Robert Zubrin#Books

{{Short description|American aerospace engineer (born 1952)

}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Robert Zubrin

| image = Robert Zubrin by the Mars Society.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Photo of Zubrin by the Mars Society

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|4|9}}

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.

| spouse = Hope Zubrin

| field = Aerospace engineering

| work_institutions = Martin Marietta
Pioneer Astronautics

| alma_mater = University of Rochester
(BA)
University of Washington
(MS, PhD)

| known_for = Mars Direct
Mars Society
The Case for Mars
Energy Victory

| website =

}}

Robert Zubrin ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|z|uː|b|r|ɪ|n}}; born April 9,{{cite tweet |user=robert_zubrin |date=9 April 2019 |title=Today is my birthday. Hope gave me ... |number=1115673165714165760}} 1952) is an American aerospace engineer, author,{{Cite web |title=Mckay |url=https://spacegrant.org/programs/service-award/mckay/ |access-date=2022-07-20 |website=National Space Grant Foundation |language=en-US}} and advocate for human exploration of Mars. He is also an advocate for U.S. space superiority, writing that "in the 21st century, victory on land, sea or in the air will go to the power that controls space" and that "if we desire peace on Earth, we need to prepare for war in space."{{Cite web |title=Op-Ed by Robert Zubrin: U.S. Space Supremacy Now Critical |url=https://dev.spacenews.com/op-ed-u-s-space-supremacy-now-critical/ |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=Space News |date=January 22, 2015 |language=en-US}}

He and his colleague at Martin Marietta, David Baker, were the driving force behind Mars Direct, a proposal in a 1990 research paper intended to produce significant reductions in the cost and complexity of such a mission. The key idea was to use the Martian atmosphere to produce oxygen, water, and rocket propellant for the surface stay and return journey. A modified version of the plan was subsequently adopted by NASA as their "design reference mission". He questions the delay and cost-to-benefit ratio of first establishing a base or outpost on an asteroid or another Apollo program-like return to the Moon, as neither would be able to provide all of its own oxygen, water, or energy; these resources are producible on Mars, and he expects people would be there thereafter.{{cite press release |author=Zubrin, Robert |date=21 April 2005 |title=Getting Space Exploration Right |website=Space Daily |url=http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-05v.html |access-date=14 July 2013 |archive-date=March 15, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315084546/http://spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-05v.html |url-status=live }}

Disappointed with the lack of interest from government in Mars exploration and after the success of his book The Case for Mars (1996), as well as leadership experience at the National Space Society, Zubrin established the Mars Society in 1998. This is an international organization advocating a human mission to Mars as a goal, by private funding if possible.

Early life

Zubrin was born in Brooklyn, New York City{{cite AV media |author=Armstrong, Ari |date=4 June 2019 |title=Robert Zubrin on the Case for Space |series=Self in Society #1 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mphjv6CxcJM |url-status=live |access-date=27 June 2019 |via=YouTube |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/mphjv6CxcJM |archive-date=2021-12-11}}{{cbignore}} on April 9, 1952. His father was descended from Russian Jewish immigrants.{{cite web |title=Charles Zubrin - American life |website=ricochet.com |date=June 9, 2016 |id=342127 |url=https://ricochet.com/342127/archives/charles-zubrin-american-life/ |access-date=May 24, 2020 |archive-date=July 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220718025148/https://ricochet.com/342127/charles-zubrin-american-life/ |url-status=live }}

Career

Zubrin was awarded his first patent at age 20 in 1972 for Three-player chess.{{Cite patent|number=US3652091A|title=Three player chess board|gdate=1972-03-28|invent1=Zubrin|inventor1-first=Robert|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US3652091A/en}}

Zubrin holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Rochester (1974); he was a science teacher for 7 years before becoming an engineer. He earned a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering (1984), a M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics (1986), and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering (1992) — all from the University of Washington.{{cite web |title=Robert Zubrin |publisher=NASA |url=http://www.quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/mdrs/bios/zubrin.html |access-date=14 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306002012/http://www.quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/mdrs/bios/zubrin.html |archive-date=March 6, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}{{circular reference|date=October 2019}}{{cite web |title=Robert Zubrin |publisher=Pioneer Astronautics |url=http://www.pioneerastro.com/Team/rzubrin.html |access-date=14 July 2013 |archive-date=February 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220015030/http://www.pioneerastro.com/Team/rzubrin.html |url-status=dead }} He has developed a number of concepts for space propulsion and exploration, and is the author of over 200 technical and non-technical papers and several books. He is also President of both the Mars Society and Pioneer Astronautics, a private company that does research and development on innovative aerospace technologies. Zubrin is the co-inventor on a U.S. design patent and a U.S. utility patent on a hybrid rocket/airplane, and on a U.S. utility patent on an oxygen supply system (see links below).

