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The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red Planet Hardcover – February 20, 2024

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

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Robert Zubrin, world-renowned space authority and founding president of the Mars Society, taps today’s newest science and most dogged research to foretell in astounding detail the brave, new Martian civilization we will achieve when (not if!) humankind colonizes Mars 

When Robert Zubrin published his classic book The Case for Mars a quarter century ago, setting foot on the Red Planet seemed a fantasy. Today, manned exploration is certain, and as Zubrin affirms in The New World on Mars, so too is colonization. From the astronautical engineer venerated by NASA and today’s space entrepreneurs, here is what we will achieve on Mars and how.

SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic are building fleets of space vehicles to make interplanetary travel as affordable as Old-World passage to America. We will settle on Mars, and with our knowledge of the planet, analyzed in depth by Dr. Zubrin, we will utilize the resources and tackle the challenges that await us. What we will we build? Populous Martian city-states producing air, water, food, power, and more. Zubrin’s Martian economy will pay for necessary imports and generate income from varied enterprises, such as real estate sales—homes that are airtight and protect against cosmic space radiation, with fish-farm aquariums positioned overhead, letting in sunlight and blocking cosmic rays while providing fascinating views. Zubrin even predicts the Red Planet customs, social relations, and government—of the people, by the people, for the people, with inalienable individual rights—that will overcome traditional forms of oppression to draw Earth immigrants. After all, Mars needs talent. 

With all of this in place, Zubrin’s Red Planet will become a pressure cooker for invention, benefiting humans on Earth, Mars, and beyond. We can create this magnificent future, making life better, less fatalistic. The New World on Mars proves that there is no point killing each other over provinces and limited resources when, together, we can create planets.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for The New World On Mars by Robert Zubrin


"Dr. Zubrin has written a magnificent book which will set the Gold Standard for all future books about Mars. He is a pioneer and a visionary, but his conjectures are always based on solid science. His book takes us one step closer to the day when we can live and thrive on another planet."
—Dr. Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist and New York Times bestselling author of The God Equation and Quantum Supremacy

"Zubrin's vibrant, colorful, and stimulating narrative of how to get to, modify, settle, and prosper on Mars makes me a believer. For the sake of our civilization and our place in the cosmos as important beings, we can (and should and must) do this!"

—Homer Hickam, New York Times bestselling author of Rocket Boys, adapted into the film October Sky

"Making humanity multiplanetary is one of the grandest adventures of all time. The Red Planet is the key. If you want to understand why, start by reading The New World On Mars."

—Lori Garver, former NASA Deputy Administrator and author of Escaping Gravity

"Robert Zubrin's The New World On Mars confirms the author's stature as one of the high priests of American techno-optimism...The book should be read by all those who reject the discredited ideas of Malthus and his degrowth disciples and embrace Zubrin's vision of a superabundant, pro-human future."

—Marian Tupy, Founder and editor of HumanProgress.org and author of Superabundance

"This book is Robert Zubrin's magnum opus not only on creating a new world on Mars, and what life and society might be like for future Martians, but for what it means for us Earthlings...Zubrin shows us the way."

—Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine and New York Times bestselling author of The Believing Brain, The Moral Arc, and Conspiracy

"Bob Zubrin's mixture of imagination, technical expertise, zeal and civilizational commitment is unmatched. Nothing brings it out better than his first and best subject matter, the planet Mars."

—Oliver Morton, writer for the Economist and author of Mapping Mars and The Moon: A History for the Future

"Robert Zubrin has thought long and hard about traveling to Mars, so we should welcome his latest thoughts. In this highly readable book, he notes how technical advances, especially reduced launch costs, render such projects more feasible. He offers a fascinating and enticing vision of the utopian New World that he believes could and should be created on the Red Planet."

—Martin Rees, the UK Astronomer Royal, co-author with Don Goldsmith of The End of Astronauts, and author of On the Future, 

"In one volume, Zubrin--the founding president of the International Mars Society and author of The Case For Mars, has achieved what few other books on Mars have been able. He offers an astoundingly comprehensive road map for how to make dreams about colonizing Mars become reality."

