Author: Florian Freistetter
Pages: 236
Summay: Dass uns der Himmel auf den Kopf fällt, ist nicht nur ein Spleen unbesiegbarer Gallier, sondern eine berechtigte Sorge. Asteroiden stellen eine reelle Gefahr für unseren Planeten dar. Wenn wir als Spezies überleben wollen, brauchen wir intelligente Abwehrsysteme - und müssen eines Tages zu den Sternen aufbrechen. Wie das schon bald gehen wird, mit Weltraumliften, Sonnensegeln, Ionenantrieb und Generationsschiffen, das malt Florian Freistetter in so bunten Farben, dass man diese Zukunft kaum erwarten kann.
My thoughts:
Very interesting. I like that we get explanations on what Asteroids are and also there is always some background information on stuff like history, vulcanoes, chabge of terminology, science and so on. Some things I've already known from other books/sources but that doesn't matter. It's good to get a refresher on things from time to time. Some things have been new for me and I'm happy to have learned them. :)
I'm not an scientist/astronomer/physicist/astronaut and therefore I am not able to say something is correct or something is wrong/bullshit. The things mentioned/explained in the book seem to be logical and will probably (hopefully) come true some time in the future. I also enjoyed the speculation on various things and what would have to happend in order to make it possible.
Just, why do scientists sometimes insist that certain things are impossible. Superluminal velocity for example. It's again stated that in no way it's possible that it ever happens (note, like most science books there is a little note/disclaimer that, theoretically, it could be possible, but probably will never be possible). I, just, don't get it? So many scientific things have been held true and been disproved later on. Just because Einstein said it, it's true no matter what? Really? What if there is another Einstein in 100 years and s/he proves that it can be done and that just our knowledge/science at this moment in time hasn't been advanced enough to find/comprehend/prove it? (This is something that bothers me not just in this book but in others too (not just physics/space travel but other areas of science too).
To finish this on a positive note: a huge shoutout for mentioning Stargate even though there has been no reason for it because no science/techno babble from it has been included in the book (contrary to Star Trek and the Warp drive). :)
