Plan B to the Moon presents a coherent executable plan, readable and believable story, that defines how to return humans to the surface and colonize the Moon. Considerable effort went into making this book relatable to non-experts (non-rocket-scientists). Do you have within you the profound, burning desire to explore? Were you inspired in your youth by the opening sequence of Star Trek episodes, "To Seek out New Worlds and New Civilizations?" If your answers are lukewarm yes or emphatic no, there may be little anyone can say to you to convince you of the profound need for and premise of space exploration. But consider these facts, we carry in our DNA the need for exploration. Every person alive today is the descendent of explorers and wanderers. Exploration is central to who we are as humans. Only our ancestors that left their old homes to find new homes survived. The people that stayed behind did not survive catastrophic change and their stay-behind DNA no longer has any influence over the future of our species. There are tens of thousands of fictional stories based on science that eloquently dream of living in space. Future heroes travel to the stars in city-sized spacecraft. Vast colonies of eager humans scratch out new lives on new worlds. However, Plan_B makes the admittedly rude observation that none of these dreams of the future actually ever tell you HOW to do it. None of such fictional stories explain how to build a functioning spacecraft or how to build a lunar habitat suitable for extended human exploration. None of these prior stories-based-on-science ever explain what it costs to create these spacecraft marvels. They never provide an engineering road-map describing the practical, needed steps to turn such space dreams into space reality. Perhaps this book, based on a real Program Plan, written by a Program Manager is the genesis of a new genus of space dreams. This is not a dream book, it is a guidebook to the touchable near future. Returning to the Moon-and striving for the Stars-is a love story about the human spirit's existential need and desire to stand on another world. Step by gritty step, we will eventually stand on that far shore because it will be the hardest thing there is to do.
