Off the Shelf: Homesteading Space by David Hitt, Owen Garriott, and Joe Kerwin

New in a paperback edition, read from Homer Hickam's foreword of Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story by David Hitt, Owen Garriott, and Joe Kerwin:

"The book that follows is a riveting, insightful account of the Skylab missions flown by the United States in 1973 and 1974. It is also simply a great yarn. Skylab began as an underdog, was nearly knocked out several times, staggered back to its feet, and fought on against overwhelming odds until it became a champion. In a lot of ways, it was the Rocky of space, and just like the story in that great film, it is an inspiration for all who know it. The difference is the remarkable saga of Skylab is all true.

For those of us who are old hands at nasa and in the space business, it is sometimes easy to forget what a great adventure it was and still is. Ultimately when all the layered explanations of why we go into space are peeled away, adventure remains at its core. But adventure aside, there are many quite practical reasons to go off our home planet. For one, the solar system is awash in energy resources such as microwaves and solar energy, and even the helium-3 isotopes that cover our moon seem perfect for futuristic fusion reactors. For another, the absence of gravity might ultimately produce wonderful new products, even life-saving medicines. And where else but space can we go to get above our light and radio-wave-polluted Earth and gain unobstructed views of our sun, the solar system, and the universe? Space is a scientific gold mine, and I believe some day it will be an economic one as well. But to be successful in the cosmos, we have to first figure out how to get there and stay. In other words, we have to learn to homestead space. This book tells how we first began to understand how to do that, through the program known as Skylab. Although often neglected by spaceflight historians, Skylab provided the key to all human space activities that followed. Quite simply, it was the series of flights that proved to the world that humans could live and work for long periods in space.

I grew up in the golden era of science fiction where all the spacemen (and spacewomen, though often scantily clad) were stalwart and brave. They were sort of ingenious, techno-savvy Davy and Polly Crocketts conquering the wild frontier while riding rockets. The robots in those tales were usually built only to help their humans through some difficulty (“Danger, Will Robinson!”), and the mightiest computer was the one every human had between his ears. If people were to explore space, they’d just have to go there themselves and have a look around. There was no other way. Not many of my favorite old-time writers guessed that by the time we were actually able to go into space, there would be a revolution in robotics combined with minimizing the size and maximizing the capabilities of computers. The reality of early spaceflight (and that’s where we are now—very, very early) is that it is far easier, cheaper, and faster to send a robot than a human into space to explore and send back information on anything we please. But does that satisfy us? No indeed, and it shouldn’t. For instance, we are also perfectly capable of purchasing a video travelogue of Paris. From the comfort of our living rooms, we can see the traffic passing beneath the Arc de Triomphe and the strollers along the Champs Élysées. But can we experience Paris with a video? No. We can only get a sense of what it is like. We can’t look around a corner to see where some interesting alley might lead, or sit on a park bench and smell the aroma of fresh bread, or discover a new artist in the Louvre. It is the same for space. Ultimately to experience it, to gain from it all the riches it holds, the old sci-fi writers were correct. We humans must climb into pressurized containers and boldly rocket into the cosmic vacuum and there wrest from it with our own two hands all that it holds. In other words we still need spacefaring Meriwether Lewises and William Clarks off on bold adventures while accomplishing important scientific and economic work for the nation. The men and women who built and operated Skylab understood this and were determined to make such space accomplishments possible."

David Hitt is a journalist, writer, and editor for NASA Educational Technology Services. Owen Garriott is a former NASA astronaut—and one of the first six scientist-astronauts selected in 1965. He was stationed on Skylab in 1973 and later flew STS-9, the first international Spacelab mission. A former NASA astronaut, Joe Kerwin is also one of the first scientist-astronauts selected in 1965 and flew on the first Skylab mission in 1973. Alan Bean is the former spacecraft commander of Skylab 3 and became the fourth man to walk on the moon in 1969. Homer Hickam is a former NASA engineer.'

To read a longer excerpt or to purchase Homesteading Space, visit http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Homesteading-Space,673959.aspx.