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Out of this World and into the Next: Notes from a Physicist on Space Exploration
'A manifesto for going off-world to Mars and beyond' TLS
'A breath-taking journey' BRUCE DAMER
'Adriana Marais combs the cosmic dust in her prospectus for all Mars adventurers' THE TIMES
Moving to Mars may sound like science fiction but the truth is that today, scant decades since our first space missions, humanity is on the verge of becoming multiplanetary. SpaceX is building a Starship transport system; China successfully demonstrated crop growth on the Moon; and, in a space mining milestone, Japan's recent asteroid missions have returned samples to Earth.
Adriana Marais has dedicated her life to preparing for extraplanetary settlement, considering not just the scientific and technological possibilities but also the ethical responsibilities of our species as we explore new frontiers. In 2019, she launched the Proudly Off-World Project, a series of extreme habitation experiments investigating the capabilities necessary for life beyond our home planet.
In this extraordinary era of rapid technological development, Marais explores the scientific and ethical questions that stands at the heart of scientific How did we get here - and where are we going next?
'A breath-taking journey' BRUCE DAMER
'Adriana Marais combs the cosmic dust in her prospectus for all Mars adventurers' THE TIMES
Moving to Mars may sound like science fiction but the truth is that today, scant decades since our first space missions, humanity is on the verge of becoming multiplanetary. SpaceX is building a Starship transport system; China successfully demonstrated crop growth on the Moon; and, in a space mining milestone, Japan's recent asteroid missions have returned samples to Earth.
Adriana Marais has dedicated her life to preparing for extraplanetary settlement, considering not just the scientific and technological possibilities but also the ethical responsibilities of our species as we explore new frontiers. In 2019, she launched the Proudly Off-World Project, a series of extreme habitation experiments investigating the capabilities necessary for life beyond our home planet.
In this extraordinary era of rapid technological development, Marais explores the scientific and ethical questions that stands at the heart of scientific How did we get here - and where are we going next?
- GenresAstronomy
366 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 10, 2025
5 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 28, 2025
"When most people think about ‘home’, an area much smaller than the surface of Earth comes to mind. For many, Earth is their favourite planet But for those who feel a curiosity, an affinity and indeed a sense of belonging with that overwhelming majority of what is beyond, Earth is but a pale blue dot in a Universe of star stuff waiting to be known..."
Out of this World and into the Next was a mixed bag for me. The discussion around human expansion into space, and potential life on extraterrestrial planets is an interesting one. I'll cover the "good" before getting to the "bad."
Author Adriana Marais is a South African theoretical physicist, technologist and advocate for off-world exploration. She is a director of the Foundation for Space Development Africa, an organisation aiming to send Africa's first mission to the Moon, the Africa2Moon Project.
Adriana Marais:
Marais writes in a no-frills matter-of-fact manner that I found effective. She drops the quote above near the start of the book, and it continues:
The audio version I have was also read by author, which is a nice touch I always appreciate. The formatting and narrative flow of this one also made it decently readable.
The writing in the book proper covers a wide swath of scientific ground. She talks about a proposed beginning of the Universe, some basic astrophysics, as well as some biochemistry, before moving on to other things related to astrophysics.
She drops this interesting quote:
Unfortunately, the quest to travel to and/or eventually settle on other planets by living people is fraught with numerous and sizeable structural problems that were not properly addressed by the author here. It was a glaring omission. IMHO, people will not be able to live in space for extended time periods, or on the moon, or Mars. And any hopes of colonizing planets further away than that are no more than science fiction at this point.
Some of the formidable obstacles to life away from Earth are (in no particular order):
* Interstellar radiation. All kinds of short-wave ionizing radiation are being beamed throughout the cosmos - everywhere, and always. Bad for humans. Crops can't survive this bombardment, either.
* Energy. What can we use? There are no fossil fuels on Mars or the moon. She discusses nuclear fusion here, but fusion remains a pipe dream that is not yet workable on Earth, let alone on a spaceship or other planet.
