Asteroids, Martin Elvis
Asteroids, Martin Elvis
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Asteroids
How Love, Fear, and Greed Will Determine Our Future in Space

Author: Martin Elvis

Narrator: Nigel Patterson

Unabridged: 10 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/08/2021


Synopsis

A unique, wide-ranging examination of asteroid exploration and our future in space

Human travel into space is an enormously expensive and unforgiving endeavor. So why go? In this accessible and authoritative book, astrophysicist Martin Elvis argues that the answer is the asteroid exploration, for the strong motives of love, fear, and greed.

Elvis's personal motivation is one of scientific love—asteroid investigations may teach us about the composition of the solar system and the origins of life. A more compelling reason may be fear—of a dinosaur killer-sized asteroid hitting our planet.

Finally, Elvis maintains, we should consider greed: asteroids likely hold vast riches, such as large platinum deposits, and mining them could provide both a new industry and a funding source for bolder space exploration. Elvis explains how each motive can be satisfied, and how they help one another. From the origins of life, to "space billiards," and space sports, Elvis looks at how asteroids may be used in the not-so-distant future.

About Martin Elvis

Martin Elvis is an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics/Harvard & Smithsonian. Previously he was a postdoctoral fellow with the UK Science Research Council. He has researched X-ray astronomy, black holes, and quasars-and now asteroids. In 2007, he won the Pirelli INTERNETional Award for multimedia science communication. Asteroid 9283 Martinelvis is named after him. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sille on August 10, 2024

Üldiselt pärinevad minu teadmised kosmose kohta kolmest allikast: Jaak Jaaniste ja Enn Saare "Täheatlasest", kommunistlikust ulmeutoopiast "Andromeeda udukogu" ja "Tähesõdade" sarjast. Vabanduseks võib öelda, et esimene neist on siiski täiesti teaduslik allikas ja teiseks toimus see kõik üheksakümne......more

Goodreads review by Gendou on July 07, 2022

This is a well organized and compelling tomb on why go to space. The major focus is on the asteroid belt, but the whole solar system is our ultimate prize. It breaks the problem down using the courtroom trio of motivation, means, and opportunity. The book's subtitle is about the three motivations: - L......more

Goodreads review by Virat on January 21, 2022

Love, greed and fear. Love connotes our love for Science and the quest to know about the origin of the Solar system and ultimately us. Asteroids are a reservoir of many primordial organic compounds and a particular class of asteroid called Metallic asteroids can help us to learn about the Core of our......more

Goodreads review by Elisa on June 17, 2021

What a fascinating and informative book. I love reading about space but, as much as there are so many volumes about astronauts, stars, planets or even black holes, I’d never seen one about asteroids. To be honest, I didn’t know that there was so much to learn about them, and thanks to Martin Elvis,......more