en-US Sun, 01 Dec 2019 11:43:06 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 77507 In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research and cutting-edge science in the first of a trilogy chronicling the colonization of Mars.

For eons, sandstorms have swept the desolate landscape. For centuries, Mars has beckoned humans to conquer its hostile climate. Now, in 2026, a group of 100 colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.

John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers and Arkady Bogdanov lead a terraforming mission. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness. For others it offers an opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. For the genetic alchemists, it presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life and death. The colonists orbit giant satellite mirrors to reflect light to the surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth. Massive tunnels, kilometers deep, will be drilled into the mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves and friendships will form and fall to pieces—for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.

Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in evolution, creating a world in its entirety. It shows a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision.]]> 572 Kim Stanley Robinson 0553560735 C 0 3.86 1992
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: C
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/12/01
shelves: uo-reading-list, owned-physical, owned-audiobook, to-read
review:

]]> 77505 624 Kim Stanley Robinson 0553572393 C 0 3.94 1993
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: C
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/02/21
shelves: uo-reading-list, currently-reading, owned-physical
review:

]]> 77504 768 Kim Stanley Robinson 0553573357 C 0 3.94 1996
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: C
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/02/21
shelves: uo-reading-list, currently-reading, owned-physical
review:

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The Space Barons is the story of a group of billionaire entrepreneurs who are pouring their fortunes into the epic resurrection of the American space program. Nearly a half-century after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, these Space Barons-most notably Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, along with Richard Branson and Paul Allen-are using Silicon Valley-style innovation to dramatically lower the cost of space travel, and send humans even further than NASA has gone. These entrepreneurs have founded some of the biggest brands in the world-Amazon, Microsoft, Virgin, Tesla, PayPal-and upended industry after industry. Now they are pursuing the biggest disruption of space.

Based on years of reporting and exclusive interviews with all four billionaires, this authoritative account is a dramatic tale of risk and high adventure, the birth of a new Space Age, fueled by some of the world's richest men as they struggle to end governments' monopoly on the cosmos. The Space Barons is also a story of rivalry-hard-charging startups warring with established contractors, and the personal clashes of the leaders of this new space movement, particularly Musk and Bezos, as they aim for the moon and Mars and beyond.]]> 320 Christian Davenport 1610398297 C 3 uo-reading-list, science 4.07 2018
author: Christian Davenport
name: C
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2018/05/02
date added: 2018/05/02
shelves: uo-reading-list, science
review:
An enjoyable and enlightening read, but the repetition becomes a little tedious. I learned some new things, even as a former "expert" in this field; however, some of the facts mentioned in the book are completely unverifiable, or at least I've failed to find them online. I've tweeted the author to ask questions (like, where did he get the word "stickiction?" What does it mean? His book is the only instance of it found. What chemical did Blue Origin replace with citric acid?), but not received any answers, yet.
]]> 7237456 The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour?

To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.]]> 334 Mary Roach 0393068471 C 0 to-read, uo-reading-list 3.93 2010
author: Mary Roach
name: C
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/04/03
shelves: to-read, uo-reading-list
review:

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