The Case for Mars

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. ( )

Really interesting book. ( )

I'm sold

I'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. ( )

Zubrin presents a well-researched, logical, and completely unrealistic plan for sending humans to Mars in this book. ( )

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. ( )