Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets (Helix Book)

Dr. Lewis without a doubt deserves to be one of the most influential leaders in space development. I found Mining the Sky by accident in a hometown book shop while in high school and bought it because I had a few dollars. Five years later, I'm 9 months away from becoming an Air Force space officer with an astronautics degree. This book is that impressive. This book is the clearest and accessible book on the economic impacts space will provide the human race to date. Most of its ideas aren't fanciful and can be easily imagined as maturing in the next 20-30 years or sooner, given an effort. Maybe even sooner, as at least one private company was inspired by Dr. Lewis' writings. Dr. Lewis' positive outlook is tempered by a realistic engineering and economic approach to space. Keep in mind this book is first and foremost about space industrialization, not exploration. A true space enthusaist should know that one cannot be without the other. Dr. Lewis could not have given a better general survey of whats out there. A brief addendum concerning other reviewers' criticisms. This book could be made much more technical. However, this book was meant to appeal to a large, nontechnical audience. For more information, see Dr. Lewis' earlier book (and parent to Mining the Sky) Resources of Near Earth Space. It is the standard text for space materials prospects. Mining the Sky is a toned down version of RoNES meant to explain to a layman (me, when I first read Mining) the opportunities that await those courageous enough to reach out. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. And everyone even remotely interested in space and mankinds future in it, READ THIS BOOK!

John Lewis presents a very believable glimpse of how humanity will expand into our solar system via natural resources and approaches to travel and the use of these resources. With unlimited human ideas and knowledge of nearby resources possessing the same elements as man has developed on earth, the potential is unlimited and our travel becomes unlimited. This book places man on the threshold of solar system travel and exploration similar to "The Age of Exploration" of the 15th Century. A treasure-trove of riches awaits us in nearby space. Additionally, asteroids regular movements act as the trade winds for our space travel as early Iberian explorers traveled long ago. This fascinating book is for the science based reader with an imagination. One that does not possess underpinnings in basic physics and chemistry will be challenged. I do not recommend this to the primary "Love Novel reader."

This book should be required reading for American manufacturing CEOs (those that are still here) -- to give them ideas and set them percolating -- and by politicians -- to get them the hell out of the way and get this hopeful future moving. Lucid, engaging, with hardnosed facts and data generously spiced with imaginative vignettes of "how it could be." While we've missed the target of "L5 by '95" -- at least 1995, anyway -- this book prescribes a path that if followed with a modicum of enthusiasm, could result in hitting that target with ease by 2095...perhaps in another solar system entirely.

This is not a cook book for serving up a turnkey interplanetary civilization, but its ideas will provide food for thought. The book covers a broad range of subjects providing: historical perspectives; descriptions of the Moon, Mars, and the asteroids; technical processes for extracting/producing volatiles/metals; generating power; and spaceship propulsion schemes and flight trajectories. Of the ideas presented, two stand out as possible keys to the future ... To ply the space between Earth, Moon, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt, you will need a spaceship, versatile in the propellants it can use. Rockets normally burn their propellants, but there is another type which simply heats them. Nuclear energy is the favored heat source. This idea has been around for years. The most accessible propellant in space: water. Perhaps the best place to look for water is in a group of asteroids known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Their paths periodically cross the Earth's orbit. Some of these NEOs are suspected of harboring ice beneath their dark coats. The NEOs in an orbit similar to Earth's are easiest to reach. Scenario: Your spaceship departs an Earth-orbiting fuel-depot. Months later, you intercept a NEO, mine its ice, possibly melting/purifying it before storing it. At departure, you can tap into this water to feed your thermal rocket. After more months, you arrive back at the fuel-depot. The water you add to their stores can be used for flights to other destinations. NEO mining could be dangerous. NEOs spin, have low/variable gravities, some may be a collection of loose rocks, some are two smaller bodies sitting on each other, some have small moons, and some are has-been comets. What will happen when you start boring, digging, or blasting them? Book quality: page 79 follows page 82.

Mining the Sky is an excellent book for any person who has had any association with earthly mineral extraction and the potential for utilization of space-based resources on the Moon, Mars, and Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs). While the book is nearly a decade old, the primary message remains poignant and relevant even more so in the 21st Century. It is my hope that the author will do a second edition in the near future. With recent robotic missions to the Moon, Mars, asteroids and comets having taken place since the book was first published, I am certain that there is even much more to now be said about the economics of space-based mineral commerce.

It seems quite clear that man's future lies in the spaces between planets, employing the easily reached resources in asteroids to build habitable structures. John S Lewes, professor of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona, is the acknowledged expert on asteroids and comets, what resources they offer. He deftly compares the costs of mining near Earth asteroids (NEOs) compared to winning materials and water from the Moon. Lewes indulges himself with quirky forewords to may chapters written from the perspective of the next century, which I found rather off-putting, until justified by material in the later chapters. Lewes is keen for readers to grasp the astronomical numbers, explaining for instance that shared equally between the 7 billion people on Earth today, your own share of the iron in asteroids is worth £5 billion. Or that if we chose to build an O'Neil cylindrical habitat 5 miles in diameter, there are resources enough to make it several billion miles in length - if you chose to drive your car from one end of the cylinder to the other, the trip might take 30,000 years. And Lewes estimates we have resources to accommodate 10 million times Earth's current population. I read that Deep Space Industries, a business formed in January 2013 with the aim of mapping and commercially exploiting asteroids, has more recently made John S Lewes their chief scientist. This is a facinating book with mind-boggling ideas all carefully explained. It cannot help but change your view about the problems that confront people with earth-bound horizons.

Gefällt mir von der Aufmachung und vom Inhalt sehr. Gibt einen sehr guten Überblick eines Themas, das immermehr an Bedeutung gewinnt.

Thanks

While I read this book with much interest, I felt it is far too outdated to be relevant nowadays you're better of just looking at Google news' science section. Inspiring to read nonetheless.