How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet

This book is half way to being a pretty good novel. In this book, Dr Zubrin provides a very well thought milieu, including a convincingly rendered Martian planetary environment , a group of settlements, based loosely on a cross between the old West and the Original colonies, and a repressive, Nanny-state regime on Earth, extrapolated from the present in the best Heinlein `If this goes on `tradition.The book can be divided into two parts, basic survival , and thriving. Under `basic survival `How to get to MarsHow to choose a spacesuitHow to choose your first ground roverHow to choose your homestead.Choosing the right technologies for your hab.How to save money on radiation protection.How to survive in the desertHow to make anything.How to grow food that is actually edible.This is basic Robinson Crusoe stuff.Further up the Maslow Pyramid we have how to Thrive on Mars. This includesHow to get a Job that pays well doesn't kill you.How to fly on Mars.How to invest your savings.How to make discoveries that will make you famous.How to be a social success on MarsHow to avoid bureaucratic prosecution.All of these involve avoiding the well worn paths set out by the Terrestrial Nanny state, the sisterhood or the two working in tandem.Zubrin sets these out in entertaining fashion,.Other than the Martian Authority, which is a branch of the terrestrial Nanny state, and the Sisterhoods, which seems to be an interplanetary teamsters union, there are no characters. Without characters, there is no plot, but this book would be a good start for a budding Heinlein, or a aspiring Martian settler.

As the title suggests, I was looking for an overall plan view of what colonizing mars might look like. Zubrin does a good job of outlining the general chemistry and overview but under the guise of a travel guide. "You want to drink water on Mars? Here's how you're going to do it". For the most part this felt like it hits the mark but I found a myself skipping ahead a bit when it was going off the deep end describing what marriage, mafia gangs, and politics might look like. Maybe leave that to the sci-fi writers. To be fair, you don't buy a book like this for a story, you want to understand how the next 10-100 years of humanity will survive on Mars. This does a good job.

I have enjoyed reading this book, from the perspective of someone who is never, ever going to Mars. I'm retired, so the possibility is not there for me, and I even wonder if a much younger self who had the opportunity would go.In any case, it's a fun read. There's lots of interesting technology in the book, which I can forget at will, and there are a lot of hilarious zingers directed against the bureaucracy, Martian or Terran. There are also very funny parts about the NASA-supported idiots who went to live on the moon -- the "Loonies." (Would that be the Newt Gingrich crowd?)This would probably make excellent bed-time reading. Put it next to your bed and read a little bit before drifting off to sleep....

The best thing I can say is that this little book pulls together some ideas on a wide range of subjects into a fairly small space. The trouble is that it really doesn't do justice to any of them. The feeling I get is somewhat like when I eat a meal without any vegetables—I get sort of full, but not really satisfied.A little before reading this, I checked a library copy of The Case for Mars to refresh my memory about one question: why Zubrin thinks that artificial space settlements, such as O'Neill cylinders, are not the way to go (but Mars is). It turns out that Zubrin thinks growing enough food for the residents of a space cylinder is not feasible, because the structures to provide enough sunlight, while blocking enough UV, would be too large, and otherwise unworkable. But IMO he didn't pursue the details of the idea far enough to make a convincing case. Unfortunately, the same pattern seems to be repeated throughout How to live on Mars. Important details are glossed over again and again. For example, Zubrin discusses solar power on the Moon, but doesn't even mention what is probably the best possibility—using the polar perpetual sunlight and eternal cold, in close proximity, to drive heat engines. He leans too much toward nuclear in certain cases—although not always, and I can forgive some of this because the book is over ten years old, and PV was not cost-competitive with other energy sources (although any serious commentator should have been able to see it soon would be).Here's my fantasy idea about space: Robert Zubrin and Kim Stanley Robinson sit down with a big bottle of spirits and a copy of the Kerbal Space Program, and have a heart-to-heart over their respective whacko technical ideas, along with their notions of politics, sexuality, life, the Universe, and everything. If they can keep from beating the crap out of each other, and they film it, it might be a huge hit at the box office.

This was a fun book to read about the future settlement of Mars. Zubrin, who always seems to take himself and what he is saying too seriously suprised me with this guide book set the future and narrated by a future namesake on the colonial Mars. Please don't miss this. Zubrin makes his points in a lighthearted way that informed and made me think at the same time. Don't listen to the negative reviewers who took his advice about profiting from illegal activities too seriously. It was all tounge in cheek. Just read it, have fun and think of the possibilities.

A good read.

Love all Zubrin books

In using this book for research purposes, I've been delighted with the wealth of practical information it offers. How to live on MARS is a history lesson, a speculative thesis, a business proposal, and a visionary rally cry—all in one.The author lays his foundation on some of the more relevant theroies to live in mars. Written in a fictional way, the book offers theroies having scientific logic and easy to absorb. Anyone interested in intraplanetary mission specially MARS is surely going to love this book. A must read for those researching in the area of MARS exploration.

Very recomendable, an excellent satire of the world toda y with an even better scientific base, Zubrin has brilliant comedy streak

Actually, when I bought this book I was expecting hard science writing about how future settlers could stay alive on Mars. I was amazed to find a different kind of literature: the book is written like a tourist guide of the 22nd century for someone who will move to Mars and would like to have some sound basic information. This extraordinary viewpoint is responsible for a good part of the humour in this book. It is evident that Mr Zubrin has read his Heinlein weill, since his humorous and cynical writing style reminds me of Heinlein's best. Furthermore, the author transports a lot of real science in his tourist guide. For instance, he describes how the initial phases of terraforming Mars could be carried out. And, in the final chapter he even accomplishes to motivate why such a undertaking is necessary. I recommend this book to anybody interested in Mars and planetary science and I think it will be worthwhile for high school kids as well.