Beyond: Our Future in Space by Chris Impey (PDF)

Description

“Expansive and enlightening. . . . Impey packs his prose with wonderful anecdotes and weird factoids.”―New York Times Book ReviewHuman exploration has been an unceasing engine of technological progress, from the first homo sapiens to leave our African cradle to a future in which mankind promises to settle another world. Beyond tells the epic story of humanity leaving home―and how humans will soon thrive in the vast universe beyond the earth.A dazzling and propulsive voyage through space and time, Beyond reveals how centuries of space explorers―from the earliest stargazers to today’s cutting-edge researchers―all draw inspiration from an innate human emotion: wanderlust. This urge to explore led us to multiply around the globe, and it can be traced in our DNA.Today, the urge to discover manifests itself in jaw-dropping ways: plans for space elevators poised to replace rockets at a fraction of the cost; experiments in suspending and reanimating life for ultra-long-distance travel; prototypes for solar sails that coast through space on the momentum of microwaves released from the Earth. With these ventures, private companies and entrepreneurs have the potential to outpace NASA as the leaders in a new space race.Combining expert knowledge of astronomy and avant-garde technology, Chris Impey guides us through the heady possibilities for the next century of exploration. In twenty years, a vibrant commercial space industry will be operating. In thirty years, there will be small but viable colonies on the Moon and Mars. In fifty years, mining technology will have advanced enough to harvest resources from asteroids. In a hundred years, a cohort of humans born off-Earth will come of age without ever visiting humanity’s home planet. This is not the stuff of science fiction but rather the logical extension of already available technologies.Beyond shows that space exploration is not just the domain of technocrats, but the birthright of everyone and the destiny of generations to come. To continue exploration is to ensure our survival. Outer space, a limitless unknown, awaits us. 55 illustrations

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “One of the most accessible accounts of the history of rockets and space travel I have ever read . . . entertaining and informative.” ― John Gribbin, Wall Street Journal”Philosophical . . . lively.” ― Discover”Bold, elegant and engaging.” ― Nature”Chris Impey manages to rejuvenate that ‘Space Is Our Future’ feeling that pervaded human culture a half century ago. A needed reminder that, today, not enough of us are looking up, and even fewer among us are doing anything about it.” ― Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History”A must-read for anyone interested in the fate of the human race and our bright future among the stars. Chris Impey shows how our efforts to expand beyond Earth are part of the same biological drive that made humans spread their habitat across the face of the Earth.” ― Ben Bova, bestselling author and president emeritus of the National Space Society”A rare look into the future through a wide-angle lens. With hope and skill, Impey has an optimistic vision in which we finally, and permanently, break the bonds of Earth.” ― David H. Levy, discoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and twenty-two other comets”So much fun to read that it is hard to think of it as a major reference work on space travel―history, current status, and the wild blue yonder. But it is!” ― Owen Gingerich, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics About the Author Chris Impey is a distinguished professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona and the critically-acclaimed author of Beyond, How It Began, and How It Ends, and four other books, as well as two astronomy textbooks. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐A colony on Mars? Really?Some of us grasp the existential crisis humanity faces today, and fear that global climate change, an asteroid collision, a super volcano, a viral pandemic, or some other easily imaginable catastrophe could put an end to the human project — if not the human race — by the beginning of the next century. By contrast, congenital optimists foresee a glorious future for humanity among the stars. Here, for example, is astronomer Chris Impey, writing about Our Future in Space: “the space industry may be where the Internet was in 1995, ready to soar. . . Leaving Earth may soon be cheap and safe enough that it becomes an activity for the masses rather than the experience of a privileged few.” Others take a similar view — Stephen Hawking, for instance, who asserts that “the human race doesn’t have a future unless it goes into space.”So, if you’re wedded to a gloomy view of our species’ destiny, you probably won’t enjoy this book. For my part, there’s just enough of the optimist left in me to find Chris Impey’s vision intriguing. Not totally convincing — I’m still wringing my hands over climate change and a possible pandemic — but well argued and totally grounded in a deep understanding of science.Here is Impey’s thesis: “The itch that led our ancestors to risk everything to travel in small boats across large bodies of water like the Pacific Ocean is related to the drive that will one day lead us to colonize Mars.” This “itch,” Impey argues, arises from our DNA. Today, hardly more than 500 human beings have left our planetary home to venture into space, most of them barely so, in orbital and sub-orbital trips. Tomorrow — by mid-century, Impey believes — tens of thousands will have had that experience and dozens will be setting up our first permanent home on Mars.Don’t think for a minute that Impey is some starry-eyed fantasist: first and foremost, he’s a scientist. Our Future in Space is laid out in three parts: Present, Future, and Beyond. At each level, the author grounds his story in facts. He describes the origins of the US space program in Wernher von Braun’s V-2 rockets and the arms race with the USSR. In discussing the challenges of the next several decades, he is unrelentingly honest: “traveling into space is four hundred times more dangerous than flying but only twice as risky as driving.” This is not a throwaway line; Impey cites the statistics to prove this. In fact, he draws on a fount of fascinating numbers, explaining that today’s spacecraft are “mostly just hauling fuel around: the actual payload was 4 percent for the Saturn V and 1 percent for the Space Shuttle.” Even in Beyond, where Impey ventures far into a possible future among the stars, his feet remain firmly planted on terra firma. Though he draws analogies from Star Trek and science fiction novels, he never leaves the reader in any doubt that he is fully aware it’s all speculation.Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He’s also a prolific author. Our Future in Space is his eighth book.