—Forbes.com


Praise for More Work by Robert Zubrin


The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must

“One of the most provocative and hopeful documents I have read about the space program in 20 years.” 

Dennis Overbye, New York Times Book Review

 “Bob Zubrin really, nearly alone, changed our thinking on this issue.”

Carl Sagan, Denver Post

 “In this thoughtful, thorough and inspiring book . . . [Zubrin] systematically and convincingly destroys the conventional wisdom about Mars travel.”

Michael D. Lemonick, Newsday

 “The book shows how a flight to Mars has progressed from fantasy to … a reality that can be achieved by us. Zubrin is showing us the way.”

Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11

 “Worth reading.”

Elon Musk


Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization

“His elegant problem-solving and skillful promotion have put Mars exploration back on the map.”

Mark Bowden, Playboy

“An exhilarating and informative ride.”

San Diego Union-Tribune

“Robert Zubrin is a true engineering genius like the heroic engineers of the past.”

Frederick Turner, The American Enterprise

“A great visionary work. Many of its ideas and analyses are the starting points for years of discussion. It is refreshing to see someone present a practical, step-by-step guide to seizing the stars.”

James Cameron, filmmaker


Mars on Earth: The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic

“Reading Mars on Earth is like standing next to a battering ram in action: You’re half thrilled, half terrified as you watch the barriers come down. . . . I’m convinced we will go to Mars, and I hope Robert Zubrin is on the first boat. He deserves the honor.”

Anthony Brandt, National Geographic Adventure

“Could not be more timely. . . . Those interested in the vision and reality of manned Mars exploration, both now and in the future, will not be disappointed.”

Steven Ruskin, Rocky Mountain News


The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility

“At last, here is the vision we were aiming for when we landed on the Moon. The Case for Space is the case for the future!”  

Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11

“The tools needed to move into space have radically changed in the last decade. Robert Zubrin has put together an excellent guide on how we got these amazing new machines and how we can now use them to break out into the solar system for the benefit of everyone.”

Homer Hickam, author of the #1 New York Times best-selling Rocket Boys

“Zubrin lays out a vision for our space program whose boldness and clarity of thought we have not seen since we took on the challenge of reaching for the Moon. This is the kind of thinking we need.”

 —James R. HansenNew York Times best-selling author of First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong

“One thousand years from now . . . we will look back and see the next few decades as the moment in time that the human race irreversibly moved off the Earth and to the stars. Why should we do that? It is our moral obligation, and in The Case for Space, Zubrin creates one of the most powerful and coherent arguments to date. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about the survival of our species.”

  —Peter DiamandisNew York Times best-selling author of Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think and Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World


Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil

“Robert Zubrin pulls no punches. . . . Don’t miss this one.”

   —James Woolsey, former Director, CIA

“Zubrin describes how a simple congressional directive requiring that every car sold in America be a ‘Flexible Fuel Vehicle’ could rapidly transform our current, intolerable dependence on oil from unreliable sources.”

Frank Gaffney, Washington Times

“Robert Zubrin has never disappointed. . . . Amid the avalanche of new books on energy, Zubrin’s also goes its own way. . . . He has one goal, and one goal only: breaking the stranglehold that despots from the Middle East to South America to Africa have on the world’s oil supply.” 

Sharon Begley, Newsweek


How to Live on Mars

“Impacts the reader somewhere near Bradbury’s intersection of fiction and science. . . . This is priceless stuff. . . . The science behind the fictional backstory is rock-solid, as one would expect from the author of The Case For Mars and Entering Space. Humorous prose delights the reader. . . . But don’t be fooled by the rolling-on-the-floor-laughing parts . . . this book contains nearly as much useful technical detail as The Case for Mars.”

