Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets

"While we worry over the depletion of the earth’s natural resources, the pollution of our planet, and the challenges presented by the earth’s growing population, billions of dollars worth of metals, fu"

Library Journal

As we near the end of the 20th century, humankind must deal with the energy crisis and the depletion of natural resources. Lewis (Rain of Iron and Ice, LJ 1/96) argues that the solution to both these problems lies beyond the earth-that we can tap the vast resources of the solar system, in particular the asteroids, as a source of materials and the sun as a source of power. He even describes how we could colonize Mars. Introducing each chapter with a science fiction-type prolog, Lewis goes on to tell how all this can be achieved. Through occasionally tedious passages, he argues that his proposals are both technologically and economically feasible if done by private enterprise, not as a government project. For general collections. [Robert M. Zubrin's The Case for Mars, reviewed below, also proposes an economically feasible manned Mars program.-Ed.]-Harold D. Shane, Baruch Coll., CUNY

John S. Lewis, author of Rain of Iron and Ice, is professor of planetary sciences and codirector of the Space Engineering Research Center at the University of Arizona-Tucson. He has chaired international conferences on space resources and is a globally recognized expert on the subject.