Stuart Woodward reviewed Spacefarers by Christopher Wanjek
Review of 'Spacefarers' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Our beloved 20th Century Science Fiction did us a great disservice as it omitted all of the hard problems that remain for humans to settle other than on the earth. So book looks at all the aspects of humanity's future in space.
One important factor that it beings up is that we don't yet know whether humans can thrive long-term in less than one 1G. We know that we can survive in 1G and that 0G causes many health problems but we have no experience, long term of anything in between.
Definitely, getting to Mars more quickly using nuclear rockets would be a huge advantage as we don't know if the astronauts will even be able to walk after a lengthy trip to Mars or how long it would take for them to recuperate in Mars' 38% gravity. Let alone the problems with dust once they got there.
If you …
Our beloved 20th Century Science Fiction did us a great disservice as it omitted all of the hard problems that remain for humans to settle other than on the earth. So book looks at all the aspects of humanity's future in space.
One important factor that it beings up is that we don't yet know whether humans can thrive long-term in less than one 1G. We know that we can survive in 1G and that 0G causes many health problems but we have no experience, long term of anything in between.
Definitely, getting to Mars more quickly using nuclear rockets would be a huge advantage as we don't know if the astronauts will even be able to walk after a lengthy trip to Mars or how long it would take for them to recuperate in Mars' 38% gravity. Let alone the problems with dust once they got there.
If you are interested in the topic it is worth reading but note, even though it is a fairly contemporary book many of the projects it mentions have already been completed.
