Working on a book

For some time now, I have been working on a book about space development and colonisation. The title isn't settled yet - I will announce when it is - but I wanted to post a brief outline here.

I want to popularise the concept of mass value, which I think is a very useful way of thinking about space development. To do this the book will use it as a tool first to analyse historical spaceflight, and then to predict near future developments and speculate about ones further in the future.

As an example, in one section I discuss the Space Shuttle viewed as a project to increase total payload capacity, which is useful because at Low Earth Orbit mass value becomes equivalent to mass, and then am able to link this into a wider discussion of the trajectory of space development.

A sample plot from the book, showing the total capacity of the early Shuttle program

Some of this leads on to other topics - its necessary to address things such as artificial intelligence and Malthusian viewpoints - and the…