How to Build Your Own Spaceship: The Science of Personal Space Travel

by Piers Bizony

Ladies and gentlemen, start your spaceships with this book that explores an exciting new era of space travel—the perfect science gift! Personal space travel is no longer the stuff of science fiction. The future is Civilians are launching into orbit. How to Build Your Own Spaceship takes readers on a fun and quirky trip to the forefront of commercial space travel-the latest technology, the major business players, and the personal and financial benefits that are ripe for the picking. Science-writer Piers Bizony's breadth of knowledge, quick wit, and no-nonsense explanations of the hard science in this emerging arena will satisfy even the most dedicated space fanatics. With practical advice (from picking the best jet fuel to funding your own fleet of space crafts), unbelievable space facts, and fascinating photos, Bizony's user-friendly guide to blasting off is a must-have ticket to the final frontier.

Genres: Science, Space, Nonfiction, Engineering, History

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 31, 2008

About the author

Piers Bizony is a science journalist and space historian who writes for magazines such as Focus and Wired as well as the Independent. His award-winning book on Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was described as 'full of sparkling enthusiasm' by the New Scientist and 'excellent, in every way worthy of Kubrick's original precision-crafted vision' by the Evening Standard.

Reviews

[Tim Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew tired of the author's writing style. But it is full of fascinating information and logically structured. So, for 🌟 is not accurate than 3.

[Cindy Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great synopsis of the last few decades of space travel, technology and politics. A must read for sci-fi writers and wannabe astronauts. I liked how he made complicated technology easy to understand.

[Raughley Nuzzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quite entertaining simple introduction to the challenges and opportunities of commercial, private, and governmental space travel. The early chapters were particularly interesting, with detailed descriptions of the obstacles facing anyone attempting to build a spaceworthy rocket, from the engine to the type of fuel to the piping to the heatshield to the exhaust nozzle shapes, there are a lot of engineering feats that all need to be pulled off [i]just so[/i] in order to get a rocket into earth orbit.

The book bogged down a little when it started covering loftier goals in less detail. The legal aspects of putting private craft into space or on the surface of another body were covered in a handful of paragraphs ending with "consult your space lawyers." Similarly, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was given a few paragraphs and a description of how they are crowd-sourcing data analysis that ended with encouragement to assist in the efforts but no information about how to do so (not even a "visit SETI's website for more info!").

Overall, the book was entertainingly written, minus the unrelatable metaphor or two (turning a tiled bathroom into a resonance chamber??), and the conceit of the book acting as an instruction manual for would be space entrepreneurs wore thin by the end. It boiled down to a second-person sentence addressed to the reader tacked onto the ends of paragraphs here and there.

I enjoyed the book, but even less than 10 years after its publication it is quite dated. The space shuttle has long since been discontinued, SpaceX has outstripped nearly all of its competitors (The book devotes substantial pages to Virgin Galactic as the most promising private space enterprise), and the discovery of countless exoplanets has caused substantial revision to estimates about alien life.

[Dan Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much has changed about physics in the decade since this book was published, and this still provides an entertaining tour of the major challenges and approaches of space exploration, from the beginning to nearly the present. I was educated and entertained.

It's pitched to the popular science level, without any equations. Unfortunately it does not exactly tell you how to build a spaceship. But it does wave its hands at the major issues.

Reading from 2018, this is a very interesting time capsule. As an employee at Blue Origin, it is really interesting to see smack talk about these upstart companies Blue and SpaceX, and the crazeballs decision to pursue vertical takeoff vertical landing rockets. I laughed evilly.

It's also really interesting to read about NASA's agenda for the 2010s with the benefit of hindsight. How did they do? It's not pretty, due to shifting agendas of presidents. Space Shuttle comes off like a boondoggle. It points out that NASA in 2009 was basically returning to the Apollo model of crewed orbital launches after decades of failure to safely innovate.

The primary emotion I came away with was impatience. Not in the where's my flying car sense, but where's my inflatable habitat? Where's Mars Direct? Why is this taking so long?

I hope my company and other similar ones can forge ahead.

[Isaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, but the title is kind of misleading. It is not a manual of how to build your own spacecraft. Instead, it has information about the history of space travel and the history of private space companies. This book is about the history and the future of personal spacecraft. Overall, this book is a pretty good read for anyone who is a little older and is interested in private space travel. For anyone else, it might seem a little boring and long. I gave it 4 stars because it was kind of long and had a misleading title since it didn't actually talk about the components and technical parts of a actual spacecraft. Otherwise, it was an excellent read.

[Yates Buckley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book and style, a romp across the space business with some background historic context and ambition. The book is from 2009 but is actually quite dated to 2018, lots is changing...

Lacking in specificity and systematic overview: you wont really learn how to build your own spaceship.

Stories about the futute of space are stimulating but just a bit of an odd add-on.

[Dima · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a nice book on the topic of space travel, but it's mostly concentrated on commercial interest. Plus it feels a little outdated. It's like watching "Back to the future" when the movie makes cool, but unrealistic predictions.
The book contains some basic information on the topic of rocket science which can make a great intro to the subject.

[Roger Barnstead · Rating 5 out of 5]

verbose

[Arun Rajappa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great intro to the history of spaceflight, simple language, easy to understand and covers engineering, social and business aspects of space exploration.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated now (in 2023), but a fun read and still filled with lots of interesting facts

[Ayumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously out of date now but still such a fun and accessible read with content that rings true even today. Loved the shoutout to Orbital Sciences!

