posted 07-20-2007 09:34 AM               

The first mission to Mars raises the question: How will a permanent base on Mars be established? Although this is some time ahead, the opportunities and challenges posed by Mars Base One are already clear: the great distance from Earth; the necessity for self sufficiency; the challenges of long term living on Mars; how to establish a two way traffic between the planets; minimise the cost of maintenance from Earth; and importantly, keep political support over a long period. These are all generic challenges with which we are familiar, or to which there are familiar and well tried solutions for terrestrial bases and colonies. To translate these solutions to the Mars base requires the application of known science and engineering. Focusing on the near future, the theme of the book will be how to establish a base on Mars and maintain it with minimum cost and risk as well as examining future life in the base, what colonists will do there, the possibilities of trade and export, legal issues, human issues, birth, life, and death on Mars.

About the Author

Martin Turner is currently Professor of Physics at the University of Leicester and eaches undergraduate courses on Rocket Engines, and Launcher and Space Vehicle Dynamics. He is also Principal Investigator for the EPIC instrument on ESA's XMM-Newton orbital X-Ray observatory, and Chairman of the ESA XEUS Science Advisory group which advises ESA on future orbiting X-ray obsrvatories. He is member of the Suzaku Science Working Group for the Japanese Space Agency--Suzaku is a recently launched X-ray observatory, and a co-investigator on the NASA SWIFT Mission. He is a member of several PPARC review committees, including one as Chairman.

Martin Turner has built instruments for a significant number of space observatories, EXOSAT (ESA), GINGA (Japan) XMM Newton (ESA), and has worked on many others, including Spectrum-X for the Russian Space Agency, COS-B for ESA, and ASCA for the Japanese space agency.

The author has published some 150 papers on X-ray astronomy and space instrumentation. He has published two books with PRAXIS: Rocket and Spacecraft Propulsion, 2nd Edition, October 2004, and Expedition Mars, November 2003. Martin Turner is therefore ideally suited to write this forward looking book based round his experience with space missions and his teaching and writing about rocket propulsion and the expedition to Mars.

• Paperback: 300 pages
  
• Publisher: Praxis; 1 edition (August 2008)
  
• Language: English
  
• ISBN-10: 038773452X
  
• ISBN-13: 978-0387734521