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Far Beyond the Moon

A History of Life Support Systems in the Space Age

By: DAVID P. D. MUNNS

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Hardcover | 28 August 2021

At a Glance

Hardcover
216 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.54

Hardcover

RRP $99.00

$74.75

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From the beginning of the space age, scientists and engineers have worked on systems to help humans survive for the astounding 28,500 days (78 years) needed to reach another planet. They've imagined and tried to create a little piece of Earth in a bubble travelling through space, inside of which people could live for decades, centuries, or even millennia. Far Beyond the Moon tells the dramatic story of engineering efforts by astronauts and scientists to create artificial habitats for humans in orbiting space stations, as well as on journeys to Mars and beyond. Along the way, David P. D. Munns and Kaerin Nickelsen explore the often unglamorous but very real problem posed by long-term life support: How can we recycle biological wastes to create air, water, and even food in meticulously controlled artificial environments? Together, they draw attention to the unsung participants of the space program - the sanitary engineers, nutritionists, plant physiologists, bacteriologists, and algologists who created and tested artificial environments for space based on chemical technologies of life support - as well as the bioregenerative algae systems developed to reuse waste, water, and nutrients, so that we might cope with a space journey of not just a few days, but months, or more likely, years. AUTHORS: David P.D. Munns is associate professor of history at John Jay College, City University of New York. Kaerin Nickelsen is professor of the history of science at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. 40 b/w illustrations

Industry Reviews

The first book-length historical treatment of the topic, this frank, unflinching look at an unglamorous, sometimes embarrassing, yet absolutely essential aspect of space technology aims to remove what the authors convincingly argue has been a limiting stigma. We need to talk about shit in space, and Far Beyond the Moon is a thought-provoking conversation starter. . . . An engaging and broadly focused read, Far Beyond the Moon gathers a clutch of important but nearly forgotten stories, and Munns and Nickelsen succeed in their mission to break the cycle of silence surrounding waste in space.-- "Technology and Culture"
This book tells an intriguing and salient story of the history of planning for humans living in space with zero provisioning and zero gravity, from the golden age of space flight in the 1960s to the tentative culmination of ecological life support in the project of Biosphere 2 in the 1990s. The narrative is entertaining and immensely educating. Far Beyond the Moon offers a witty and accessible story that holds all the answers to one of the most interesting questions about space flight: what to do with human waste in space.--Sabine H?hler, author of Spaceship Earth in the Environmental Age, 1960-1990
Throughout the book, Munns and Nickelsen weave an entertaining and readable story, supporting their arguments with a balanced blend of technical sources and autobiographical accounts, seasoned with a sprinkling of thought-provoking science fiction references. . . . As greenhouse gases suffuse the Earth's atmosphere and plastics churn through the planet's oceans, we would all do well to reconsider our own relationships to waste in the magnificent life support system we inhabit. For this exercise, Far Beyond the Moon offers excellent food for thought.-- "FASEB Journal"

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