Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space

by Stanley Schmidt

Book Overview

"Let the meek inherit the earth--the rest of us are going to the stars Here's how it's going to be done." -- Robert Zubrin

"These articles are not 'just science fiction.' They are things we can do--and with any luck at all, and vision and determination, we will." -- Stanley Schmidt

Take off on a thrilling journey of space exploration and speculation--to the realm where science fiction becomes science fact--as leading writers, researchers,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471135615
• ISBN13: 9780471135616
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Very interesting

A great collection of articles ranging from a detailed plan of how humanity could very well colonise mars over this century, to fascinating ideas regarding the possibility of interstellar travel. The articles form a coherent flow from start to finish. The book is a good introduction to space travel. The reader will find details on how we can utilize today's technology to advance our presence in the solar system, as well as stimulating ideas exploring possible future innovations. One realises the great potential of space travel and the positive impact it will have on humanity.

a very mixed bag

I'm giving this five stars for the benefit of the chapters by Robert Zubrin and Martyn Fogg, which are ingenious and daringly original analyses of astronautic engineering and terraforming, respectively - each is the godfather of his field. The other material ranges from curiously quirky but not well-thought out (on terraforming Venus) to the kind of worthlessly unintelligent and uninteresting speculations you might expect to overhear from some goon at the bookstore but not to read in print (see the chapter on settling the Oort Cloud). This book was assembled as a "best of" selection from Analog; in a better world it would have been edited by the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, which would have known where to make the cutoff. Still, the good entries are fantastic enough to be well worth the purchase price.

Good book

This book is an excellent collection of essay by the leading producers of cool, far-out ideas alive today. Just reading it will expand your horizons and help you look at the final frontier in a new way.Some of the essays, such as G. Harry Stine's on Single-Stage to Orbit spacecraft, are on near-term science and technology. Other essays, such as "Islands in the Sky," are longer-term and closer to science fiction. All are good.My personal opinion is that the asteroids -- not the planets -- are the future of mankind, so the Mars-exploration essays by Zubrin et al. I found less enthralling. But you Mars fans out there NEED this book. The essay, "The Economics of Interstellar Commerce" alone makes this book worth the cost.Although I enjoyed John Lewis's _Mining the Sky_ more (simply because my bent is toward the asteroids), this book is better written and required reading. 4 stars.

A great book about what could be done.

The book deals with ideas about making space travel easy and colonizing space simple. The first few chapters deal with getting out of the gravity well we call Earth with known science and equipment. The next deal with using the resources that could be found on the Moon, Mars, Mercury and even the Oort Cloud (as well as planting a few colonies here and there)with the knowledge we have and the equipment we could have soon. After that is starts to get harder to picture doing all this projects with current technology. By chapter 8, for explain, we are dealing with terraforming and star engineering. Near the end of the book, starting with chapter 11 we are talking about interstellar space ships and the economices of interstellar commerce. But by than, you think all of it can be done! Each chapter helps to hold up the next one. For example, cheap, easy ways to get into space would cut the cost of space travel and allow for the next step which is exploring the planets and finding resources to help the next step.

An uplifting, optimistic view of our future in space

I found Islands in the Sky a very entertaining, enlightening and uplifting book to read. It boldly addresses a wide range of subjects dealing with space exploration and appears to come up with concrete answers! There is an underlying optimism in the whole book that given human ingenuity, anything is possible. This is a far cry from the many 'post-modern' books that crowd store bookshelves seeking to convince us that science is not the answer, that mankind is bad and its actions are always in conflict with the environemnt. This book speaks to those of us who believe that we are the masters of our universe.Some chapters are too abstruse and perhaps only for the specialist, but most of the book is eminently readable. A must for every space enthusiast.