Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2021 -

O'Meara, a prolific author and expert astronomical observer, describes humanity's fascination with Mars from ancient times to the present era of extensive robotic exploration. The book offers a popular yet accurate and well-referenced account of what that planet meant to ancient societies, how Mars studies affected the development of early modern physics and astronomy, and how the search for evidence of life, particularly fossil microorganisms, guides contemporary exploration. Despite the broad coverage of Mars topics, controversies, and investigations, the author does not shirk details. Appendixes of tabular data include summary information on more than 40 attempted missions to Mars, including launch failures and other mishaps. Three more spacecraft arrived at Mars even while the book was under review. This work will serve as a resource as readers follow new developments from those very probes over the next few years. O'Meara also describes preparations for the eventual human visits that, although long projected for the future, are beginning to seem possible within many readers' lifetimes. A concluding chapter explains how and when to observe Mars with home telescopes. The book is well illustrated and features a fine bibliography. The index, though detailed, could be improved by even more detail.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Gregory (British Geological Survey) offers a book about exogeology. More specifically it is about how the study of the material and chemical properties of meteorites has allowed us to understand the geology of planets, asteroids, and other celestial bodies, as well as the history of our solar system and its surrounding environs. Given such a specialized topic, and in spite of all the necessary jargon involved, the text is a pleasure to read and easy to understand. Whether embarking on a detailed discussion of the chemical compositions of particular meteors, introducing the intricate family tree of meteor types, or explaining how meteors have allowed us to understand the earliest formation of the solar system, Gregory takes up complicated topics and explains them in plain English. He draws the reader in so well that, by the end, it is cringe-inspiring each time he describes how yet another meteorite was dissected or entirely decomposed in order to study it--a reaction evoked because the reader has come to appreciate the extent to which some of these objects are rare and precious. This is an excellent work for beginners in geology and astronomy, and for anyone interested in related fields.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Goswami (independent scholar) and Garretson (American Foreign Policy Council) are directly involved in space policy research, and it shows. Addressing a perceived emerging great-power competition in outer space, they target the policymaker audience. Exploring five cases--the US, China, India, Luxembourg, and the UAE--they trace the roles of myth, history, and strategic culture in shaping epistemic communities, space resource ambitions, and policies pursued within each state. Working from textual sources and interviews, they propose multiple scenarios for the emerging struggle, and spell out the ideological and strategic approach expected from each state. Hypotheticals run from the China-dominant to the India-dominant ("Space Raj") and include the US-dominant ("Protector of the Realm") scenario, as well as a number of bipolar and balancing options. The authors' expected configuration of world powers in 2060 is China (number one), US (two), and India (three), with a likely crisis before 2028 and a critical "fork in the road" circa 2047. The appendixes outline the authors' assumptions and theory for academic readers, discussing why they adopted their approach and how their work fits into a larger research project. The "scramble" for resources and key locations in space, they argue, will shape human politics for centuries. Required reading for students, faculty, and practitioners, this book may also attract a general readership.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Space journalist Wanjek (also the author of Bad Medicine, CH, May'03, 40-5249) here soberly assesses what it will take for humankind to survive off the Earth, both nearby and in interstellar space: "There can be nothing instant or magical in the establishment of space infrastructure." This reader readily agrees: leaving the Earth will be difficult. Not only must humans overcome technical difficulties (radiation exposure and low gravity among the most challenging), they also must have good reasons to spend the enormous amounts of money and time required. Comparing the potential hardships to those faced in previous human endeavors (e.g., explorations in Antarctica), Wanjek examines both technical challenges and motivations, and projects what will be needed to sustain life in specific space environments. His text is backed up by formal references to state-of-the-art knowledge (in 20 pages of notes). Wanjek concludes that while life on Earth may have its problems, living elsewhere is not necessarily going to be better. But what we learn in space can make our lives better here on Earth. For alternative views, readers may compare The First Space War, by J. Furman Daniel and T. K. Rogers (CH, Jun'20, 57-3476). Wanjek's engaging style makes this a must-read for space enthusiasts, and for anyone who ponders our place in the universe.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

While prolific in writing cosmology articles for a general readership, with publications in, e.g., Astronomy (magazine), Scientific American, and the like, author Mack (currently assistant professor at North Carolina State Univ.) delivers her first full-length book relying on the cosmology and astrophysics she learned at Caltech and Princeton and that she knows so well. As the title suggests, Mack focuses on several theories concerned with the end of the universe as we know it. Casual readers of popular cosmology will not be surprised to reencounter the Big Bang, the universe which expands forever, a universe that ends in a heat death, and the cyclic (or bouncing) universe as found in chapters 2, 3, 4, and 7. Yet surprisingly, Dr. Mack reworks these well-known theories, introducing new research (some of it her own), effectively updating readers in an entertaining and humorous style likely to captivate even practiced readers from the prologue to the epilogue. In addition, she introduces two novel theories in chapters 5 and 6: "The Big Rip" and "Vacuum Decay." Mack has an uncanny talent for pausing during her expositions to clarify sticky details that many authors might gloss over, such as how far-away galaxies might actually be receding from us at faster-than-light speed.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Students in two-year technical programs. General readers.