Robert Zubrin

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.

The Case for Mars

A leading authority on Mars exploration and terraformation offers a speculative look at the Red Planet and witty advice on how to travel to and live on Mars, covering everything from budget travel, to how to select a habitat, how to protect one's home from radiation, and how to choose a space suit and life-support system. Original. 30,000 first printing.

A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet

How to Live on Mars

creating a spacefaring civilization

Entering space

Richard Wagner

Explains how scientists can use current technology to send humans to Mars; produce fuel and oxygen on the planet's surface; build bases and settlements; and one day terrafor-- or alter the atmosphere of the planet.

The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must

The author of The Case for Mars provides an insider's look at the future of space exploration and travel, examining the true potential for human expeditions into outer space, the prospects for colonization of the outer planets of the solar system, and their implications for the future of humankind. Reprint.

Creating a Spacefaring Civilization

Entering Space

“Bob Zubrin really, nearly alone, changed our thinking on this issue.” —Carl Sagan, The Denver Post If you ever daydream about space travel and human space flight—or hope to one day rove the Red Planet alongside Curiosity—then MARS DIRECT will teach you how we can get there The human race is at a crossroads. In the coming decades, we will make decisions regarding our human spaceflight program that will lead to one of two familiar futures: the open universe of Star Trek, where we allow ourselves the opportunity to spread our wings and attempt to flourish as an interplanetary species—or the closed, dystopian, and ultimately self-destructive world of Soylent Green, constantly at war with one another over humanity’s “limited” resources. If we plan to survive ourselves and one day travel to the stars, the human race’s next stepping-stone must be a manned mission to and the eventual colonization of Mars. In this four-part e-special, Mars Society founder Dr. Robert Zubrin details the challenges of a manned Earth-to-Mars mission. Challenges which, according to Zubrin, we are technologically more prepared to overcome than the obstacles of the missions to the moon of the sixties and seventies. Dr. Zubrin’s relatively simple plan, called Mars Direct, could feasibly have humans on the surface of Mars within a decade. Zubrin also discusses the current predicament of NASA, the promise of privatized space flight from companies like SpaceX, and the larger implication behind the absolute necessity to open the final frontier and transform from a planetary society into an interplanetary society. Our future as a species requires us to take baby steps away from the cradle that is planet Earth or, ultimately, perish here.

Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future: A Special from Tarcher/ Penguin

Mars Direct

Mihai-Dan Pavelescu

When the first human exploratory mission to Mars is left stranded on the planet, five scientists must rely on their own ingenuity and skill to rescue themselves, in a debut novel by the scientist-author of The Case for Mars. Reprint.

First Landing

The Case for Mars makes living in space seem more possible than ever in this updated 25th anniversary edition, featuring the latest information on the planet's exploration and the drive to send humans there. 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 had long been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit. But that is changing fast. In February 2021, the American rover Perseverance will touch down on Mars. Equipped with a powerful suite of scientific instruments—including some that will attempt to make oxygen from the Martian atmosphere—the rover also carries a helicopter that will take spectacular panoramic movies from the air. Most exciting of all, a spectrometer onboard may find evidence of fossils left behind by microbes millions of years ago, when the planet was warm and wet, proving at last that life on Earth is not unique, but a general phenomenon in the universe. Meanwhile, in Boca Chica, Texas, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has created a shipyard that is building and testing the vessels that will take humans to Mars before this decade is out. Leading space exploration expert Robert Zubrin crafted the daring blueprint for humanity’s reach to the Red Planet twenty-five years ago, when he first published The Case for Mars. Now, in this updated edition, he looks to the future once more to describe how—in an era when the American space program and private companies like SpaceX are racing to send astronauts to Mars—our first colonies there are imminent. In the grand tradition of successful explorers, Zubrin calls for a travel-light and live-off-the-land approach to Martian settlement. He explains how scientists can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars, produce fuel and oxygen on the planet’s surface with its own natural resources, build bases and communities, and one day, terraform—or alter the atmosphere of the planet in order to pave the way for sustainable life. As a landmark new mission opens the decisive campaign to take humans to the Red Planet, Zubrin lays out a comprehensive plan to build life on a new world.

Case for Mars

Maggie Zubrin

Held August 13-16, 1998, Boulder, Colorado

Proceedings of the Founding Convention of the Mars Society

The author of The Case for Mars provides an insider's look at the future of space exploration and travel, examining the true potential for human expeditions into outer space, the prospects for colonization of the outer planets of the solar system, and their implications for the future of humankind. 35,000 first printing.

