How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel [Mass Market Paperback]

Piers Bizony (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 28, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, start your spaceships!

Personal space travel is no longer the stuff of science fiction. The future is here: Civilians are launching into orbit. As early as 2010 paying customers will have the opportunity to experience weightlessness, courtesy of Virgin Galactic's inaugural launch.

How to Build Your Own Spaceship takes readers on a fun and quirky trip to the forefront of commercial space travel-the latest technology, the major business players, and the personal and financial benefits that are ripe for the picking. Science-writer Piers Bizony's breadth of knowledge, quick wit, and no-nonsense explanations of the hard science in this emerging arena will satisfy even the most dedicated space fanatics. With practical advice (from picking the best jet fuel to funding your own fleet of space crafts), unbelievable space facts, and fascinating photos, Bizony's user-friendly guide to blasting off is a must-have ticket to the final frontier.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hotel magnate Robert Bigelow is developing an inflatable space station called the TransHab, where, for a mere $12 million, vacationers will be able to spend four weeks. All he needs is a space buggy to get his vacationers there. In this snappy survey of present-day rocket technology and schemes, science writer Bizony (The Rivers of Mars) tells readers where the action is. Internet entrepreneurs like AmazonÖs Jeff Bezos and Paypal founder Elon Musk are enviously regarding outer space with cool intellect and drawing up plans for spaceships. MuskÖs Falcon rocket reached space successfully, and his company plans to take satellites and other payloads into space for commercial and government customers. But not only billionaires can participate in the space race: both Bigelow and NASA are dangling prizes worth tens of millions of dollars in front of aspiring space moguls to spur creation of new technologies. BizonyÖs book is not a how-to manual with instructions for launching a rocket from the backyard. Rather, his descriptions of fuel systems and spaceship design in accessible language could inspire science buffs to take up the challenge. Illus. (July 28)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"[Bizony] writes with the easy tone you'd want to hear from your space pilot... Strap yourselves down, and boldly go on a joyride out of this world."
-The Times (UK)

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Plume (July 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452295335
• ISBN-13: 978-0452295339
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #864,836 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great overview for novices and experts..., December 11, 2010

By 

ValkCrafter - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel (Paperback)

Piers Bizony's "How to Build Your Own Spaceship" is an engaging summary of all topics related to modern manned space exploration. In this compact paperback, Bizony manages to cram history, politics, financing, societal impact, and (not to be forgotten) rocket science in a seamlessly woven, point-to-point narrative. The reading level of the book is suitable for the high schooler interested in science to experts in the field.

The highlight of the book is its engaging, flowing writing style. Bizony links concepts together with ease as is exampled by a discussion on the development of the Space Shuttle as a winged vehicle, which transitioned into the reasons that SS1 flies in a 'shuttle-cock' configuration. Roughly equal time is given to past accomplishments as well as future prospects. The book is also a veritable crash-course in the upcoming private space industry.

The only conceivable downside to "How to Build Your Own Spaceship" is its lack of depth; however, as an overview of the field, the book is superb. More depth can be provided through topic-specific texts.

This book is an easy read and a real treat that should be part of every space explorer's library.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't quite reach liftoff, December 11, 2009

By 

Fairleigh Brooks (Louisville, KY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel (Mass Market Paperback)

With an elegant, engaging and clearly informed style, Piers Bizony is one of my favorite authors on the subject of space. Even his books that look like coffee table books, such as "Space 50," are not such books because his writing is always worthwhile reading.

"How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel" falls a bit short, however, of the content I've come to expect from Bizony. This book strikes me as a rush job that was loosely (if at all) edited. Parts of the book are more a collection of related topics written separately than a continuing thesis. Some topics are too brief. For example, when addressing the point of people who don't believe the moon landings happened Bizony could have also commented on navigating around the van Allen radiation belts, and the utter improbability of keeping the Hollywood sound stage version a secret for forty years. He could have used this example to illustrate the technological illiteracy, and the selective anti-intellectualism, rampant in our culture.

Still, I recommend the book. I keep up with the subject of private space flight and have written about it myself. I learned a lot from this book, not only facts and numbers, but also important perspectives and points of view.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick Read with a Look into the Future, September 14, 2009

By 

dennis k "dennis k" (ellicott city,md) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel (Mass Market Paperback)

I liked this book. It was a fairly quick read, but provided an interesting look into what is happening with rocket development as it becomes more commercial.