Making vacation plans is a chore. The traffic in Yosemite is terrible, and a landslide makes it impossible to get to sections of Big Sur without a helicopter. So where can you go to enjoy some peace and quiet? How about another part of our solar system?
President Trump wants NASA to send humans to Mars while he’s in office. Elon Musk’s Space X program is actively working on similar goals.
While a get-away to Mars is out of the question this summer, it just might happen. And “Vacation Guide to the Solar System,” a tourist guidebook, is here to help you plan it.
“Assuming we don’t destroy ourselves first, humans will go to places we describe in this book someday, almost without question,” say authors Olivia Koski & Jana Grcevich. They offer many detailed travel tips that are literally out of this world, starting with our own moon and including all the planets and their moons — Jupiter alone has 64 of them. Imagine the screensaver shots you’d get from one of those!
A journey out of our atmosphere takes serious preparation. Instructions include Preflight Training, What to Pack, Health, and Sleep. (Note: you won’t need a pillow.)
Readers are also advised “When to go,” “What to expect when you arrive,” and some of the best things to see and do once you arrive. (Spaceball, anyone?) And there are tips for the return home, an equally memorable journey.
This guide is speculative, of course, but readers will find real science and real facts in Vacation Guide to the Solar System, presented in a lighthearted way and illustrated with Fifties-style rocket ship graphics.
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Olivia Koski and Jana Grcevich will discuss Vacation Guide to the Solar System on Sunday, June 11 at Book Passage in Corte Madera.