Case for Mars

Robert Zubrin, Richard Wagner

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781451665765
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Astronomy & Astrophysics

Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream—the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit.

Now with the advent of a revolutionary new plan, all this has changed. Leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin has crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct, presented here with illustrations, photographs, and engaging anecdotes.

The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions. It explains step-by-step how we can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars within ten years; actually produce fuel and oxygen on the planet's surface with Martian natural resources; how we can build bases and settlements; and how we can one day "terraform" Mars—a process that can alter the atmosphere of planets and pave the way for sustainable life.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Preface to the 25th Anniversary Edition
• Preface to the 15th Anniversary Edition
• Foreword
• Preface to the First Edition
• Chapter 1: Mars Direct
• Chapter 2: From Kepler to the Space Age
• Chapter 3: Finding a Plan
• Chapter 4: Getting There
• Chapter 5: Killing the Dragons, Avoiding the Sirens
• Chapter 6: Exploring Mars
• Chapter 7: Building the Base on Mars
• Chapter 8: The Colonization of Mars
• Chapter 9: Terraforming Mars
• Chapter 10: The View from Earth
• Epilogue: The Significance of the Martian Frontier
• Photographs
• Special Addendum
• Appendix I
• Appendix II
• Glossary
• About the Authors
• Notes
• References
• Index
• Copyright