DESTINATION SPACE

Want to pull up stakes and head for really distant parts? Here’s a quick survey of current possibilities.

Though the obstacles to taking up residence on other worlds seem immense right now, ex-astronaut Williams and co-author Cunti take an optimistic view—pointing out that people have already been living in space longer than readers born after 2000 have been alive and projecting settlements on Mars by as early as 2030. In examining each planet (including ours) and select moons as potential residences, though, they tend more toward breezy comments about packing selfie sticks and ice skates than specific information about feasible solutions to local conditions or hazards. They’re also a bit loose with facts (there’s a measurement of Jupiter’s surface area on the same page as an observation that Jupiter doesn’t have a surface), offer jejune suggestions that other worlds could serve to relieve population pressure or even as new homes should Earth ever need to be evacuated, and occasionally drift off topic to, for instance, discuss “space elevators” and introduce astrophysicist Jedidah Isler, a woman of color who studies phenomena called blazars. Krynauw adds a multicultural cast of young cartoon characters to the mix of digital space art and photos of astronauts aboard the ISS or in experimental habitats on Earth.

More aspirational than realistic at this point, but some of its intended audience will walk on other worlds.