Preface x
Introduction A Homesteader's Guide to the Red Planet? 1
1. A Preamble on Space Myths 21
Part I Caring for the Spacefaring
2. Suffocation, Bone Loss, and Flying Pigs: The Science of Space Physiology 43
3. Space Sex and Consequences Thereof 70
4. Spacefarer Psychology: In Which the Only Thing We're Sure of Is That Astronauts Are Liars 89
Nota Bene: Rocketry Goes to the Movies, or, Space Capitalism in Days of Yore, Part 1 113
Part II Spome, Spome on the Rane: Where Will Humans Live off-World?
5. The Moon: Great Location, Bit of a Fixer-Upper 121
6. Mars: Landscapes of Poison and Toxic Skies, but What an Opportunity! 137
7. Giant Rotating Space Wheels: Not Literally the Worst Option 148
8. Worse Options 158
Nota Bene: Space Is the Place for Product Placement, or, Space Capitalism in Days of Yore, Part 2 167
Part III Pocket Edens: How to Create a Human Terrarium that Isn't All that Terrible
9. Outputs and inputs: Poop, Food, and "Closing the Loop" 173
10. There's No Place Like Spome: How to Build Outer-Space Habitats 192
Nota Bene: The Mystery of the Tampon Bandolier 213
Part IV Space Law for Space Settlements: Weird, Vague, and Hard to Change
11. A Cynical History of Space 219
12. The Outer Space Treaty: Great for Regulating Space Sixty Years Ago 234
13. Murder in Space: Who Killed the Moon Agreement? 254
Nota Bene: Space Cannibalism from a Legal and Culinary Perspective 273
Part V The Paths Forward: Bound for Moonsylvania?
14. Commonsing the Cosmos 279
15. Dividing the Sky 295
16. The Birth of Space-States: Like the Birth of Space Babies, but Messier 309
Nota Bene: Violence in Antarctica, or, Happy Endings to Stabby Starts 329
Part VI To Plan B or Not to Plan B: Space Society, Expansion, and Existential Risk
17. There's No Labor Pool on Mars: Outer Space as a Company Town 335
18. How Big is Big? Plan B Settlements Without Genetic or Economic Calamities 350
19. Space Politics by Other Means: On the Possibility of Space War 359
20. A Brief Coda on a Rarely Considered Alternative: Wait-and-Go-Nowhere 376
Nota Bene: Amusing Astronaut Names and the Soviet Tendency to Fuss Over Weird Details 378
Conclusion Of Hot Tubs and Human Destiny 380
Acknowledgments 389
Notes 391
Bibliography 400
Index 420