Overview
- Explains how other parts of the solar system and even exoplanets can be made fit for human settlement and how our solar system offers an abundance of resources
- Shows how geological and chemical activity in Earth's atmosphere allow Earth to support life and how other solar system objects might be fashioned similarly
- Explores in detail the current thinking on how a terraformed, life-sustaining Mars might be possible, given that Mars was once a much wetter and denser planet
Part of the book series: Astronomers' Universe (ASTRONOM)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Reviews
From the reviews:
"Earth will not last forever; it will take many human generations for most of Earth’s problems to manifest, at the very least. One may consider these the problems of far-off generations or, as Beech … does in Terraforming, one might consider how to begin to create new homes on Mars or Venus. Beech describes our modern view of the solar system, emphasizing the resources available to us on the familiar planets … . Summing Up: Recommended. General and academic audiences, lower-division undergraduate and above." (C. Palma, Choice, Vol. 47 (1), September, 2009)
“‘The ultimate aim of terraforming is to alter a hostile planetary environment into one that is Earth like, and eventually upon the surface of the new and vibrant world that you and I could walk freely about and explore.’ … nicely produced and illustrated book, then carries on with a mixture of just enough actual scientific detail to make the extensive science fantasy, not science fiction but science fantasy, plausible to many readers. … interest to scientists and engineers … .” (Gary J. Long and Fernande Grandjean, Belgian Physical Society Magazine, Issue 2, 2011)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Associate professor of astronomy, and Head of the Astronomy Department at Campion College, The University of Regina. My main research interests during the past decade have focused on the smaller objects within the solar system (comets, asteroids and meteoroids), but concomitant to this I have continued to perform research related to the structure and evolution of stars (the area of my doctoral studies). The book being proposed here is partly based upon a series of research papers that I have published over the years and on material used in a solar system studies class. The topic of asteroengineering was recently the focus of an ‘opinion article’ I wrote for the May 2006 issue of Astronomy Now magazine, and an editorial piece in the May 2006 issue of Smithsonian Air and Space magazine.
Home web page: http://hyperion.cc.uregina.ca/~astro/mbeech.html
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Terraforming: The Creating of Habitable Worlds
Authors: Martin Beech
Series Title: Astronomers' Universe
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09796-1
Publisher: Springer New York, NY
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag New York 2009
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-387-09795-4Published: 15 January 2009
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4939-3914-5Published: 23 August 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-0-387-09796-1Published: 21 April 2009
Series ISSN: 1614-659X
Series E-ISSN: 2197-6651
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 291
Topics: Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, Popular Science in Astronomy, Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Exploration and Astronautics), Planetology, Atmospheric Sciences