Zubrin's inventions include the nuclear salt-water rocket and co-inventor (with Dana Andrews) of the magnetic sail. Zubrin is fellow at Center for Security Policy.{{cite news |last=Zubrin |first=Robert |date=2014-09-13 |title=Iran is 10 months away from the A-bomb |newspaper=The Washington Times |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/13/iran-is-10-months-away-from-the-a-bomb/ |access-date=2016-03-21 |archive-date=April 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403025549/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/13/iran-is-10-months-away-from-the-a-bomb/ |url-status=live }}

During his professional career, Zubrin was a member of Lockheed Martin's scenario development team charged with developing strategies for space exploration. He was also "a senior engineer with the Martin Marietta Astronautics company, working as one of its leaders in development of advanced concepts for interplanetary missions".{{cite book |last=Zubrin |first=Robert |date=1996 |title=The Case for Mars |publisher=Touchstone}} During his time at Martin Marietta, he drafted ideas for a potential single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft, and developed the Black Colt. However, he would eventually leave Martin Marietta to co-form Pioneer Rocketplane with Mitchell Burnside Clapp, an aerospace engineer from the US Air Force, due to a perceived lack of interest in reducing launch costs at larger aerospace firms.{{cite web |title=Pathfinder - Pioneer Rocketplane |website=globalsecurity.org |url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/pathfinder.htm |access-date=2021-09-24 |archive-date=August 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210824175730/https://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/pathfinder.htm |url-status=live }} In his book, Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization, Zubrin would write about how both large aerospace firms, and the US Government, would fail to reduce the costs of spaceflight.

In 1998, Zubrin founded the Mars Society, and in the following years, was able to attract large amounts of public interest to potential human colonisation on Mars. The work of the Mars Society was successful enough as to encourage the US Government to not cut funding for several Mars rover missions. {{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}{{Cite book |last=Hogan |first=Thor |title=Mars Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Space Exploration Initiative |date=August 2007 |publisher=Military Bookshop |isbn=1780393032 |location=Washington D.C. |language=English}}

=Pioneer Astronautics=

In 1996 Zubrin founded Pioneer Astronautics (formerly Pioneer Invention), a research and development company committed to developing innovative technologies to further space exploration and improve life on earth.{{Cite web |title=About Us |url=https://www.pioneerastro.com/about-us/ |access-date=2023-08-09 |website=Pioneer Astronautics |language=en-US}} The company relied primarily on small business research contracts and tackled a large variety of space-relevant problems.{{Cite web |title=Pioneer Astronautics Research and Development Contract List |url=https://www.pioneerastro.com/research/ |access-date=2023-08-09 |website=Pioneer Astronautics |language=en-US}}

On 13 July 2020 Voyager Space Holdings announced its acquisition of Pioneer Astronautics.{{Cite web |title=Voyager Space Holdings announces acquisition of Pioneer Astronautics |url=https://spacenews.com/voyager-space-holdings-announces-acquisition-of-pioneer-astronautics |date=2020-07-13 |access-date=2023-10-16 |website=SpaceNews |language=en-US}}

=Pioneer Energy=

In 2008 Zubrin founded Pioneer Energy, a research and development firm headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado. The company's focus is to develop mobile Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) systems that can enable {{CO2}}-based EOR for both small and large oil producers in the United States. The company has also developed a number of new processes for manufacturing synthetic fuels.{{cite web |title=Aerospace engineer bets on space tech to cash in on gas flaring |date=2014-09-16 |website=canadianmanufacturing.com |language=en-US |url=http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/manufacturing/space-tech-monetizes-natural-gas-flaring-140533/ |access-date=2016-09-18 |archive-date=September 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919150143/http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/manufacturing/space-tech-monetizes-natural-gas-flaring-140533/ |url-status=live }}

