Voyage: A Novel of What Might Have Been
by Stephen Baxter
HarperPrism, 1997
hardcover, 511 pp.
ISBN 0-06-205258-2
US$23/C$32.50

There's something interesting about works of alternate history. Since real history takes only one path, alternate history lets us look at what might have been, had something been just a little different at some point in history. The space program, with its twists and turns throughout its relatively brief history is ripe for alternate history treatments, and Stephen Baxter provides an excellent, amazingly-detailed vision of a NASA that goes to Mars in the mid-1980s in his novel Voyage.
     The break from our own history takes place at a familiar point: John F. Kennedy is crippled, but survives the assassination attempt in Dallas in 1963, while his wife is killed. Thus, Kennedy is around for the Apollo 11 landing in 1969 and, as former president, talks to the crew and suggests that Mars be the next goal for NASA. This sets off a chain of events where many of the later moon landings are abandoned, and the space shuttle program never strongly considered, for an all-out push to Mars. The novel intersperses the struggle with narrative from the Ares mission to Mars, launched in 1985.
     For an alternate history work to be truly good, it must be believable: the events that take place have to make sense and seem like a logical outcome given the change with our own history that started it all. Voyage, by that criterion, is an excellent work of alternate history: Baxter rarely skimps on the technical details, providing a tale of Mars missions based on NASA's own planning from that era, complete with modified Saturn V's, NERVA rockets, and more. Sometimes the characters in the novel seem a little less than three-dimensional, given the emphasis on the mission and technical aspects, but given the broad scope of the novel, which mixes fictional characters with real-life figures, that's almost to be expected.
     At the end of the novel, Baxter includes an epilogue that discusses how our own history diverges from that in the novel, and whether that's a good or bad thing. While the novel builds up to a manned Mars mission decades before we can expect one in reality, there's no sign that the NASA of alternate history had any future after that mission, while the real-life NASA, despite being saddled with the space shuttle and a complex, drawn-out project to build a space station, has managed to survive the realities of declining budgets while commercial interest in space grows. Regardless, Voyage provides a realistic glimpse of what might have been, and for that alone it is a compelling read.

Bold Endeavors: Lessons from Polar and Space Exploration
by Jack Stuster
Naval Institute Press, 1996
hardcover, 408pp., illus.
ISBN 1-55750-749-X
US$32.95

The environment is openly hostile to human life. Crews must deal with extremely cold temperatures, extended periods without sunlight, and months between crew transfers and supplies. The crews are often cramped into small living spaces and have often limited communications with their families and mission managers, thousands of miles away. Is this life on a future outpost on the Moon or Mars? Perhaps, but it also describes life on one of the scientific outposts in Antarctica. While some are concerned with how humans will live, and live with one another, in future space settlements, we have already built up a large knowledge base in similarly-challenging environments in the polar regions. Jack Stuster reviews what we have learned, and what we need to know, in Bold Endeavors.
     The main part of this book is an examination of the various lessons learned from more than 100 years of expeditions to the polar regions, as well as supplementary information from submarines and the Skylab, Salyut, and Mir missions. Stuster looks at all aspects of human life in these conditions, from basics like food, clothing, and sleep to how groups of people get along, communicate with the outside world, and need and desire privacy. All of these are examined with an eye towards what we know, and what we need to study, for future extended space missions.
     One of the key lessons of this book is how flexible people can be under trying circumstances, and the strength of the human psyche even under the worst of conditions. Stuster recounts the tales of many 19th-century exploring parties, which, despite brutal polar conditions and a lack of the technology and creature comforts we take for granted today, survived and even thrived during their expeditions. Anyone interested in what it takes for people to live and work in demanding conditions on Earth or in space will find Bold Endeavors an interesting, useful book.

Cosmology, Third Edition
by Michael Rowan-Robinson
Oxford University Press, 1997
hardcover, 170pp., illus.
ISBN 0-19-851885-4
US$65.00 (US$29.95 for paperback version)

Leading cosmologist Michael Rowan-Robinson has updated his basic introduction to cosmology with a third edition. This edition incorporates some of the latest research and understanding of the universe, such as the COBE results on the microwave background radiation and the continued debate over the value of the Hubble constant and hence the age of the universe. Rowan-Robinson incorporates these into a general introduction into cosmology, from the Big Bang model of the formation of the universe (and its superiority over other models, such as the steady-state theory) to our understanding of the nature and eventual fate of the universe.
     One of the most useful positions of the book is the final chapter, where he outlines 20 current "controversies" is cosmology, including the age of the universe, the existence of (or lack of) antimatter, and dark matter. While written to be "accessible" to those who have studied some science on college, the number of equations, however simple they may be, will limit the popularity of this book for the general public. For the student interested in cosmology, or the knowledgeable layman looking for something beyond the mass market books on the universe, though, Cosmology may serve as a good introduction.

Solar Power Satellites: The Emerging Energy Option
by P. E. Glaser, F. P. Davidson, K. I. Csigi (eds.)
John Wiley and Sons (Praxis), 1996
hardcover, 300 pp., illus.
ISBN 0-13-824806-0

The concept of the solar power satellite was first developed in the late 1960s by Peter Glaser and was studied thoroughly through the 1970s, spurred on as much by the energy crisis as our interest in exploring and developing space. However, as the energy crisis waned and our abilities in space changed to accommodate the realities of the space shuttle program, ideas of solar power satellites were shelved. The idea is not dead though, as this series of papers edited by Glaser and two others shows. This collection of largely technical papers examines the history and development of the concept and studies the engineering and other technical details of the development and construction of these satellites. Many of these papers are themselves somewhat dated, harking back to the early 1990s, but still provide insight into the concept. While there is little chance that solar power satellites will be built anytime in the near future, anyone interested in the subject, and willing to slog through some dense technical jargon at times, will appreciate this book.

The Once and Future Moon
by Paul D. Spudis
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996
hardcover, 308 pp., illus.
ISBN 1-56098-634-4
US$29.95

Nearly a quarter-century after we turned our backs on the Moon, after the last Apollo lunar landing, there is new interest in our old companion world. The Clementine mission in 1994 provided a new perspective on the Moon and revealed the possible existence of water ice hidden in the south pole. The upcoming Lunar Prospector mission will go into even greater detail and will try to confirm the existence of water ice, a key asset for any future manned activities on the Moon. Yet despite these probes, and the intense examination of the Moon in the 1960s, there is still much we don't understand about the Moon, as lunar geologist Paul Spudis points out in The Once and Future Moon.
     Spudis provides a detailed history of our studies of the Moon, and our current understanding of the history of the Moon itself. He provides a refreshing look at what we know and don't know about the world. For example, he shatters the widely-held belief that the Moon has been geologically inactive for billions of years, pointing to evidence of "recent" (less than 1 billion years old) flows on the surface. He points out that while the giant impact theory is a good explanation of the origin of the Moon, it doesn't handle everything just yet. He also looks at future concepts for exploring and settling the Moon. As interest in returning to the Moon grows, The Once and Future Moon will serve as an excellent guide for anyone interested in our nearby companion.