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    The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
    The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
    The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must

    Written by Robert Zubrin, Richard Wagner and Arthur C. Clarke

    Narrated by Sean Runnette

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream-the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit.

    Now with the advent of a revolutionary new plan, all this has changed. Leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin has crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct, presented here with engaging anecdotes.

    The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions. It explains step-by-step how we can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars within ten years; actually produce fuel and oxygen on the planet's surface with Martian natural resources; how we can build bases and settlements; and how we can one day "terraform" Mars-a process that can alter the atmosphere of planets and pave the way for sustainable life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 13, 2018
    ISBN9781977370877
    The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
    Author

    Robert Zubrin

    Robert Zubrin is president of the aerospace R&D company Pioneer Astronautics, which performs advanced space research for NASA, the US Air Force, the US Department of Energy, and private companies. He is the founder and president of the Mars Society, an international organization dedicated to furthering the exploration and settlement of Mars, leading the Society’s successful effort to build the first simulated human Mars exploration base in the Canadian Arctic and growing the organization to include 7,000 members in 40 countries. A nuclear and astronautical engineer, Zubrin began his career with Martin Marietta (later Lockheed Martin) as a Senior Engineer involved in the design of advanced interplanetary missions. His “Mars Direct” plan for near-term human exploration of Mars was commended by NASA Administrator Dan Goldin and covered in The Economist, Fortune, Air and Space Smithsonian, Newsweek (cover story), Time, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, as well as on BBC, PBS TV, CNN, the Discovery Channel, and National Public Radio. In 1996, Zubrin was one of eight people nationwide named by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as an Advanced Concept Research Program Fellow. Zubrin is also the author of twelve books, including The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must, with more than 100,000 copies in print in America alone and now in its 25th Anniversary Edition. He lives with his wife, Hope, a science teacher, in Golden, Colorado.

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    Reviews for The Case for Mars

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    • 4/5
      Not a thrilling book I'd recommend to just anyone, exactly. But still a great book if you're interested in space, space agencies' complexities, how politics play a part, and you're not afraid of science words :P
    • 2/5
      The Red Planet fascinates me but I am convinced that humans will never settle it. It will always be beyond the range of human habitability. The zero gravity, the cosmic radiation, the dust storms, the hostile climate, the thinness of the atmosphere, the absence of liquid water, the human factors, etc., would require superhuman technological and human adaptations. It will never be profitable or cost effective. This book offers solutions, mostly hi-tech and very expensive. Despite its optimism that Mars can be terraformed, it convinced me that it will never be worth the cost to do so, even if the formidable engineering problems can be solved. This book assumes that the Earth will always be available to support Mars missions, but the Earth itself is teetering on collapse.The terraforming of Mars would be accomplished by artificially-induced global warming. Even if that could be done successfully within a reasonable time, what would prevent it from eventually getting out of control? Might as well stay on Earth!The title of this book betrays the author’s bias. He wants to do this. His book is an advertisement for Mars colonization, an appeal for the funding it would require. Thus he has a vested interest in minimizing the difficulties. His talk about “living off the land like Lewis and Clark” is unrealistic. His attitude is expansionist and strongly pro-technology. He thinks stagnation is the only alternative to perpetual expansion into new frontiers. He thinks technology is progress. But expansionism and technology can and do create serious problems. It is not our manifest destiny to colonize the planets. A society that lives within reasonable limits is not to be disparaged as a “closed society.”This book is about the Red Planet; it is more about engineering and technology. If you decide to read it, get the latest edition because this is a moving topic.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting solution to the problem of safely send humans to mars
    • 4/5
      Robert Zubrin outlines, in great detail, how a manned mission to Mars could be achieved within a decade, for less money than is generally assumed, if only we were willing to thoroughly commit to doing it. His plan involves a launch directly from Earth to Mars (with no expensive orbital construction or stepping-stone bases on the moon), using Mars' natural resources to synthesize fuel and other necessities, and an extended stay on the surface to get some real science done. He's put lot of thought into every aspect of the endeavor, from launch vehicles to orbital trajectories to crew habitats to scientific objectives, and his scheme seems extremely plausible. Zubrin also looks a bit further afield, talking about a plan for permanent Martian settlements and even the prospect of terraforming Mars. These chapters are a lot more speculative and rather less convincing, but they are interesting possibilities, and also feature lots of carefully thought-out specifics. In fact, some of the details here can get pretty dry -- I admit to sort of skimming some of the bits about the chemistry of fuel and plastics manufacturing on Mars -- but you don't necessarily have to be a rocket scientist to understand the basics of his arguments.Of course, that "if only we were willing to thoroughly commit" is one great big "if," and I can't say I'm feeling much in the way of optimism. If anything, the goal seems further away now than it did in 1996, when the first edition of this books was published. Alas.
    • 4/5
      I'm soldI'm saddened to say that in the 12 years since this book was published we are no further along to the vision set out here in these pages. We have turned our government into one which would rather micromanage our lives than set forth a vision for all of humanity. While the book is slightly technical in nature any amateur interested in space exploration can pick this book up and understand the implications...it would even be easy to skip some of the tech stuff and read the meat of the book. The authors lay out not only the benefit to society but the cost...in a detailed (nearly line-by-line) description of what a manned mission to Mars would cost if the government ran it and what it could cost on a shoestring budget. Simply a WOW factor. I'm sold.
    • 4/5
      This book - by a space scientist with some standing - describes a relatively affordable way to get astronauts to Mars. He makes a good case for why and for how. There is some engineering required, but isn't there always. He leaves one pretty convinced his proposed approach to reaching Mars will work.The downfall of the book is the dreadfully earnest tone - Mr. Zubrin is forever hammering away intensely at why such and such a way to do things is the absolutely the best, and without showing relative advantages and disadvantages of other options, and completely without humour.He probably should have steered away from future technology and from terraforming. He hung a lot on high temperature super conductors, which did not pan out. His discussion of terraforming, apparently so simple, contained at least one clanger that I - a complete non-scientist - noted: thickening the atmosphere with more CO2 will lead to surface water formation which will lead to water leaching CO2 from the atmosphere, a negative feedback loop interfering with all the happy positive feedback loops he describes.The book is worth reading.
    • 4/5
      A good review of Zurbin's Mars Direct plan. Easy to read and understand, and the author's enthusiasm comes thorough. A few readers may be irritated by some of his imperative for the settlement of Mars.