Brian Enke, National Space Society

“With How to Live on MarsRobert Zubrin has produced a new entry in the genre—a guidebook for settlers to a place that hasn't been settled yet, written in the present tense of a future that won't happen for a hundred years. It makes for amusing and interesting reading and in some ways may capture the feel of a colonization-in-progress Mars better than more sober works about the challenges of planetary habitation.” >

Glenn Reynolds, Wall Street Journal

“In his new book, How to Live on Mars, Dr. Robert Zubrin moves beyond the idea of humans taking a brief exploratory mission to Mars, and considers what it would take to actually live there.”

Laurie Schmidt, Popular Science

 

About the Author

Robert Zubrin is president of the aerospace R&D company Pioneer Astronautics, which performs advanced space research for NASA, the US Air Force, the US Department of Energy, and private companies. He is the founder and president of the Mars Society, an international organization dedicated to furthering the exploration and settlement of Mars, leading the Society’s successful effort to build the first simulated human Mars exploration base in the Canadian Arctic and growing the organization to include 7,000 members in 40 countries. A nuclear and astronautical engineer, Zubrin began his career with Martin Marietta (later Lockheed Martin) as a Senior Engineer involved in the design of advanced interplanetary missions. His “Mars Direct” plan for near-term human exploration of Mars was commended by NASA Administrator Dan Goldin and covered in The Economist, Fortune, Air and Space Smithsonian, Newsweek (cover story), Time, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, as well as on BBC, PBS TV, CNN, the Discovery Channel, and National Public Radio. In 1996, Zubrin was one of eight people nationwide named by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as an Advanced Concept Research Program Fellow.

Zubrin is also the author of twelve books, includingThe Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must, with more than 100,000 copies in print in America alone and now in its 25th Anniversary Edition. He lives with his wife, Hope, a science teacher, in Golden, Colorado.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Diversion Books (February 20, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1635768802
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1635768800
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

About the author

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Robert Zubrin
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Dr. Robert Zubrin is the author of The Case for Nukes: How to Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future, and The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must. He is an internationally renowned nuclear and aerospace engineer with four decades of technical experience. Formerly a Senior Engineer at Lockheed Martin, since 1996 he has been President of Pioneer Astronautics, an aerospace research and development company. In that capacity he has led over 70 highly successful technology development projects for NASA, the US military, the Department of Energy, and private clients. He holds Master of Science degrees in Nuclear Engineering and Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a doctorate in Nuclear Engineering, all from the University of Washington. He is the author of 14 books, over 200 technical and non-technical papers in areas relating to aerospace and energy engineering, and is the inventor of over 20 US patents, with several more pending. In 1998 he founded the non-profit Mars Society, and personally led it in building a simulated human Mars exploration station in the Canadian Arctic, some 900 miles from the North Pole. He remains president of the Mars Society today. Prior to his work in aerospace, Dr. Zubrin worked in areas of radiation protection, nuclear power plant safety, thermonuclear fusion research, and as a secondary school science and math teacher. He lives in Golden, Colorado with his wife Hope Zubrin, a retired Middle School science teacher. They have three daughters, Sarah, Rachel, and Oakley, all now out of the house, and a loyal Sheltie named Strelka and Siberian cat Luna, who remain at home.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
18 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
I have known of Dr. Robert Zubrin since 1996 when I read his classic masterpiece "The Case For Mars." In August 2007, I met Dr. Zubrin in person on the UCLA campus. He has been an honored colleague and friend for the past 16.5 years. He is a prolific author. He is a visionary. He has incredible technical skills with few equals. In person, he has charisma and is a great communicator. He is truly an American icon. I tell Dr. Zubrin that one day there will be a Zubrin City on Mars.
There is a saying that a great author gets better with each book. This book is living proof. The book is fun to read and mentally stimulating. You begin to get a picture of what a human presence on Mars would be like. He backs up his grand vision with brilliant technical analysis. Some of it goes over my head. My son is a research scientist that would understand that part of the book.
I finished the book with a big smile on my face. I felt that I had grown as a person after reading the book. This is a great read and a rare treasure. You will love it even if you are not a space enthusiast.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2024
What a mind, he will take you there and back again! Covers every point, including the asteroid belts. Way cool, a man ahead of his time! Thanks Gang!!!
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
Written as if science fiction has become fact, poorly organized, strays all over the place and really isn't convincing in its narrative and I am a huge supporter of it's premise
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Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2024
Robert Zubrin, whose The Case for Mars upended thinking about the human exploration and settlement of Mars decades ago, has published the most comprehensive study of what It would be like to colonize Mars ever written. He delves not only into the technological aspect of Mars colonies, but the economic, political, and ever cultural aspects as well. Because of the work of SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk and his super Starship rocket, Mars colonies have advanced from the realm of science fiction to a possibility that could happen during the lifetimes of most people alive. Highly recommended.
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Top reviews from other countries

