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Available
Call number
Library's review
Indeholder "Introduction: A Homesteader's Guide to the Red Planet?", " 1. A Preamble on Space Myths", "Part I: Caring for the Spacefaring", " 2. Suffocation, Bone Loss, and Flying Pigs: The Science of Space Physiology", " 3. Space Sex and Consequences Thereof", " 4. Spacefarer Psychology: In Which
Konklusionen er at det er voldsomt svært og måske endda umuligt at oprette en koloni af jordmennesker på Mars. Bogen er gennemtænkt og nydeligt illustreret med et gran eller to humor undervejs. Hvor stort skal et terrarium være for at der kan bo mennesker i det?
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the Only Thing We're Sure of Is That Astronauts are Liars", "Nota Bene: Rocketry Goes to the Movies, or, Space Capitalism in Days of Yore, Part 1", "Part II: Spome, Spome on the Range: Where Will Humans Live Off-world?", " 5. The Moon: Great Location, Bit of a Fixer-Upper", " 6. Mars: Landscapes of Poison and Toxic Skies, but What an Opportunity!", " 7; Giant Rotating Space Wheels: Not Literally the Worst Option", " 8. Worse Options", "Nota Bene: Space Is the Place for Product Placement, or, Space Capitalism in Days of Yore, part 2", "Part III: Pocket Edens: How To Create a Human Terrarium That Isn't All That Terrible", " 9. Outputs and Inputs: Poop, Food, and "Closing the Loop"", " 10. There's No Place Like Spome: How to Build Outer-Space Habitats", "Nota Bene: The Mystery of the Tampon Bandolier", "Part IV: Space Law for Space Settlements: Weird, Vague, and Hard to Change", " 11. A Cynical History of Space", " 12. The Outer Space Treaty: Great for Regulating Space Sixty Years Ago", " 13. Murder in Space: Who Killed the Moon Agreement?", "Nota Bene: Space Cannibalism from a Legal and Culinary Perspective", "Part V: The Paths Forward: Bound for Moonsylvania?", " 14. Commonsing the Cosmos", " 15. Dividing the Sky", " 16. The Birth of Space-States: Like the Birth of Space Babies, but Messier", "Nota Bene: Violence in Antarctica, or, Happy Endings to Stabby Starts", "Part VI: To Plan B or not to Plan B: Space Society, Expansion, and Existential Risk", " 17. There's no Labor Pool on Mars: Outer Space as a Company Town", " 18. How Big is Big?: Plan B Settlements Without Genetic or Economic Calamities", " 19. space Politics by Other Means: on the Possibility of Space War", " 20. A Brief Coda on a Rarely Considered Alternative: Wait-and-Go-Nowhere", "Nota Bene: Amusing Astronaut Names and the Soviet Tendency to Fuss Over Weird Details", "Conclusion: Of Hot Tubs and Human Destiny", "Acknowledgments", "Notes", "Bibliography", "Index".Konklusionen er at det er voldsomt svært og måske endda umuligt at oprette en koloni af jordmennesker på Mars. Bogen er gennemtænkt og nydeligt illustreret med et gran eller to humor undervejs. Hvor stort skal et terrarium være for at der kan bo mennesker i det?