* Life at 0-<1g. Humans have not evolved to live in environments less than 1g. Although you may want to discount this, there have been major problems with life in 0g, even from durations as short as a few months.
* The lack of suitable materials for buildings, infrastructure, and creature comforts.
* The long transit time between Earth and Mars. The much longer transit time beyond Mars.
* The long communication delay for any correspondence.
* The lack of a feasible technology to reach distant planets within the human lifespan.
Also, the subject of potential political systems that would govern extraplanetary life is not really treated in a serious fashion here. Instead, the author has some airy-fairy writing about "seeing how things go" (I'm summarizing). How groups of people organize and govern themselves is the difference between cohesion and prosperity, and warfare and poverty. This topic deserved a more serious inquiry.
Finally, in a bit of writing at the end of the book that can only be accurately described as laughable, she's got a blurb about how her organization "Africa2Moon" is encouraging Africans to go to the moon. I'm assuming by "Africans," she means South Africans. Because most of the rest of the continent can barely manage to even produce a functioning egrarian-level society and a semblance of stable governance, never mind a space program. The post-colonial history of pretty much all of Sub-Saharan Africa is a complete gong show of a SNAFU stuck in endless cycles of "Big Man Rule." So, yeah, good luck with your African Space program...
********************
While a lot of the science that the book covers is interesting, there's nothing really new here.
I still enjoyed this one on balance, although I'm taking off a few points for the criticisms above.
2.5 stars.
Out of this World and into the Next was a mixed bag for me. The discussion around human expansion into space, and potential life on extraterrestrial planets is an interesting one. I'll cover the "good" before getting to the "bad."
Author Adriana Marais is a South African theoretical physicist, technologist and advocate for off-world exploration. She is a director of the Foundation for Space Development Africa, an organisation aiming to send Africa's first mission to the Moon, the Africa2Moon Project.
Adriana Marais:
Marais writes in a no-frills matter-of-fact manner that I found effective. She drops the quote above near the start of the book, and it continues:
"...Here, I’d like to share my wonder at being alive at this extraordinary time on Earth. Four billion years of evolution on this planet have brought us to the brink of a new era: just decades since we first went to space, it won’t be much longer before we’re building new worlds beyond home."
The audio version I have was also read by author, which is a nice touch I always appreciate. The formatting and narrative flow of this one also made it decently readable.
The writing in the book proper covers a wide swath of scientific ground. She talks about a proposed beginning of the Universe, some basic astrophysics, as well as some biochemistry, before moving on to other things related to astrophysics.
She drops this interesting quote:
"Looking at the oldest light tells us not just about when the Universe came into existence, but also about the earliest matter: after 380,000 years the Universe consisted of mostly hydrogen and some helium atoms. In fact, the Big Bang is the only process we know of that produces hydrogen in significant amounts in space. Therefore, the water molecules making up more than half of your body contain hydrogen atoms (constituting around a tenth of your mass) that are almost 14 billion years old!
Though the beginning of the Universe may feel so very far away, there is something magical in the knowledge that we are all bathed in faint, ancient light from the beginning of time. That within each of us lives the entire history of our Universe."
Unfortunately, the quest to travel to and/or eventually settle on other planets by living people is fraught with numerous and sizeable structural problems that were not properly addressed by the author here. It was a glaring omission. IMHO, people will not be able to live in space for extended time periods, or on the moon, or Mars. And any hopes of colonizing planets further away than that are no more than science fiction at this point.
Some of the formidable obstacles to life away from Earth are (in no particular order):
* Interstellar radiation. All kinds of short-wave ionizing radiation are being beamed throughout the cosmos - everywhere, and always. Bad for humans. Crops can't survive this bombardment, either.
* Energy. What can we use? There are no fossil fuels on Mars or the moon. She discusses nuclear fusion here, but fusion remains a pipe dream that is not yet workable on Earth, let alone on a spaceship or other planet.
