- Paperback: 266 pages
- Publisher: Wiley (Jan 25 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0471135615
- ISBN-13: 978-0471135616
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 15.6 x 1.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 458 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #456,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
"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, and astronautic engineers describe a not-too-distant future of interstellar travel and colonization. From cable cars that ride "skyhooks" into space to rockets that can refuel out of Martian air, from "terraforming" planets (a process that makes them habitable for human life) to faster-than-light propulsion systems, Islands in the Sky offers an astonishing collection of challenging—and plausible—ideas and proposals from the pages of Analog magazine. Brilliant and provocative, here is fun-filled reading for everyone interested in science, technology, and the future.
From the Publisher
A fascinating selection of "Analog" magazine's finest articles by leading researchers and science writers. Contains an astonishing range of new proposals for space travel and colonization including plans for the exploration of Mars, ideas for interstellar travel at the speed of light and the process of terraforming other planets to accommodate human life. Describes the latest in space exploration research and development by the world's foremost astronautic engineers.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
In spite of crashes, politics, budget battles, and opposition from today's version .of Jules Verne's Baltimore Gun Club, we're on the verge of having inexpensive, reliable, and responsive single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceships like the Delta Clipper DC-Y described in Dr. Arlan Andrews's science-fact article in the June 1993 issue. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
In spite of crashes, politics, budget battles, and opposition from today's version .of Jules Verne's Baltimore Gun Club, we're on the verge of having inexpensive, reliable, and responsive single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceships like the Delta Clipper DC-Y described in Dr. Arlan Andrews's science-fact article in the June 1993 issue. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A book full of useful information,
This review is from: Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space (Paperback)
This book is very informative, even if some informations are outdated, with a lot of useful of technical details and practical vision.
A great reading and one of the best book of the genre !
5.0 out of 5 stars
a very mixed bag,
By
This review is from: Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space (Paperback)
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.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book,
By cmpst52 "cmpst52" (Denton, NC United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space (Paperback)
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.
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