Customer Reviews

Space: What Now?: The Past, Present, and Possible Futures of Activities in Space

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In Space: What Now?, Author Tom Hill takes us on a bold, jargonless, insight-filled journey through the past, present, and future of activities in space. We are briefly introduced to the various players - space agencies from around the world, as well as public, non-profit outreach groups and private entities working on access-to-space issues. Opinions are stated as opinions, and facts are stated as facts.

The book really shines in the middle chapters, where Mr. Hill uses a unique writing viewpoint and his extensive background in both military and civilian space operations to skillfully dissect some of the myths holding us back in space. He proposes several practical solutions to the most difficult issues. My two favorites are separation of human/cargo launches and creation of orbital fuel depots, but read the book to understand the proper context and limitations of these concepts and many more.

Finally, the latter chapters will make a convincing case for what we should be doing in space, Moon/Mars, and how we should be going about it. You won't agree with every opinion in this book, most likely, but you will certainly come away with exciting new perspectives, thoughts, and ideas.

Note: a version of my review was published in the Huntsville (AL) Times.

In his introduction to Tom Hill's "Space: What Now?", astronaut Buzz Aldrin recommends the book as a necessary contribution to our "current national debate on space". Unfortunately the debate that began with the Columbia accident seems to have withered, and the book's content is already slightly dated.

Nevertheless, Mr. Hill has done us a service in a summary of space exploration before 2003, analyzing in some detail the Columbia accident, and then in a reasonably even-handed way projecting a number of different paths for our space future.

Hill attacks several "myths" and misconceptions that may have weakened our enthusiasm for space travel. Astronauts really are human beings. Heavy lift rockets like the Saturn V are not essential. Space hardware isn't inherently more complicated than anything else. Humans and robots aren't competitors, they can and should work together in space.

Beyond our current efforts in space close to Earth, Hill suggests a specific range of new destinations - high Earth orbit, the Moon, asteroids, and (where his biases show slightly) Mars. Hill has some interesting specific ideas for a public-private partnership in space development. An orbital depot could allow in-orbit refueling; the government could promise a flat-rate contract, like a continuous X prize, for any private company able to supply the depot with water (to be split into hydrogen and oxygen fuel).

Many of Hill's ideas have been either put into action or somewhat mooted by the new US space plan announced last year. Hill devotes a chapter to discussing that. He shows a balanced mix of skepticism and optimism: he's willing to give this plan a chance to take the steps forward we need, but it's not everything he's looking for.

Hill's discussion of space activist groups ends with a call for unity, followed in the epilogue with a "this has essentially happened" note. I met the author at the July "Space Exploration Alliance" event; the unity there was encouraging, but it's not clear it will last.

Much of the book shows an enthusiasm more for technology than for the economic "dollar" questions that are really key to our space future. Some of the numbers seem wrong (for example on solar power satellite launch requirements) but to his credit Hill covers a number of the market issues that could lead us down the route to reusable space flight and much lower costs to orbit.

Recent developments are noted in the epilogue, and the author has set up an active "blog" at spacewhatnow.com to stay up to date. Read this book if you're looking for a good summary of where we are, and where we're going, in space.