_A City on Mars_ by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith has the subtitle “Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?” and - spoilers - the answers seem to be maybe, a smaller maybe, and a big fat nope.

[nocto@social.lol]

_A City on Mars_ by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith has the subtitle “Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through?” and - spoilers - the answers seem to be maybe, a smaller maybe, and a big fat nope.

Ultimately I came out of the book with the thought that if we can’t manage to live peacefully on a planet that has enough resources for all of us, then why (on earth) does anyone think that we’ll manage it on one that doesn’t.

Definitely a really interesting and fun read.

https://nocto.com/books/a-city-on-mars/

#books #bookstodon #BookReview

[curtismchale@mastodon.social]

@nocto It was an eye opener for me on all the things we're not working on that would make space travel viable but aren't flashy.

[marywordymary@wandering.shop]

@nocto Oh wow your comment about resources is a compelling one.

[curtadams@urbanists.social]

@nocto I really appreciated A City on Mars as well. One of the things I really took away from it is how little thought and research has been done on the nitty-gritty of living off earth. For example, Musk has ranted for years about how he's going to send people to Mars in the near future (before abruptly switching to the Moon) but has never even tried to create a closed-cycle ecology or reliable power source that would be a necessity. The Weinersmiths are great on this.