* Life at 0-<1g. Humans have not evolved to live in environments less than 1g. Although you may want to discount this, there have been major problems with life in 0g, even from durations as short as a few months.
* The lack of suitable materials for buildings, infrastructure, and creature comforts.
* The long transit time between Earth and Mars. The much longer transit time beyond Mars.
* The long communication delay for any correspondence.
* The lack of a feasible technology to reach distant planets within the human lifespan.
Also, the subject of potential political systems that would govern extraplanetary life is not really treated in a serious fashion here. Instead, the author has some airy-fairy writing about "seeing how things go" (I'm summarizing). How groups of people organize and govern themselves is the difference between cohesion and prosperity, and warfare and poverty. This topic deserved a more serious inquiry.
Finally, in a bit of writing at the end of the book that can only be accurately described as laughable, she's got a blurb about how her organization "Africa2Moon" is encouraging Africans to go to the moon. I'm assuming by "Africans," she means South Africans. Because most of the rest of the continent can barely manage to even produce a functioning egrarian-level society and a semblance of stable governance, never mind a space program. The post-colonial history of pretty much all of Sub-Saharan Africa is a complete gong show of a SNAFU stuck in endless cycles of "Big Man Rule." So, yeah, good luck with your African Space program...
********************
While a lot of the science that the book covers is interesting, there's nothing really new here.
I still enjoyed this one on balance, although I'm taking off a few points for the criticisms above.
2.5 stars.
April 20, 2025
If, like me, you've ever looked up at the stars in awe and thought "How did we get to this point?", "What's out there?", "What does the future hold for us?", then this Is most definitely the book for you.
Theoretical physicist Adriana Marais takes us on a wonder enducing journey from the origins of our universe right up to theories on how humanity might begin expanding beyond Earth to settle on other planets. She also discusses the possibilities of extraterrestrial and focuses in on Mars as humanities next step into the solar system and beyond, among many other thought provoking subjects.
In this true tour de force, you'll be taken on a marvelous voyage of wonderment as Marais explores the scientific aspects of humankinds trek out beyond our planet, along with the ethical questions that will inevitably arise.
For me, it's been written in such a way as to allow anyone to read, and understand it fairly well, which will certainly broaden it's appeal and audience.
I love reading about space and space exploration, science fiction, science fact amd science theory are some of my favourite genres, but I'm no scientist. However,
I still felt able to follow and understand the subjects discussed with relative ( pun intended, ha ha ) ease.
All in all, a fascinating read, full of marvel, sure to peak the curiosity of all readers, and one that has already taken it's place on my "To be re-read" shelf, alongside some seriously mighty company.
A huge 5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 's ( again, pun intended, ha ha ), from me
Theoretical physicist Adriana Marais takes us on a wonder enducing journey from the origins of our universe right up to theories on how humanity might begin expanding beyond Earth to settle on other planets. She also discusses the possibilities of extraterrestrial and focuses in on Mars as humanities next step into the solar system and beyond, among many other thought provoking subjects.
In this true tour de force, you'll be taken on a marvelous voyage of wonderment as Marais explores the scientific aspects of humankinds trek out beyond our planet, along with the ethical questions that will inevitably arise.
For me, it's been written in such a way as to allow anyone to read, and understand it fairly well, which will certainly broaden it's appeal and audience.
I love reading about space and space exploration, science fiction, science fact amd science theory are some of my favourite genres, but I'm no scientist. However,
I still felt able to follow and understand the subjects discussed with relative ( pun intended, ha ha ) ease.
All in all, a fascinating read, full of marvel, sure to peak the curiosity of all readers, and one that has already taken it's place on my "To be re-read" shelf, alongside some seriously mighty company.
A huge 5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 's ( again, pun intended, ha ha ), from me
July 3, 2025
cool facts and predictions 📈
existential crisis 📉
existential crisis 📉
July 25, 2025
Not sure if I agree that moving from earth into space is our only option to save humanity but I did enjoy the book neverless.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews