Living Off the Land in Space Green Roads to the Cosmos
:
Gregory L. Matloff, Les Johnson, C. Bangs
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Living Off the Land in Space Green Roads to the Cosmos
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Springer-Verlag
:
9780387683164
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1
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CHF 20.40
:
:
Astronomie: Allgemeines, Nachschlagewerke
:
English
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250
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DRM
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PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
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PDF
Human civilization has evolved to the point at which we can consider tapping space resources and expanding beyond Earth's atmosphere. The Introduction surveys possible motivations for large-scale human emigration to space. Since our early ancestors began to move out of Africa, humans have constantly expanded their range. Today, the pattern of human settlement extends from pole to pole. Humans regularly visit the upper troposphere and ocean floor and technology has enabled a few to even reside above the atmosphere in space stations. For the next few millennia at least (barring breakthroughs), the human frontier will include the solar system and the nearest stars. Will it better to settle the Moon, Mars, or a nearby asteroid and what environments can we expect to find in the vicinity of nearby stars are questions that need to be answered if mankind is to migrate into space.
Contents
5
Foreword
10
Acknowledgments
11
Introduction
13
1 The old frontier
20
2 The new frontier
28
3 The rocket and its limits
40
4 The first
40
4 The first
40
51
40
5 Probes to the planets: where we've been on our journey
60
6 Probes to the stars: concept studies
76
7 Breaking out into space: visionary fututes
88
8 Thinking interstellar
99
9 Technological readiness
112
10 Space brakes
126
11 The ion trail
138
12 The orbital steam locomotive
147
13 Sky clippers
155
14 Art or science?
167
15 Space beanstalks
175
16 Chemical propulsion for space exploration
191
17 Human exploration
198
18 Defending the Earth
208
19 Space miners
216
20 Some exotic possibilities
224
21 Sights on centaurus
237
Index
246
