The New Challenge of the Stars: A Science Fact Look at Science Fiction

by Patrick Moore

Since the first Apollo Moon shot, knowledge of our planetary system has increased at an extraordinary rate. The New Challenge of the Stars starts out with a bold assumption - that exploration of our neighboring planets can now be taken for granted and that the real challenge lies beyond the frontiers of the Solar System. In vivid paintings and authoritative text it considers all the classic science-fiction themes in the light of the most recent scientific facts. Themes covered by the works of writers such as H.G. Wells and by epic films such as Star Wars - Martian bases, automatic probes, robots, intergalactic travel, space colonies, alien contact - are seen as blueprints for tomorrow's reality. The New Challenge of the Stars places a dramatically new perspective on the possible. David Hardy's paintings and Patrick Moore's text put the seal of truth on what, just a few years ago, was considered the impossible. This is a book for those who set their sights on the stars - and who know that man's exploration of them will be difficult, hazardous and even violent.

Genres: Science

63 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1978

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name.

Sir Alfred Patrick Caldwell-Moore, CBE, Hon FRS, FRAS, known as Patrick Moore, was an English amateur astronomer, who is the most well known English promoter of astronomy. Moore wrote numerous books on the subject, as well as make public, television and radio appearances, over the course of his long life. He is credited as having done more than any other to raise the profile of astronomy among the British general public.

Reviews

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It is a large coffee table book with beautiful illustrations... artist conceptions and a few photographs from space probes like the surface of Venus and sunset on Mars. The text is extensive and knowledgeable. it is clear they tried very hard to be accurate up to that point... 1978.

I thought their speculation was a little optimistic. Certainly their timeline was too optimistic. By today (2023) they had us in space with regular shuttle flights to several space stations. Certainly we should have a few experimental space habitats on the moon, but no such luck.

Perhaps it was all for the best. We needed a further advance in technology. In the 1970's our computers were still taking up a good part of a room. Personal computers were considered toys. Even the Grid Systems portable computer (with optional MS-DOS 2 operating system) had not come out yet. I remember lusting after that baby, but it was over $8,000! (That is over $24,000 in 2022 dollars.) In the book "Patriot Games" (1987) by Tom Clancy, the author had Jack Ryan typing on his portable computer "with bubble memory'!!! Here is a quote from the Clancy novel: “It's a Cambridge Datamaster Model-C Field Computer. A friend of mine makes them. It has an MC-68000 microprocessor, and two megabytes of bubble memory.”

OMG! :-)

I remember reading New Challenge of the Stars decades ago. I ran across it just recently in my library and decided to read it again. I'm glad I did.

[Simon Jones]

Updated edition of Challenge of the Stars with different interior illustrations. For full details of the changes see: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?4...