Interstellar Travel & Multi-Generational Space Ships: Apogee Books Space Series 34 (Apogee Books Space Series)

The quality is very uneven. The science and technology-based papers are the most useful, though many of these ideas have appeared elsewhere. The philosophical commentaries are not very original. This topic deserves a more thorough study, written as a unified whole.
April 28, 2004

The quality is very uneven. The science and technology-based papers are the most useful, though many of these ideas have appeared elsewhere. The philosophical commentaries are not very original. This topic deserves a more thorough study, written as a unified whole.

THIS REPLACES A TEXT THAT CONTAINED ONE WORD ERROR
April 27, 2004

As a result, this book lacks the continuity one would expect from a real book and is full of repetitions. The speeches themselves are only a few pages in length so no concept is really developed. There isn't much breadth or variety either. The speeches usually are either a "motivational" sermons or a focus on a propulsion scheme. However, there is about fifteen pages devoted to necessary genetic variation in the small population of an interstellar crew.

You will have plenty of back-of-the-envelope calculations involving some rather fanciful concepts. One had a 560 kiloton lens 1,000 km wide and a 43 quadrillion watt earthbound laser. Absent in these ideas were hindrances such as interstellar debris, radiation, navigation, etc.

I thought that serious study had gone into the idea of interstellar travel. It is apparent that the work involved is little more than intellectual doodling done during semester breaks or between class lectures.

After reading this book, I have gained little sense of the feasibility of traveling to the stars.
February 26, 2004