12 WAYS TO GET A TICKET TO SPACE

You, too, can reach space, someday!

From taking a trip in a space balloon to building a rocket or sending a message into space, Peridot catalogs a dozen ways for aspiring space travelers to fulfill their dreams. The book’s tagline, “How To Blast Off From Planet Earth in Your Lifetime”—specifically, the last three words—is the key to this compilation of visions for space travel in the near future. Some already exist for the lucky or wealthy few; some are still in the planning and funding stage; and some are attainable with study and work. Much of the text is necessarily based on speculation (“All being well, you will soon become the first person to pilot a homebuilt rocket into space”). Given that most titles about space travel focus on particular missions, this one provides a fresh perspective. The lively design is filled with text boxes and balloons and relatively short paragraphs set on dramatic backgrounds. The book contains a lot of information, but it isn’t always clear just how to follow the text, which jumps around as one’s stomach might in zero gravity. The more straightforward layouts provide relief, including a gallery of space travelers, a spread describing astronaut training, a comparison of rockets, and suggestions for strengthening one’s chances of becoming a space traveler. The digital illustrations portray racially diverse people, but the skin- and hair-color details of real people aren’t always accurate.

A starry-eyed look at tomorrow’s space travel.