⭐Beyond is the second book by Chris Impey I’ve read — the first being Shadow World. Both books are fascinating, but, more importantly, so well written that I could revel in the language of Dr. Impey — a real wordsmith. Both books complement each other, They employ sci-fi, but that’s almost beside the point. They cover a variety of issues of astrophysics in a way that is comprehensible for those of us sorely lacking in a physics background. In other books, you won’t be getting pages after pages of math (TG). There is also a suggestion of Dr. Impey’s wry sense of humor. The man knows of what he speaks, even when he speaks about the unknowable. Impressive, engaging, entertaining, and vastly informative. I’d read more of his work, but the prices are prohibitive. I was prompted to read these two books while taking his Coursera class and found my universe — literally — expanded.

⭐The author really covers all bases, from the ancients, to the space program, to Seti, and finally, to what space means for us as a species. Lots of interesting stuff, but it did not really have that feel of a must read book, and I’m not sure why. Nevertheless, if the subject interests you, I would give this a read. Imprey even tosses in a little ongoing vignette about what it would be like to be a passenger on a voyage to another galaxy. As an example of an interesting tidbit, he mentions that a band of 40-80 chimps has more genetic variation than all 7 billion humans on earth, suggesting humans at some point came very close to extinction.

⭐This is an interesting book that opines that the future of the human race is in exploring our solar system, galaxy and the universe. The book identifies the challenges with doing this – the logistical issues of providing food and water and the issues of human beings cramped into small spaces are daunting. But, the book also provides suggestions of how these will be resolved.The book also provides an interesting fictional account of space travellers to another solar system and opines how they will be prepared (from birth) and how the transport will occur.

⭐While I found parts of this book interesting, it was mostly just a rehash of the same tired old information that would already be known by the kind of people who would be interested by it in the first place. It also failed to discuss in any detailed way actual proposals to explore and expand into space.Additionally, the book could use some judicious editing. It directly contradicts itself in places, the grammar is occasionally rough, and rather than flowing smoothly, it tends to meander and double back on itself, often repeating previous information or imparting facts and anecdotes that seem to have little to do with the subject at hand.Finally, I was disappointed by the length of the book. The book proper ends at 65 percent, with fully 35 percent dedicated to footnotes, bibliography, and acknowledgments. This ratio seems a little skewed to me.This book is not without merit, but this diamond in the rough needs a lot of polishing.

⭐If I could, I would give it 3 1/2 stars. Seemed somewhat uneven. I know it wasn’t meant to be a history of space flight, but I thought there were some historical events that were either glossed over, or their implications weren’t discussed. More so, I got a little tired of reading about the current space entrepreneurs. I suppose the author was trying to give us Americans the hint that this is the way of the future for the US space program, but he seemed to go on and on about them and it bordered on hero worship. The most interesting part of the book was the on the future of space exploration. The author offers some very interesting and novel ideas on how we can continue to explore space. Many of his ideas seem obtainable in the near future.It was a worthwhile read, I am not in a big rush to go out an read his other books on the subject of space and astrophysics.

⭐i didn’t receive this book that i believed i had purchased—-why?

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