Spacefarers

Christopher Wanjek Harvard University Press £23.95  HB

Stephen Hawking called for humans to spread out across space, to guard against disasters threatening our future. Elon Musk is planning private missions to colonise Mars. But what challenges must be faced in making such epic voyages a reality?

Half a century has passed since Apollo astronauts flew to the Moon. After that, it was ‘job done’ and there was no political appetite to return. Humans have since ventured no further than low-Earth orbit, on space stations such as the ISS.

Wanjek argues that it is the promise of economic rewards, from such activities as mining and tourism, that will drive a new space race to the Moon, asteroids and planets, just as it has driven Earth-bound expeditions throughout history.

Spacefarers sets out to describe the very real difficulties that must be confronted in order to make our home on new worlds within our Solar System and beyond. Travellers in outer space will swap a warm hospitable Earth for hostile and potentially deadly environments. Wanjek offers a daunting list of perils that will face interplanetary crews, from cosmic and solar radiation poisoning to physical and mental health issues. The closest example of such claustrophobic existence on Earth is aboard a nuclear submarine, where crews may be confined for three months at a time. A journey to Mars might take nine months.

Spacefarers is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the practicalities of living away from Earth, and describes just how engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs are planning to expand humanity’s horizons.

★★★★★

Paul Sutherland is a space writer and journalist