El. knyga: Snows of Olympus

Using computer-generated illustrations, the author presents his vision, founded in fact, of the colonization of Mars, showing what humans could do to make it habitable Using his own computer-generated color illustrations, the best-selling author of 2001 presents his vision, founded in fact, of the colonization of Mars, showing what humans could do to make it inhabitable. More than thirty years ago Arthur C. Clarke forecast the possibility of satellite communications. Now he advances virtual reality into virtual exploration, and shows how human beings might become the first Martians of science fact, not fiction, by terraforming the desert landscape of Mars into our first settlement in space.The technology to reach Mars is in place but the means to make its environment habitable may seem as fantastic as flying machines once did. Reminding us that innovation has always been propelled by our dreams of the future, and arguing always from established science, Clarke considers each element of the puzzle in turn, from getting to Mars in the first place to providing it with a wholly new ecology. Most exciting of all he portrays a terraformed Mars in breathtaking images he has generated on the computer.Taking as his starting point the Martian peak of Olympus, the highest mountain in the solar system, Clarke creates detailed virtual landscapes of the Martian surface and preconstructs the changes that would occur as water began to flow and vegetation to thrive.A stimulating thought experiment on a grand scale, founded in real scientific possibility, this book challenges us to reimagine our future in the solar system. This is the story of how a world could be resurrected Mars is a barren planet, almost without atmosphere and with a temperature ranging from near zero to 120 degrees below. No water flows and there is no evidence that life has ever existed there. Yet Mars is Earths near neighbour and has always exerted a powerful hold on our imagination. The astronomer Lowell thought hed discovered canals on the planets surface; H.G. wells (and his near namesake Orson) speculated on the red planets inhabitants invading Earth; sf writers have always used Mars as a setting and continue to do so. In the Snows of Olympus Arthur C. Clarke uses a revolutionary computer program to show, in words and pictures, how the surface of the planet would change as, gradually, scientists created an atmosphere and raised the temperature. Taking as his starting point Olympus Mons, the highest mountain in the Solar System, a 27km extinct volcano, Clarke creates detailed photographs of the Martian surface and then shows how the landscape would change as vegetation began to thrive and water to flow. He speculates about how this might happen, about the journey to Mars and about what living on the planet would be like. The result is one of the most fascinating, challenging and imaginatively stimulating books of the year. Arthur C. Clarke has long been hailed as the most visionary and accurate of science fiction and non-fiction writers, having predicted communications satellites years before their development. In this extraordinary booked he chart the next chapter of humanitys future in space.