David Borgenicht

Hena Khan

In this interactive science fiction adventure, you blast off to Mars and must make the right decisions to achieve your mission and safely return to Earth. Join the youngest crew of astronauts ever to make the trip to Mars! Faced with fearsome dangers and difficult decisions, your choices will determine your fate on the Red Planet. Will you achieve the mission and return home to Earth safely, successfully earning the title of the youngest astronaut ever to make it to Mars? Or will you be forced to turn back early? This thrilling adventure offers twenty-two possible endings, but only ONE leads to the ultimate success! With eye-catching comic book style illustrations and information based on scientific facts related to Mars and space exploration, young readers will be over the moon with this entertaining addition to the Worst-Case Scenario series!

You Decide How to Survive!

The Worst-Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure: Mars

A leading theorist on Mars exploration discusses the Mars Direct Plan, which he developed for NASA, explaining the possibilities of Martian travel and the cultural and physical rationale for colonizing and terraforming the planet. 25,000 first printing.

The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and why We Must

There was a time when humanity looked in the mirror and saw something precious, worth protecting and fighting for—indeed, worth liberating. But now we are beset on all sides by propaganda promoting a radically different viewpoint. According to this idea, human beings are a cancer upon the Earth, a species whose aspirations and appetites are endangering the natural order. This is the core of antihumanism. Merchants of Despair traces the pedigree of this ideology and exposes its deadly consequences in startling and horrifying detail. The book names the chief prophets and promoters of antihumanism over the last two centuries, from Thomas Malthus through Paul Ehrlich and Al Gore. It exposes the worst crimes perpetrated by the antihumanist movement, including eugenics campaigns in the United States and genocidal anti-development and population-control programs around the world. Combining riveting tales from history with powerful policy arguments, Merchants of Despair provides scientific refutations to antihumanism’s major pseudo-scientific claims, including its modern tirades against nuclear power, pesticides, population growth, biotech foods, resource depletion, industrial development, and, most recently, fear-mongering about global warming. Merchants of Despair exposes this dangerous agenda and makes the definitive scientific and moral case against it.

Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism

Merchants of Despair

Fin dall'inizio della storia umana Marte è stato un sogno allettante - materiale per leggende, divinità e misteri. Il pianeta più simile al nostro lo si crede tuttora impossibile da raggiungere, tanto meno esplorarlo e abitarlo. Ora con l'avvento di un nuovo progetto rivoluzionario, tutto ciò è cambiato. L'eminente autorità per l'esplorazione spaziale Robert Zubrin ha forgiato un nuovo audace progetto, il Mars Direct, presentato qui con illustrazioni, fotografie ed aneddoti coinvolgenti. Il libro spiega passo dopo passo come possiamo usare la tecnologia attuale per inviare uomini su Marte entro dieci anni; produrre realmente carburante ed ossigeno sulla superficie del pianeta con risorse naturali; come possiamo costruire basi ed insediamenti e come possiamo un giorno fare il "terraforming" di Marte - un processo che può alterare l'atmosfera dei pianeti e spianare la strada alla vita sostenibile.

The Case for Mars - La questione Marte

Recounts the virtual missions of the Mars Society space pioneer team, who while waiting for new technological advances in the space program, replicated and simulated the real-life challenges of exploring Mars on the harshest terrains on Earth. Reprint.

The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic

Mars on Earth

Thinking about moving to mars? Well, why not? Mars, after all, is the planet that holds the greatest promise for human colonization. But why speculate about the possibilities when you can get the real scientific scoop from someone who’s been happily living and working there for years? Straight from the not-so-distant future, this intrepid pioneer’s tips for physical, financial, and social survival on the Red Planet cover: • How to get to Mars (Cycling spacecraft offer cheap rides, but the smell is not for everyone.) • Choosing a spacesuit (The old-fashioned but reliable pneumatic Neil Armstrong style versus the sleek new—but anatomically unforgiving—elastic “skinsuit.”) • Selecting a habitat (Just like on Earth: location, location, location.) • Finding a job that pays well and doesn’t kill you (This is not a metaphor on Mars.) • How to meet the opposite sex (Master more than forty Mars-centric pickup lines.) With more than twenty original illustrations by Michael Carroll, Robert Murray, and other renowned space artists, How to Live on Mars seamlessly blends humor and real science, and is a practical and exhilarating guide to life on our first extraterrestrial home.

Martin Chatterton

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