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Publication
U. K. : Penguin Press, 2023.
Description
"Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away--no climate change, no war, no Twitter--beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren't so sure it's a good idea. Space technologies and space business are progressing fast, but we lack the knowledge needed to have space kids, build space farms, and create space nations in a way that doesn't spark conflict back home. In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won't create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind. In the process, the Weinersmiths answer every question about space you've ever wondered about, and many you've never considered: Can you make babies in space? Should corporations govern space settlements? What about space war? Are we headed for a housing crisis on the Moon's Peaks of Eternal Light--and what happens if you're left in the Craters of Eternal Darkness? Why do astronauts love taco sauce? Speaking of meals, what's the legal status of space cannibalism? With deep expertise, a winning sense of humor, and art from the beloved creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, the Weinersmiths investigate perhaps the biggest questions humanity will ever ask itself--whether and how to become multiplanetary. Get in, we're going to Mars"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member ehousewright
A sense of humor goes a long way in making a book on difficult topics readable-- and this book has one. This is a thought-provoking look at practicality, covering all aspects of what it would take to set up a city on Mars. You know that they are learning and thinking as they present this material,
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and that they are not drawing their conclusions based on wishful thinking. I like that they end with suggestions for how to slow down and make meaningful progress so that we won't rush into it unprepared. Show Less
LibraryThing member Guide2
Not what I expected at all, quite a bit dryer than usual. Still with some jokes, but actually more of a serious book on this important topic (for our future). Did not expect the conclusions they reached, and I think they spent a bit too much time on health, psychology and law, but I do agree in
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part with how difficult colonizing space will be (compared to solving our problems on Earth). Show Less
LibraryThing member shelleyraec
Though we’ve known since the early 20th century that Mars is essentially a lifeless wasteland, humans have been reluctant to relinquish the dream of one day living there. In A City On Mars, self-described space geeks, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith explore the feasibility of life among the stars.
As
A large section of the book is also devoted to examining legal and ethical concerns regarding space settlement, and though I found myself skimming a fair bit of the detail that covered the former, the issues raised were interesting to consider. The analogy with company towns is a clever comparison, I look at the mess Musk’s ego has made of Twitter, and know I could never trust him to act in my (or society’s) best interests.
The Weinersmith’s interject some humour into their work, which enhances its readability and their enthusiasm for the topic comes across well. Zach’s illustrations are a lighthearted, if superfluous, addition. I do think readers will require at least a casual interest in the subject to stay engaged with the narrative. The length of the book works against it slightly, though I appreciate the authors’ thoroughness.
A City on Mars is a pretty pessimistic view of the viability of space colonisation, there are still many questions to be answered and I agree with the Weinersmith’s conclusion that just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Life in space is no guarantee of utopia, in fact we’d just be taking all the same problems with us, and likely creating many more.
As
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technology advances providing continued innovation in space travel the dream may seem closer than ever but it’s only a single practical challenge among many. Drawing from several years of original research including interviews with a myriad of experts, the Weinersmith’s explore topics with regards to the the ability of both the human body and mind to withstand life in space for long periods, and the obstacles to creating safe, self sustaining biomes at scale among hostile environments. It’s surprising to realise just how much we don’t know about living in space, and I found these sections to be the most engaging. A large section of the book is also devoted to examining legal and ethical concerns regarding space settlement, and though I found myself skimming a fair bit of the detail that covered the former, the issues raised were interesting to consider. The analogy with company towns is a clever comparison, I look at the mess Musk’s ego has made of Twitter, and know I could never trust him to act in my (or society’s) best interests.
The Weinersmith’s interject some humour into their work, which enhances its readability and their enthusiasm for the topic comes across well. Zach’s illustrations are a lighthearted, if superfluous, addition. I do think readers will require at least a casual interest in the subject to stay engaged with the narrative. The length of the book works against it slightly, though I appreciate the authors’ thoroughness.
A City on Mars is a pretty pessimistic view of the viability of space colonisation, there are still many questions to be answered and I agree with the Weinersmith’s conclusion that just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Life in space is no guarantee of utopia, in fact we’d just be taking all the same problems with us, and likely creating many more.
