Islands in the Sky
Subtitle: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space
By: Edited by Stanley Schmidt and Robert Zubrin
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York, USA
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 266
Copyright date: 1996
Description: Take off on a thrilling journey of space exploration and speculation - to the realm where science fiction becomes science fact - as leading writers, researchers, and astronautic engineers describe a not-too-distant future of interstellar travel and colonization from cable cars that ride "skyhooks" into space to rockets that can refuel out of Martian air, from "terraforming" planets (a process that makes them habitable for human life) to faster-than-light propulsion systems.

Islands in the Sky offers an astonishing collection of challenging - and plausible - ideas and proposals from the pages of Analog magazine. Brilliant and provocating, here is fun-filled reading for everyone interested in science, technology, and the future.
Table of contents: title: Introduction
pagenum: 1; label: Part One
title: Breaking the Bonds of the Earth; label: 1
title: Comes the Revolution . . . . (by G. Harry Stine)
pagenum: 7; label: 2
title: The Hypersonic Skyhook (by Robert M. Zubrin)
pagenum: 27; label: Part Two
title: Stepping Into the Solar System; label: 3
title: Mars Direct: A Proposal for the Rapid Exploration and Colonization of the Red Planet (by Robert M. Zubrin and David A. Baker)
pagenum: 43; label: 4
title: Inward Ho! (by Stephen L. Gillett)
pagenum: 71; label: 5
title: Colonizing the Outer Solar System (by Robert M. Zubrin)
pagenum: 85; label: 6
title: Islands in the Sky: Human Exploration and Settlement of the Oort Cloud (by Richard P. Terra)
pagenum: 95; label: 7
title: Alien Life Between Here and the Stars (by Dr. Robert L. Forward)
pagenum: 117; label: Part Three
title: Creating New Worlds; label: 8
title: Terraforming Mars (by Robert M. Zubrin and Christopher P. McKay)
pagenum: 125; label: 9
title: A Planet Dweller's Dreams (by Martyn J. Fogg)
pagenum: 147; label: 10
title: Astrophysical Engineering and the Fat of the Earth (by Martyn J. Fogg)
pagenum: 169; label: Part Four
title: Advanced Drives and Interstellar Travel; label: 11
title: To the Stars! (by Gordon R. Woodcock)
pagenum: 183; label: 12
title: The Magnetic Sail (by Robert M. Zubrin)
pagenum: 199; label: 13
title: The Tachyon Drive: Infinite Exhaust Velocity at Zero Energy Cost (by John G. Cramer)
pagenum: 221; label: 14
title: The Negative Matter Space Drive (by Dr. Robert L. Forward)
pagenum: 227; label: 15
title: The Economics of Interstellar Commerce (by Warren Salomon)
pagenum: 243; title: References
pagenum: 261