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The Moon: Resources, Future Development and Settlement
This extraordinary book details how the Moon could be used as a springboard for Solar System exploration. It presents a realistic plan for placing and servicing telescopes on the Moon, and highlights the use of the Moon as a base for an early warning system from which to combat threats of near-Earth objects. A realistic vision of human development and settlement of the Moon over the next one hundred years is presented, and the author explains how global living standards for the Earth can be enhanced through the use of lunar-based generated solar power. From that beginning, the people of the Earth would evolve into a spacefaring civilisation.
307 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 10, 1999
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January 12, 2019
This is was one of the more highly recommended non-fiction books on the subject of lunar colonization. It reads more like an engineering document then a visionary proposal. Its contents are part of the mainstream of the lunar colonization dialog. Its readable to a serious space enthusiast or someone with STEM credentials, but would be challenging and likely boring for many fiction-only readers .
I've always been a fan of fiction set on the moon. Recently there has been a spate of hard science, Moon Base fiction. The earliest modern moon base story I recall reading was Tongues of the Moon. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was the last moon base novel I recall receiving any popular recognition. Two of the more current moon base books are : New Moon and Artemis. I see the influence of the generally-accepted thoughts on lunar colonization found in this book in those stories.
The first half of this book is the most readable. Its the part involved in "high concept". After that, there is a lot of repetition and a general death by appendix in the read. While I found that the great majority of lunar exploration topics are covered, some of them are more spottily covered than others. For example, I did not find enough information on using underground (luna), lava tubes as the basis for habitats, or the lunar orbital (artificial satellites and habitats) infrastructure needed to support colonization to satisfy my needs. Also from reading this book, I came to clearly realize that there are different schools to space exploration and lunar colonization: Moon First, Mars First, Asteroid Miners, etc.. The schools are somewhat in contention about the best way to conquer the solar system, although they have many things in common. This is the product of one of, but not the only of the Moon First schools. You'd need to read more broadly on the subject to appreciate the differences.
This book reads like a NASA report, with a very nerdy marketing spin. You don't have to be a card-carrying member of the Planetary Society to qualify for reading this. However, being a mature, space enthusiast or an engineer/scientist would be helpful. For example, this won't be a good read for you, if you find numbered paragraphs and sub-paragraphs intimidating. In summary, this book would be helpful to a space enthusiast in helping you understand one of the several ways to go about lunar colonization. I would not use it as an exclusive source.
A better entry-level, non-fiction book on space colonization for folks looking to start-out might be: Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization. A somewhat, hard science fiction book set on the moon, not already mentioned would be Red Moon.
I started reading this book to get a better grasp the difference between the fact and the fiction of th world building in stories with a "Moon Base" setting. As a result of my research, I created Listopia: Moon-based Adult Science Fiction. You may find this helpful, if you have a similar interest.
I've always been a fan of fiction set on the moon. Recently there has been a spate of hard science, Moon Base fiction. The earliest modern moon base story I recall reading was Tongues of the Moon. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was the last moon base novel I recall receiving any popular recognition. Two of the more current moon base books are : New Moon and Artemis. I see the influence of the generally-accepted thoughts on lunar colonization found in this book in those stories.
The first half of this book is the most readable. Its the part involved in "high concept". After that, there is a lot of repetition and a general death by appendix in the read. While I found that the great majority of lunar exploration topics are covered, some of them are more spottily covered than others. For example, I did not find enough information on using underground (luna), lava tubes as the basis for habitats, or the lunar orbital (artificial satellites and habitats) infrastructure needed to support colonization to satisfy my needs. Also from reading this book, I came to clearly realize that there are different schools to space exploration and lunar colonization: Moon First, Mars First, Asteroid Miners, etc.. The schools are somewhat in contention about the best way to conquer the solar system, although they have many things in common. This is the product of one of, but not the only of the Moon First schools. You'd need to read more broadly on the subject to appreciate the differences.
This book reads like a NASA report, with a very nerdy marketing spin. You don't have to be a card-carrying member of the Planetary Society to qualify for reading this. However, being a mature, space enthusiast or an engineer/scientist would be helpful. For example, this won't be a good read for you, if you find numbered paragraphs and sub-paragraphs intimidating. In summary, this book would be helpful to a space enthusiast in helping you understand one of the several ways to go about lunar colonization. I would not use it as an exclusive source.
A better entry-level, non-fiction book on space colonization for folks looking to start-out might be: Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization. A somewhat, hard science fiction book set on the moon, not already mentioned would be Red Moon.
I started reading this book to get a better grasp the difference between the fact and the fiction of th world building in stories with a "Moon Base" setting. As a result of my research, I created Listopia: Moon-based Adult Science Fiction. You may find this helpful, if you have a similar interest.
Displaying 1 of 1 review