SSI Associate Reviews

Read a  good book lately?  Watched a good video on family documentary night?  Your fellow SSI Associates want to hear your recommendations!
Right down this page there are two new reviews to get things started and we encourage you to add to the list.

The only criteria is to spot the way that a book or video relates to SSI’s goal of enabling The Human Breakout Into Space.

That may mean a direct tie to “O’Neill Colonies” or Glaser/Brown Powerbeaming Satellites or to another SSI program such as simulated gravity effects on vertebrates (G-Lab) or closed loop life cycle research (E-Lab).  But it might also be a resource that has some indirect relation that you’ve spotted, such as a book on welding that mentions a vacuum environment  or on plumbing that considers the special needs of a spinning chamber.

When you really think about it, pretty much every reference to every tradecraft that humans have ever practiced on Earth will be important in an SSI O’Neill Colony.  In fact, every individual job will be even more important because a mistake on Earth can be lived with, but up there a temporary pup tent or trip to the grocery for bottled water isn’t an easy option.
There’s a link to Island Living nearly everywhere.  For a review here, you just have to spot that link and tell us how the book or video shows it.

What about Fiction?  Absolutely, if you can show an SSI relation.  Ben Bova’s Colony is a no-brainer and we’d all love to see an SSI review of it, Neal Stephenson’s SEVENEVES has O’Neill Colonies, have you read that one? Tell us what you thought of their ability to make it seem real.  Did they “get it right”?  Did they miss something?  Did it inspire?

Fundamentally, if you’ve seen or read something that you think others at SSI should know about… tell us via membership@ssi.org.

And now, with thanks to Senior Associates John Jossy and Robert Sugg, it begins…


tvotm

The Value of the Moon
by Paul Spudis
Reviewed by SSI SA John Jossy

Paul Spudis presents a convincing case for returning to our natural satellite in his outstanding book “The Value of the Moon; How to Explore, Live and Prosper in Space Using the Moon’s Resources”.  Spudis is a geologist and Senior Staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston Texas, so he knows his stuff.  The book is well written and researched with extensive references.
After a brief history of humanity’s fits and starts … [click here to read the full review]


mcth

Mars Close to Home: The Case For a Mars Simulation in Earth Orbit
by Gerald W. Driggers
Reviewed by SSI SA Robert Sugg

No matter who does what in space going forward, if it involves humans for extended periods, an understanding of variable gravity’s effects on humans and plant and animal life will be required.
Mr. Driggers  lays out the argument for a rotating environmental research facility in Earth orbit to simulate … [click here to read the full review]



Space Commerce by John McLucas

Space Commerce (Frontiers of Space)
by John McLucas
Reviewed by SSI SA Robert Smith

I learned from this book a LOT about the Satellite industry.It is truly a Great book; A straight forward history of the business of Space utilization covering all the major players clinically, and taking the mystery out of all those odd names like Inmarsat, Intelsat, ISMA, Comsat/Comstar, AUSSAT, Navstar and so many more… [to read the full review, click here]


gregg book

Fearless Experiments with Microcomputers
by Gregg Maryniak
Reviewed by SSI SA Robert Smith

A few months ago SSI Senior Associate and former Executive Director Gregg Maryniak (Singularity University, International Space University, XPrize, St Louis Science Center) was having lunch with SSI President Gary Hudson and our old Armatron Lunar Teleoperations Demonstrator came up. It was mentioned how expensive and complicated it was to put a 2.7 second delay in that toy and the video feed but how it was worth it as the Demonstrator made it clear to so many just how simple remote operations on the Moon could actually be.
Someone said, ‘I’ll bet we could do that project with an Arduino and some servos for a lot less now’ and Gregg got very excited… [to read the full review, click here]

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