"Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in the cradle forever," said Russian rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovksy in 1899; his words introduce this lavish and exhilarating vision of the time when man will not merely explore space, but actually live there.
In text, photographs, and nearly 100 dazzling paintings, Out of the Cradle offers a startling vision of our future in space, from the authors of the Hugo-Award nominee The Grand Tour. The full-color paintings depict the human adventure in the cosmos, with habitats and colonies offering the comforts of home, way stations and solar collectors turning vastness into territory, and robot "astronauts" that allow the journey into the unknown go deeper and deeper.
With special attention to Mars, the Moon, and satellites Ganymede, Callisto, and Enceladus, Out of the Cradle also features a wealth of supplementary photos, charts, and diagrams.
Ron Miller, co-author of Out of the Cradle, is an illustrator known for his astronomical and science fiction paintings, and served as a production illustrator for the movies Dune and Total Recall. He is a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society and member of the Academy of Astronautics. He lives in King George, Virginia.
William K. Hartmann is the author, most recently, of A Traveler’s Guide to Mars and co-author of Out of the Cradle. He is an internationally known scientist, writer, and painter, and winner of the first Carl Sagan Medal from the American Astronomical Society. He has an asteroid—#3341—named after him. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.
Pamela Lee is an artist whose illustrations have appeared in Smithsonian magazine, Science Digest, Astronomy and Sky & Telescope.