[Sandy Maguire · Rating 2 out of 5]

You'll learn way more more about spaceships by playing Kerbal Space Program than reading this drivel.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A provocatively titled book that somewhat wants to convince you that you can personally participate in the new opportunities of private industry in the space industry. The pasts I liked best are the descriptions of technical things. For examples, the different types of liquid and solid fuel rockets, different launching possibilities. Also great was the listing of companies and their approaches. The book is copyright 2009, so written a bit earlier, so this is somewhat out-of-date, but some things are still quite relevant, like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic. I also found it useful to use Wikipedia to actually learn about the things the book mentioned: there is a lot more information in Wiipedia than in the book. The book also talked about how to finance your spaceship company (mostly tourism is discussed). Overall, its focus is present-day (at least as of 2008/9) things that might actually be feasible; as compared to more speculative possibilities like a space elevator.

On the downside, I did not like the style of the book: it feels breezy and superficial. I would have liked a denser and more technical book, and that also delved deeper into issues. Finally, there should have been an index. Nonetheless, I imagine that many readers will really like the book as is.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat interesting but not very technical. Even worse there are multiple errors that I found distracting. For instance, in my version several times he mentions that a rocket needs to go Mach 9 to reach orbit where as in reality it is closer to Mach 25. Also some of the technical descriptions are inaccurate... perhaps because he is trying to over simplify for the reader- but in some cases he is just wrong. For instance, he states that as the rocket rises in the atmosphere and the atmospheric pressure drops the exhaust plume expands and loses efficiency so it is implied the rocket is less efficient as it rises. While he is correct about the exhaust plume other factors also are at play and in reality as the rocket rises and the pressure drops rockets become more efficient and have a higher specific impulse. Also, as opposed to his great 2001: Filming the Future, there are really no good drawings. Overall a disappointment.

[Josh Bush · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting short history of space travel and the ships that have done the traveling is presented in a tongue in cheek format of "instruction" on what steps to take to get into space. This is a nice introduction to space travel which also includes the new space tourism industry as it stood in 2009 (other than the recent successes of the Dragon capsule not a lot seems to have changed since that time).

What the "instruction" format does provide is a second layer of information in the form of opportunities for new progress in space travel. A lot of attention is given in this book to what still needs to be done and how both new companies and individuals can contribute to the space industry by learning from the past.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A personable, conversational, immediate discussion on every aspect of space travel from getting off the ground, getting out of the atmosphere, getting into orbit, getting to various destinations ( space station, moon base, mars colony) and back to the ground securely and safely. Liberally sprinkled with history, insider knowledge about the politics and finances along the way, considering public opinion, public perception, and public relations.All with just enough technical data to make things convincing and interesting.

A very fun read presenting the current thinking in the space industry from a unique and very successful perspective.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim little volume doesn't really teach you how to build a spaceship, but it does a pretty good job of surveying the current crop of innovation in the field. From govt. sponsored programs to the commercial, it covers the whos, hows and whys of spaceship and propulsion designs.

It also does a pretty good job of filling in some of the backstory of the last 40-50 years.

Awesome bibliography. Read "Space Race" because of it and am now reading "Strange Angel".

[Christopher Obert · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book, easy to read even thought the technical aspect of the material covered. The text embraces the history and future of space travel as well as relaying the current status of spacecraft design. I originally picked up the book to see what kind of nonsense was within its pages but very quickly found myself not wanting to put this book down. If you are interested in space exploration, rocket science or future business opportunities; this book is for you….

[Milan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite unusual book about what you would need to build your own space ship. It does not include an actual manual to build a space ship, but rather a set of thoughts about the challenges one is facing when trying to get to the space and how those challenges may be overcome. Quite a compelling read - if you are into space exploration and technology you'll have fun.

[Norbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explains clearly all the challenges that Rocket Science has to overcome and how they dealt with these issues all over history of space travels.
There is also a focus on how private industry can make some business in this industry as of 2009, through innovative solutions to known problems.
Only for people interested in rocket science!!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good intro to the subject of space travel and up to date as of ~2009, although anyone hoping for blueprints or an "Idiots' Guide" will be disappointed. Might be good for the bookshelves of jr. high/high school science teachers- the title alone will get students' attention, and the explanations are clear enough for beginners. (I think. I may not be the best judge of that.)

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read if you're interested in the slightest about rocket technology and the history behind space travel. Bizony manages to explain seemingly complex concepts in a comprehensible manner and covers a decent range of topics concerning the space industry as a whole. I'm personally looking into purchasing my own copy as a reference book in the near future.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mildly amusing. A bit light on the informative side. A more correct title would have been 'How to build your Space Business' because the book's entire angle / tone is about the business side of the new space age. This is by no means a bad thing, this is a rising field and it was interesting

[Jiwan Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book is a nice read, but over simplifies a lot of technical aspects making it not very interesting if you know more about the subject. The politics and past and current projects are interesting to read about

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explains the state of the privatization of space as of 2009 or so. Very interesting with a few technical details.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a ton of fun. The author's dry British wit made the rocket science entertaining and actually understandable. Anyone who has always wanted to be an astronaut should read this book.

[iain meek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. A wonderfully sardonic exploration of newspace.

Reread July 2014

[Sudhir · Rating 5 out of 5]

asd

[Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative. I'm Ready to leave this planet.

[Carol Ferro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely style of writing, a thorough explanation of the history and future of commercial space flight, and the experience of space travel.
I really enjoyed reading this.