This fantastic book by Kim Stanley Robinson first kindled my interest in Mars and the real potential for human settlement on the Red Planet.
The book follows a large international crew from their outbound journey to Mars, through the early years of settlement, to the large scale colonisation and terraforming of the planet.
The book is full of technical detail and socio political insight and the vast amount of research required to write the book shines through.
Of particular interest to me was the early years of settlement, where we see the crew gradually setting up facilities from equipment drops sent to the planet prior to their arrival. The farm / Science Labs / Habitats / Factories / Nuclear power generator...the list goes on. They go on to build a permanent habitat incorporating repetitive barrel vaulted techniques using regolith bricks, formed onsite. [I intend to cover this building type in a further extended blog post]
The book leaps more and more into the realm of science fiction as it progresses but remains an entertaining read. I'll follow this post with some transcripts from the book which i found particularly inspirational. 8.5/10
The book follows a large international crew from their outbound journey to Mars, through the early years of settlement, to the large scale colonisation and terraforming of the planet.
The book is full of technical detail and socio political insight and the vast amount of research required to write the book shines through.
Of particular interest to me was the early years of settlement, where we see the crew gradually setting up facilities from equipment drops sent to the planet prior to their arrival. The farm / Science Labs / Habitats / Factories / Nuclear power generator...the list goes on. They go on to build a permanent habitat incorporating repetitive barrel vaulted techniques using regolith bricks, formed onsite. [I intend to cover this building type in a further extended blog post]
The book leaps more and more into the realm of science fiction as it progresses but remains an entertaining read. I'll follow this post with some transcripts from the book which i found particularly inspirational. 8.5/10