The Extraterrestrial Imperative | Transterrestrial Musings

Back in the early eighties, I had the privilege of taking a class from Krafft Ehricke at Cal State Northridge (arranged by sociology professor and space enthusiast B. J. Bluth). The course was called “The Extraterrestrial Imperative,” and it had a significant impact on my world view. I still have the class notes, which were extensive. For years, up to and after his death, there had been talk of publishing them in a book. Well, I just discovered, via my Amazon sales, that Apogee Books has done so. Though I haven’t read the book itself, based on my own experience with the class notes on which it is based, I heartily recommend it to all of my readers who are interested in our future in space.
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8 thoughts on “The Extraterrestrial Imperative”

Thanks Rand.

I think you just earned 50 cents (more or less) from my one click purchase.

Anyway, why does his Moon base look rather like a pumpkin? See the cover art, here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/1894959914/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Thanks, Bill. I have no idea why it looks the way it does in that picture.

I think I’ll post a review at Daily Kos after I read Ehricke’s book.

😉

Rand

I attended one of his lectures at Cal State Northridge in 1984 and it was an incredible experience.

Over the years I have found that everyone who met Krafft Ehricke, or attended any of his lectures or presentations, was greatly affected by the experience. I decided to write this biography, because I felt that his work should be brought back to life. The book includes about 150 pages of reprints of some of Krafft’s writings, presentations, interviews, and papers. My biography summaries the major concepts he developed over a span of nearly 50 years.

The cover art was done by an artist, from drawings by Krafft, and the “pumpkin” is a fusion power plant (tokamak design) which is under construction. It will power Selenopolis, Krafft Ehricke’s city on the Moon.

Marsha Freeman

Thanks for the explanation, Marsha. I hadn’t realized that it was a bio. I may have to buy and read it now to see how much of it you had to leave out. There may still be another potential book out there to more fully technically flesh out the ideas he had, but I’m glad you made the effort, and hope that it sells millions.

Looks like someone spelled Krafft’s name wrong:

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/SwiftDist/Moon-Made-of-Cheese.jpg

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8 thoughts on “The Extraterrestrial Imperative”

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