PIONEERING SPACE

More than 40 photos and simulations (chiefly from NASA) showing space walks and vehicles, Mars, etc., a text that, like extended captions, explains and expands on them. The putative theme is how space will be colonized and some of the things people will want to see and do there. The result gives a feeling of hopping from one subject to another—low-orbit shuttles to Mars and Saturn, back to the moon, out to Mars again—with interesting but poorly connected anecdotes about spacesuits, hydroponics, and rockets. There's an almost scrupulous avoidance of standard scientific terms—e.g., action and reaction or centrifugal force—making the occasional technical jargon (``space-grown crystals of the enzyme isocitrate lyase'') even more jarring (there's no glossary). Two simple experiments are briefly described. Interesting material, but badly organized. Index. Nonfiction. 10+)