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LibraryThing member bragan
The Weinersmiths (authors of the interesting and entertaining Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything) initially set out to write a book about what we should expect from the exciting new era of space settlement to come in the not-too-distant future. What they ended
In particular, they focus on a lot of issues that advocates of space settlement tend to gloss over or ignore while they're busy thinking about rocket schedules and mineral abundances. Like, for instance, the fact that the longest anyone has ever been in space is about a year and a half and no one's ever lived in Moon gravity for more than a few days or Mars gravity at all. So we have zero data on what it would mean, physiologically, to spend a lifetime somewhere other than Earth, or whether we can reproduce there without problems. Indeed, there hasn't even been much in the way of good animal experiments on any of that yet. Then there are issues of psychology and government, because no matter what the most idealistic of space dreamers might want to believe, humans do inevitably take our own flawed humanity with us wherever we go. And what about legal barriers? Does current space law even permit this sort of thing? Do we need to have clearer and more useful international law on the subject first to prevent problems down the road? And is expanding into space going to usher in a new era of cosmic harmony, or is it likely to actually be a new source of conflict?
On top of which, the simple fact is that space is a terrible place. As is the moon, as is Mars. It is profoundly difficult to overestimate just how hard it will be to keep human beings alive there, never mind thriving, or how much of what we take absolutely for granted on Earth will have to be struggled for there. Antarctica is a garden spot by comparison.
None of which is probably anything space enthusiasts (of which I do count myself one, although never one who thought Elon Musk-style near-term Mars settlement was anything but a pipe dream) are likely to want to hear. But whether or not you're convinced by their arguments, they are very much worth listening to, and the authors are certainly right that not enough attention is paid to these topics.
I should say that, while this sounds like a massive downer, it is written in a pleasant, humorous style (even if it is sometimes a stretch to keep that up during long chapters about international law), and also that the authors don't think that cities on Mars don't sound awesome, or even that they're not a good long-term goal for humanity. Ultimately, their argument is for doing it when we're actually truly capable of doing it right... and that that is really not today.
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up writing, after lots and lots of research, is a book about how very, very not ready we are to start living on Mars, or anywhere else that isn't Earth. In particular, they focus on a lot of issues that advocates of space settlement tend to gloss over or ignore while they're busy thinking about rocket schedules and mineral abundances. Like, for instance, the fact that the longest anyone has ever been in space is about a year and a half and no one's ever lived in Moon gravity for more than a few days or Mars gravity at all. So we have zero data on what it would mean, physiologically, to spend a lifetime somewhere other than Earth, or whether we can reproduce there without problems. Indeed, there hasn't even been much in the way of good animal experiments on any of that yet. Then there are issues of psychology and government, because no matter what the most idealistic of space dreamers might want to believe, humans do inevitably take our own flawed humanity with us wherever we go. And what about legal barriers? Does current space law even permit this sort of thing? Do we need to have clearer and more useful international law on the subject first to prevent problems down the road? And is expanding into space going to usher in a new era of cosmic harmony, or is it likely to actually be a new source of conflict?
On top of which, the simple fact is that space is a terrible place. As is the moon, as is Mars. It is profoundly difficult to overestimate just how hard it will be to keep human beings alive there, never mind thriving, or how much of what we take absolutely for granted on Earth will have to be struggled for there. Antarctica is a garden spot by comparison.
None of which is probably anything space enthusiasts (of which I do count myself one, although never one who thought Elon Musk-style near-term Mars settlement was anything but a pipe dream) are likely to want to hear. But whether or not you're convinced by their arguments, they are very much worth listening to, and the authors are certainly right that not enough attention is paid to these topics.
I should say that, while this sounds like a massive downer, it is written in a pleasant, humorous style (even if it is sometimes a stretch to keep that up during long chapters about international law), and also that the authors don't think that cities on Mars don't sound awesome, or even that they're not a good long-term goal for humanity. Ultimately, their argument is for doing it when we're actually truly capable of doing it right... and that that is really not today.
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Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — 2024)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Science & Technology — 2023)
Non-Obvious Book Award (Longlist — 2023)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2023-11-07
Physical description
436 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
1984881728 / 9781984881724
Local notes
Omslag: Zach Weinersmith
Omslaget viser en by på Mars
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Omslaget viser en by på Mars
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
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Pages
436
DDC/MDS
| 629.4 |