Beyond the Known
How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take Us to the Stars
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
From brilliant young polymath Andrew Rader—an MIT-credentialed scientist, popular podcast host, and SpaceX mission manager—an “engaging” (Tim Marshall, New York Times bestselling author) chronicle showcasing our human desire to continually explore new and uncharted territory, from civilization’s earliest days to interstellar travel.
For the first time in history, the human species has the technology to destroy itself. But having developed that power, humans are also able to leave Earth and voyage into the vastness of space. After millions of years of evolution, we’ve arrived at the point where we can settle other worlds and begin the process of becoming multi-planetary. How did we get here? What does the future hold for us?
Divided into four accessible sections, Beyond the Known examines major periods of discovery and rediscovery, from Classical Times, when Phoenicians, Persians, and Greeks ventured forth; to The Age of European Exploration, which saw colonies sprout on nearly every continent; to The Era of Scientific Inquiry, when researchers developed new tools for mapping and traveling farther; to Our Spacefaring Future, which unveils plans currently underway for settling other planets and, eventually, traveling to the stars.
A Mission Manager at SpaceX with a lively voice, Andrew Rader is at the forefront of space exploration. As a gifted historian, Rader, who has won global acclaim for his stunning breadth of knowledge, is singularly positioned to reveal the story of human exploration that is also the story of scientific achievement. Told with an infectious zeal for traveling seeking new horizons, Beyond the Known is “an astute—and highly flattering—view of human aspirations” (Kirkus Reviews).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A children's author and SpaceX engineer, Rader (Mars Rover Rescue) offers an expansive, overly ambitious look at human exploration. Packed with information, the work testifies to Rader's extensive research into, and avid enthusiasm for, the subject. He addresses common myths, such as that Europeans, during their first expeditions to the Americas, believed the Earth to be flat. To that end, he observes that, by the Middle Ages, the Earth's spherical shape "would have been second nature to sailors who... observed the horizon's curvature on a daily basis." While Rader notes exploration's negative repercussions, he doesn't sufficiently address them. For instance, he glosses over Columbus's atrocities with such statements as the navigator noting "the gentle indigenous people would make ideal servants, so he kidnapped a few." Similarly, when addressing the mid-20th-century space race, Rader fails to comprehensively explore the complex legacy of German-born NASA rocket engineer Wernher von Braun in particular, his earlier service on behalf of the Third Reich. Rader falls short of his goal transmitting to the reader his excitement for the future of exploration, particularly of the solar system by failing to fully to do justice to its past.
Customer Reviews
Ambitious Scope & Optimistic Message
Beyond the Known is a stunningly comprehensive, but breezy read, chronicling the history of human exploration from a global perspective, full of surprising information and colorful anecdotes capped off by a fascinating look at the future of space travel.
More than just a collection of facts about HOW we explore, the book gets at the reasons WHY we explore - how it defines us as a species and why it's imperative for our survival that we journey out into space!