Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for ColonizingSpace: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space

Stanley Schmidt and Robert Zubrin have edited a better than average/good book. I'm a big fan of Dr. Robert Zubrin the president of the Mars Society I belong to.I read but couldn't get into the chapter about The Hypersonic Skyhook by Robert Zubrin. Don't think it could ever work. I'm not an engineer and there were lots of difficult equations. Time consuming. If your not an engineer you may want to skip parts of this. I just think the idea is a bunch of baloney.Mars Direct by Robert Zubrin and David Baker was great... super 5 stars. INMO it could really work using technology today not some possible super expensive weirdo technology that would have to be developed. Robert's Colonizing the Outer Solar System was great too, as was the Terraforming Mars section by Zubrin and Christopher McKay.Robert Zubrins Magnetic Sail idea was interesting but again with difficult equations. For me difficult to follow.C. Harry Stine's... Comes the Revolution was a little dry but interesting.Some of the other chapters like Dr. Robert L Forward's The Negative Matter space drive were more like science fiction and too far in the future technology for me to get seriously interested in. More boring equations.There is a part of the book about colonies in the Ort Cloud and their quest for energy and about how that civilization will be different than on Earth. Interesting but I am more interested in what may happen in my children's life time...like using Zubrin's Semi Direct plan for us to send 4 people to Mars to explore it for 1 1/2 years using technology of today and by using a multinational approch for it to be affordable.Part 4 of the book was interesting but too far in the future like John Cramer's The Tachyon drive, and Dr. Robert Forward's Negative Matter Drive. Technology we are not even close to achieving... more like science fiction. Then the book gets into the real weird stuff like in the far future of moving the Earth away from our red giant sun or moving another star into our solar system. Great imagination, but get real, lets use something we can use today or in 50 years or so.Islands of the sky is a good book but there are much better books like Dr. Zubrin's new Case for Mars...5 stars plus. Watch the 5 star DVD the new "Mars Underground". Also read some of the other space books I have reviewed.I give Islands in the Sky 3 1/2 stars. Parts were 5 stars but much 3 star...so far in the future using weird, untested and unknown technology. Its nice to day dream about what maybe possible in the future but lets do something that we know will work today and use the limited resourses we have. We are in a deep world wide recession or maybe the beginning of a depression. Lets use pre existing technology, a cost effective method to send a manned mission to Mars and create hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs here on Earth, now , just like the Apollo program!Lets use Robert Zubrin's Semi Direct Approach to go to Mars, explore and find whats there, (maybe extinct or live underground microscopic life, frozen underground water, useful minerals and more, maybe eventually build up a colony and terraform Mars. Also mining the asteroid belt and later getting fuels from the outer gas giants.Thinking about colonizing the Ort Cloud, sending ships to the stars is far in the future, and sci fi nonsense like moving the Earth or moving stars is so far ahead right now to be a waste of time. Time that could be spent sending a manned expedition to Mars, colonizing and terraforming Mars, mining asteroids, and getting fuel from the outer planets in our solar system. Using chemical rockets with pre existing technology to get to Mars NOW, then nuclear/ion drive, mining asteroids and later when we develope fusion reactors get fuel from the outer planets. Thats all the room I have on my plate now.

I found Islands in the Sky a very entertaining, enlightening and uplifting book to read. It boldly addresses a wide range of subjects dealing with space exploration and appears to come up with concrete answers! There is an underlying optimism in the whole book that given human ingenuity, anything is possible. This is a far cry from the many 'post-modern' books that crowd store bookshelves seeking to convince us that science is not the answer, that mankind is bad and its actions are always in conflict with the environemnt. This book speaks to those of us who believe that we are the masters of our universe.Some chapters are too abstruse and perhaps only for the specialist, but most of the book is eminently readable. A must for every space enthusiast.

This book is an overview of plans to colonize the solar system, taken from the pages of Analog Science Fiction Magazines science facts sections.The sections cover several important areas, for colonizing the Moon, asteroids and Mars. The last few sections cover topics that are very far out. Some of these may not be possible. But, if even half work out, there will be Humans living near (and far) from other stars someday.

A+

great vision

Here's a decent collection of essays concerning the settlement of the solar system. Decent buy if you can find a good copy cheap.

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.

I find myself rereading this whenever I need inspiration about the future. Wonderful and radical plans for colonizing things like the Oort cloud, far past the usual suspects of Mars, the Moon, and a terraformed Venus. This is the first book I've felt like reviewing, because I really want to so highly recommend it.

Have re-read this book many times. It has great value to a space exploration enthusiast and/or sci-fi writer. As my understanding of physics and chemistry grew rereading the book became more rewarding as I understood more and more of the math and science as the years went on. A great collection to my space exploration library.