This book takes readers on a fantastical journey through our solar system, exploring the unique environments and possibilities of each celestial body. From floating through Venus’ clouds to spelunking on Hyperion, the stories are both entertaining and scientifically grounded, imagining how space travel might truly be.
NASA engineers have laid out a concept for a 'cloud city' of habitable airships in the atmosphere of Venus . (NASA Illustration) What would you do for fun on another planet? Go ballooning in Venus ’ atmosphere? Explore the caves of Hyperion? Hike all the way around Mercury? Ride a toboggan down the slopes of Pluto’s ice mountains? Or watch clouds roll by on Mars? John E. Moores and Jesse Rogerson tell tales of interplanetary adventures. (Credits: John E.
Moores and York University) Moores says the idea behind the book was to tell “a little story that is really, really true to what the science is, and then give the reader an idea of what science there is that actually enables that story to take place.” Trips to other worlds have been the stuff of science fiction for more than a century — going back to Jules Verne’s But most of those tales are told from the perspective of intrepid explorers who have to deal with life-threatening dramas. In contrast, most of the stories in “Daydreaming in the Solar System” have to do with space travelers having fun, or handling the day-to-day challenges of living in an otherworldly locale. “Often you’re visiting a place for the very first time, and of course it’s an amazing, awe-inspiring place, but you’re also very concerned about not dying,” Moores said. “So, we wanted to take that away — that bit of danger — so that people dive into the environment. Everywhere we went, we needed the right combination of an interesting activity, an interesting environment.” Moores and Rogerson also use a second-person perspective. You’re the one riding a submarine through the hidden seas of Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter. You’re the one spelunking on Hyperion, a spongy Saturnian moon that appears to contain 40% empty space. The end of each chapter takes a deeper dive into the peculiarities of each extraterrestrial environment. For example, riding a balloon around Venus makes sense because the surroundings at an altitude of 30 to 40 miles are similar to Earth’s when it comes to temperature and atmospheric pressure. In contrast, the surface of Venus is Ballooning on Venus is much more than a daydream. More than a decade ago, NASA engineers came up with a concept for sending mini-subs through Europa’s subsurface ocean.The authors don’t shy away from the important issues: In one chapter, they describe in depth how to brew a delicious cup of coffee on Titan — and then explain why you could conceivably put on a pair of mechanical wings and flap your way through the Saturnian moon’s dense atmosphere after your morning cup of joe. “One thing that our publisher pointed out when we submitted our final manuscript, which wasn’t actually intentional, was that they felt that the book was actually very optimistic and very hopeful — just the framing of it, that you could imagine the future in a way that actually allows these things to happen,” he says. “So many other works are a little bit apocalyptic right now.
Astronomy Space Exploration SPACE EXPLORATION SCIENCE FICTION SOLAR SYSTEM VENUS EUROPA TITAN HYPERION ASTROPHYSICS
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