Rainer Zitelmann
5.0 out of 5 stars “Liberty will be necessary for us to settle in Space”
Reviewed in Germany on May 1, 2024
According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk, in the early 2000s, after selling the company PayPal, Musk was sitting with some of the company’s alumni in Las Vegas and one of them asked him what he was planning to do next. Musk answered: “I’m going to colonize Mars. My mission in life is to make mankind a multiplanetary civilization.” His former colleague’s reaction? “Dude, you’re bananas.”

True, Musk hasn’t been to Mars yet. But he has built the most successful private space company with rockets that are far superior and much cheaper than anything ever built by government space agencies.

Elon Musk met the renowned aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society, at a dinner in 2001. Five years earlier, Zubrin had gained widespread recognition for his groundbreaking book The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet And Why We Must. Inspired by Zubrin’s vision and passion for Mars exploration, Musk founded SpaceX just six months after their meeting, with the primary objective of taking humans to the Red Planet.

While there had been a long period of stagnation in state-funded manned space travel after the moon landing and the cost of a space launch had remained static for 40 years, thanks to the introduction of mostly reusable launch vehicles Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, had managed to cut launch costs by a factor of five over the past decade. The conquest of Mars has become more realistic.

Nearly thirty years after the release of his first Mars book, Robert Zubrin has recently published this new book, which excels in presenting the economic basis for the colonization of Mars. Zubrin’s medium term objective is to establish a settlement of 50,000 individuals on Mars. This goal, while ambitious, pales in comparison to Elon Musk’s grand vision, which envisions sending 1,000 starships, each carrying 100 passengers, to Mars every year for ten years to establish a thriving community of one million people on the red planet.

Thanks to the evaluation of numerous unmanned Mars missions, we now know that Mars is endowed with all the resources needed to support not only life but also the development of a technological civilization. There is plenty of water on the planet, albeit in frozen form. Mars also holds vast quantities of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, all in forms readily accessible to those clever enough to use them. But how could a mission to conquer Mars be financed?

According to Zubrin, the initial stages of Mars colonization would likely be funded by the government, but the involvement of private investors would then be essential moving forward. The harsh conditions and limited workforce on Mars, he explains, would require the settlers to be highly innovative, developing new inventions and patents to establish a sustainable economy. This would, Zubrin writes, require advancements in technologies such as genetic engineering at a much faster pace than on Earth to guarantee a stable food supply. “The best, early, large-scale source of cash income that Mars colonists can generate will come from the sale and licensing of intellectual property.” Later, he continues, they would open up additional revenue streams, such as real estate, tourism, luxury goods, spectator sports, material exports, and asteroid mining, which, from a logistical point of view, is about 100 times easier to support from Mars than from Earth.

Zubrin is convinced that both the conquest of Mars and its subsequent colonization can only be financed under capitalism. “Liberty will be necessary for us to settle space. We will need to create ever cheaper and more cost-effective launch systems, spacecraft, and space transportation systems, and these require liberty.” However, economic freedom is not only important for sending rockets to Mars, but even more important for its colonization, Zubrin argues, because only maximum economic freedom can foster conditions to promote inventiveness and entrepreneurship, and only this will create the necessary foundations for the economic sustainability of a society on Mars.

Zubrin is optimistic that Mars, much like America in the past, will appeal to freedom-loving, energetic people. After all, without the promise of freedom, the society that emerges on Mars would never be able to attract enough people willing to take the risks and endure the hardships required to colonize the Red Planet.