Book Review: The Case for Mars



I have had the unique opportunity to meet Robert Zubrin at a couple of International Space Development Conferences. He is a brilliant, funny, visionary, cantankerous engineer who has become a serious leader in the space advocacy community. His personal style comes across in his writing. He's a bright guy with a serious ax to grind about Mars, how we should get there, and how NASA is screwing up. That said, I don't agree with him on everything.


In response to a comment from a reader, I thought I'd throw in what Dr. Zubrin has said about NASA. Most of his criticism is based upon NASA's handling of "the 90-Day Report," the report the agency submitted to President Bush (Sr.) after he called for a manned mission to Mars. What the folks at NASA came up with was a huge, visionary program that would require every new technology known to manned space activity, from solar power to zero-gravity construction to cold fusion. Oh yeah, a lot of that hadn't been invented yet, would have taken 30 years to accomplish, and would have cost taxpayers $450 billion. It is the bureaucratic mindset that sets Zubrin off.
Mixed in with all the specific technical information are history lessons about exploration and its difficulties, as well as insights on why we need to explore and the value of Mars itself. Since the release of "The Case for Mars," Dr. Zubrin has created his own space advocacy group called The Mars Society, which has set up its own Mars habitat simulator in an arctic desert of Canada.
He has also taken to describing ways in which the government can best fund the mission, such as offering a "Mars Prize" of $30 billion that would only be awarded to a successful mission. Zubrin shamelessly invokes Kennedy, Lindbergh, Frederick Jackson Turner, and others, and jumps in with a "can-do" attitude that will remind the reader of NASA or "Star Trek" in their better days. After reading Zubrin, you find yourself wondering, "Jeez, why AREN'T we going?"

Zubrin also values the frontier. A frontier provides the hope for escape from current problems--government, social hierarchies, ennui. A frontier can generate new materials (like the gold out of California), new ideas of government and freedom, and more potential for innovation and upward mobility. Governments that have to cope with an expanding, dynamic society cannot turn their energies toward controlling limited resources and a stable population.

Mind you, in the current political environment Zubrin's vision isn't likely to gain much traction, especially when the President wants to kill America's human spaceflight program (which included a heavy-lift launch vehicle named, like Zubrin's, Ares). But one should have have space to dream, and Zubrin dreams BIG, and we could always use a little more of that.

Potpourri CXXIV

First up from Doc: a little humor involving chemistry. Yes, you read that right. Really. Specifically, fluorine. I heard that back in the 1960s, when the Apollo guys were looking for a high-energy propellant, they looked at fluorine, but determined that one launch of a Saturn V-type booster filled with that stuff would make a good portion of the Florida East Coast a hazardous environment for several years. An explosion would make for a Bad Day for a lot of people.

NASA Administrator insisted to Senators that Mars is the ultimate goal of America's space program, but acknowledged that the technologies needed for such a program (under the Obama plan) would not be available for at least 10 years...never mind the fact that at the end of those 10 years that there wouldn't be a vehicle to put those technologies on. NASA's human exploration program is about to spend a lot period wandering in the wilderness until someone gives them an honest-to-gosh mission that goes somewhere.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket will be on the launch pad for tests next week, edging closer to its first flight.

Something off the beaten path for this blog, but it amused me: a blog on the science of Olympic bobsledding and curling.

China seems to be happy that the U.S. is backing off of its lunar plans.

Potpourri LXXV

My Google news feed picked up an Aviation Week article on vibration testing delaying the Ares I-X stacking. Well, sorry to break it to AvWeek, but stacking started 7/8, more or less as stated in their article. And if you'd like another view of this vibration issue, you can check out the Ares I-X blog here. Any resemblance between the writing style there and here is purely coinky-dink.

Robert Zubrin, eminent Mars exploration advocate, debated with former Apollo 17 astronaut and Senator Harrison "Jack" Schmitt on the virtues of going to Mars vs. the Moon next. It seemed like a fitting occasion. Today is the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 lifting off for its historic landing on the Moon. Saaaaa-lute!

Here's a random poll on the utility of the space program.

From Martin, a new lunar landing game.

From Tracy, a good catch from an interview of Michael Collins:

Q. Has the space program helped young people become interested incareers in math and science? Don't you tell kids to opt for thesechoices?

A. Yes and no. We definitely have a national problem in that kids seemto be going for money rather than what they consider 'nerdy' careers. Other countries are outstripping us in the quality and quantity of math and science grads, and this can only hurt in the long run. But a liberal arts education, particularly English, is a good entry point no matter what the later specialization. I usually talk up English. (Emphasis mine. HOO-wah!)

The Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE) reports no adverse effects by him despite the 7.8 earthquake off the coast of NZ.

And from Lin, a Glen Beck rant on Goldman Sachs. Not a huge fan of Beck, but he does provide a lively illustration of what Fred Barnes recently called crony capitalism.

Potpourri LVIII

New from Hu: The Senate has decided to side with the Obama administration in retaining $500M in NASA funding, which the House had cut, pending the outcome of the Augustine panel's recommendations. That should make life interesting.

Welcome to Singularity University...a theoretical acceptance letter from Ray Kurzweil.

Robert Zubrin, a hero of mine and relentless supporter of sending humans to Mars, is not happy with the "detour" to the Moon, and wants to talk to the Augustine Panel about it.