title: The Hazards of Space Travel: A Tourist's Guide
author: Neil Comins
description: Adult/High SchoolComins predicts that space tourism as far afield as the Jovian system may be feasible by the end of this century. This book, however, is less a sightseer's travel guide to our solar system than a description of the myriad hazards and unresolved problems facing humans traveling in interplanetary space. Landslides on Mars, volcanic eruptions on Io, quakes on Europa, galactic cosmic rays, meteoroids, a lack of water, fragile bones, genetic mutation, motion sickness, computer hackers-all these dangers and more await them. The author clearly presents basic information on the source of the danger, its effects on travelers, and the difficulties involved in protecting against it. The text is supplemented by fictitious entries from a space traveler's diary that illustrate how particular hazards might be addressed, as well as by clear black-and-white photographs and diagrams and an extensive bibliography. Future scientists will find this book thought-provoking, and SF fans can also enjoy it.<i>Sandy Schmitz, Berkeley Public Library, CA</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: HOBBYIST
  by Eric Frank Russell
   THE  SHIP  ARCED  OUT  OF  A  GOLDEN  SKY  AND  LANDED  WITH  A
  WHOOP AND a wallop that cut down a mile of lush vegetation. Another half mile of
  growths turned black and drooped to ashes under the final flicker of  the tail rocket
  blasts. That arrival was spectacular, full of verve, and worthy of four columns in any
  man's paper.  But the nearest  sheet  was  distant  by  a goodly  slice of  a lifetime, and
  there was none to record what this far corner of the cosmos regarded as the pettiest
  of  events.  So  the  ship  squatted  tired  and  still  at  the  foremost  end  of  the  ashy
  blasttrack  and  the  sky  glowed  down  and  the  green  world  brooded  solemnly  all
  around.
   Within the transpex  control  dome,  Steve  Ander sat  and  thought things over.  It
  was  his  habit  to  think  things  over  carefully.  Astronauts  were  not  the  impulsive
  daredevils so dear to the stereopticonloving public. They couldn't afford to be. The
  hazards  of  the pr