The Case for Mars

According to NASA, it would cost $500 billion to establish a human settlement on Mars. As described in this book, Dr Robert Zubrin has devised a plan for travel to Mars and eventual settlement which he argues could be realized for a tenth of the cost and in a third of the time envisaged by NASA.

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Scientists have speculated that Mars could be transformed into an environment that supports human life and serves as a jumping-off point to explore the further reaches of our galaxy. Until recently this sort of musing was just that - a big, expensive fantasy that, according to NASA, would cost $500 billion. Dr Robert Zubrin saw it differently. As described in this book, he has devised a plan for travel to Mars and eventual settlement which he argues could be realized for a tenth of the cost and in a third of the time envisaged by NASA. Using lessons gleaned from successful voyages of exploration in the past, Zubrin's plan includes details of how it will be possible to produce the fuel for a return to Earth by using resources in the Martian environment, and how it will be possible to do away with the enormously costly space stations previously considered essential. The book explains Zubrin's view of how man will get to Mars in the near future, and why it is necessary to do so. The concept of the frontier is seen as a necessary part of man's social, psychological, scientific and artistic development.
Zubrin believes that the most revolutionary ideas are often borne away from mainstream culture, and that at the new Martian frontier such innovations would be generated by necessity.