Best books on space mining and Mars
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Most of what gets written about asteroid mining is either hype or a dunk. These are the books we'd actually hand someone who wants to work in the field: a couple of founding texts, one honest skeptic, two on how launch got cheap, and one novel. Pair them with our guides on ISRU and asteroid mining economics.
- Mining the Sky by John S. Lewis
The book that made asteroid resources sound like an engineering problem instead of a fantasy. Old numbers, still the right questions. - Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John S. Lewis
Lewis again, updated for the era of commercial launch. Heavy on what asteroids are actually made of. - The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin
Mars Direct, and the argument for making propellant on Mars from its own air. Read it next to our MOXIE piece. - A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
The skeptic’s shelf. Medicine, law and reproduction in space, and why settlement is harder than the launch. - The High Frontier by Gerard K. O’Neill
Where using lunar material to build things in orbit went mainstream. Dated, but you’ll see its fingerprints everywhere. - Liftoff by Eric Berger
SpaceX’s early years, told by a reporter who covers the industry daily. Good on how small teams actually ship hardware. - Reentry by Eric Berger
The sequel: Falcon 9 reuse and Dragon. Explains why launch got cheap enough for any of this to pencil out. - Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
Fiction, but the most serious attempt at what mining and terraforming Mars would do to the people doing it.