Out of this World and into the Next : Notes from a Physicist on Space Exploration

A theoretical physicist's grand tour of how life emerged on earth and how human civilization will begin expanding beyond our home planet

''A manifesto for going off-world to Mars and beyond'' TLS''A breath-taking journey'' BRUCE DAMER''Adriana Marais combs the cosmic dust in her prospectus for all Mars adventurers'' THE TIMESMoving to Mars may sound like science fiction but the truth is that today, scant decades since our first space missions, humanity is on the verge of becoming multiplanetary. SpaceX is building a Starship transport system; China successfully demonstrated crop growth on the Moon; and, in a space mining milestone, Japan''s recent asteroid missions have returned samples to Earth. Adriana Marais has dedicated her life to preparing for extraplanetary settlement, considering not just the scientific and technological possibilities but also the ethical responsibilities of our species as we explore new frontiers. In 2019, she launched the Proudly Human: Off-World Project, a series of extreme habitation experiments investigating the capabilities necessary for life beyond our home planet. In this extraordinary era of rapid technological development, Marais explores the scientific and ethical questions that stands at the heart of scientific endeavour: How did we get here - and where are we going next?