COLONIZING THE PLANETS: The Factual Story of Manned Interplanetary Flight into the 21st Century

Just landing on other planets will be difficult enough; manned expeditions will have to cope with cold and bad surface conditions on Mars, intense heat and high atmospheric pressure on Venus. How we might overcome these problems--perhaps beginning with Wernher von Braun's plan for one dual expedition in the next decade--occupies most of the discussion. But Bergaust does look ahead to ""lavish housing structures"" on the moon; possible communication with intelligent beings on other solar systems within the next fifty years; even changing the atmosphere of Venus ""biologically"" (this is proposed by Prof. Carl Sagan and others) to make it habitable for humans. Bergaust's enthusiasm makes some of this seem less speculative than it actually is but the prospects are nevertheless imagination-expanding.