Beyond Earth: Our Path to a New Home in the Planets [Paperback]

We are at the cusp of a golden age in space science, as increasingly more entrepreneurs—Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos—are seduced by the commercial potential of human access to space. But Beyond Earth does not offer another wide-eyed technology fantasy: instead, it is grounded not only in the human capacity for invention and the appeal of adventure, but also in the bureaucratic, political, and scientific realities that present obstacles to space travel—realities that have hampered NASA's efforts ever since the Challenger disaster.
         In Beyond Earth, the authors offer groundbreaking research and argue persuasively that not Mars, but Titan—a moon of Saturn with a nitrogen atmosphere, a weather cycle, and an inexhaustible supply of cheap energy—offers the most realistic, and thrilling, prospect of life without support from Earth.“Refreshing….delightfully different from any other book I’ve ever read by human-spaceflight cheerleaders. The authors have put their thinking caps on and broken out of the usual orthodoxy by presenting cogent ideas on why humans should go into space, including their lovely idea of going to and living on obscure (to most folks) Titan….Mr. Wohlforth and Ms. Hendrix gracefully outline not just the mechanics but the philosophy and morality of human spaceflight in their well-structured book….It is decidedly a book that should be read by anyone intrigued by the possibility and feasibility of a future ‘out there.’”—Homer Hickam, The Wall Street Journal


“Beyond Earth balances possible futures with a raft of facts on advances in spacecraft technology, robotics and space medicine. Crucially, [Wohlforth and Hendrix] parse the push and pull between cautious governments and gung-ho entrepreneurs, concluding that the two may ultimatels5