Apollo from Mission Control) and the proximity of a cool, Red Planet once capable of supporting life just three to six months away, I am at a loss to understand why Mars colonization is not at the top of the global agenda! ...except for its implausibility.
Robert Zubrin's, The ! Case For Mars, is a practical guide and plan that makes truth sometimes, as the saying goes, stranger than fiction. Computational studies by NASA scientist Chris MaKay and Zubrin demonstrate that a small but sustained rise in temperature at the Martian south pole - 4 C - can intiate a runaway greenhouse effect that will melt the ice cap. The Red Planet would soon be awash with oceans and riverbeds.
The Case For Mars is pregnant with possibilty. This book should be on the desk of every congressman, senator, CEO, and celebrity. --James Pruett