The ethics of terraforming

Zubrin is known{{by whom|date=June 2024}} as an advocate of a moderately anthropocentric position in the ethics of terraforming. Discussions of the ethics of terraforming often{{citation needed|date=December 2013}} make reference to a series of public debates Zubrin has held with his friend Christopher McKay, who advocates a moderately biocentric position on the ethics of terraforming. For example, a written account of some of these debates is available in On to Mars: Colonizing a New World, as a joint article, "Do indigenous Martian bacteria have precedence over human exploration?" (pp. 177–182)

Cultural references

An aged Robert Zubrin also appears as a background character in The Martian Race (1999) by Gregory Benford, a science fiction novel depicting early human explorers on Mars in the very near future. Benford, who is also an astrophysicist, is a longtime member of both the board of directors and the steering committee of the Mars Society.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

In Martin Burckhardt's science fiction novel Score, the Mars Expedition Astronauts send 90-year-old Robert Zubrin a video reply thanking him for his work over the years after receiving a congratulatory one from him for their successful landing on Mars.{{cite book |last1=Burckhardt |first1=Martin |title=Score: Roman ; wir schaffen das Paradies auf Erden |date=2015 |publisher=Knaus |location=München |isbn=978-3813506433 |page=227 |edition=1. Aufl}}

Zubrin was featured in a 2007 CBC News documentary special, The Passionate Eye, titled "The Mars Underground".{{cite web |title=The Mars Underground |date=4 September 2010 |publisher=CBC News |url=http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/feature_230308.html |access-date=23 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026095842/http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/feature_230308.html |archive-date=October 26, 2012 }}

The songwriter and musician Frank Black (alias Black Francis of the Pixies) penned an homage to Zubrin, "Robert Onion", on the album Dog in the Sand. The lyrics are in the form of an acrostic, spelling "Robert The Case for Mars Zubrin".{{cite web |title=Robert Onion |website=Frank Black |department=discopedia |url=http://www.frankblack.net/songs/Default.asp?menu=album&mode=release-song-details&releaseID=701&songID=81 |access-date=14 July 2013 |archive-date=September 26, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926235150/http://www.frankblack.net/songs/Default.asp?menu=album&mode=release-song-details&releaseID=701&songID=81 |url-status=live }}

In 2010 Robert Zubrin was featured in the Symphony of Science video "The Case for Mars" along with Carl Sagan, Brian Cox, and Penelope Boston.{{cite AV media |title=The Case for Mars |date=2010-06-08 |series=Symphony of Science |medium=music video |via=mentalfloss.com |lang=en |url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/24870/symphony-science-case-mars |access-date=2021-10-07 |archive-date=October 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211007211702/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/24870/symphony-science-case-mars |url-status=live }}

The fictional character Dr. Zachary Walzer in the 2010–2011 independent VODO series Pioneer One was inspired by Zubrin.{{cite web |author1=joshbernhard |title='Pioneer One', the indie sci-fi drama, was released on BitTorrent 6 years ago. Now we have a shot at a big-budget reboot! |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/4oq7je/pioneer_one_the_indie_scifi_drama_was_released_on/d4f6abi/ |publisher=Reddit |access-date=11 February 2025 |date=19 June 2016}}

In 2016, Zubrin was one of several scientists and engineers interviewed in the National Geographic miniseries Mars.{{cite news |title=National Geographic Channel to Air New Event Series |url=http://www.broadcastermagazine.com/acquisition/national-geographic-channel-air-new-event-series/1004124282/ |date=November 3, 2016 |work=Broadcast |access-date=2016-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104160430/http://www.broadcastermagazine.com/acquisition/national-geographic-channel-air-new-event-series/1004124282/ |archive-date=2016-11-04 |url-status=dead }}

Bibliography

= Books =

The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must (1996) {{ISBN|978-0684835501}}
Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space (1996), co-edited with Stanley Schmidt. {{ISBN|0-471-13561-5}}
From Imagination to Reality: Mars Exploration Studies of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society : Precursors and Early Piloted Exploration Missions (1997). {{ISBN|978-0877034261}}
From Imagination to Reality: Mars Exploration Studies of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society : Base Building, Colonization and Terraformation (1997).{{ISBN|978-0877034285}}
Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization (1999). {{ISBN|978-0874779752}}
Proceedings of the Founding Convention of the Mars Society (1999), co-edited with Maggie Zubrin. {{ISBN|978-0912183138}}
Mars On Earth: The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic (2003). {{ISBN|978-1585423507}}
First Landing (2001). {{ISBN|978-0441008599}}
On to Mars: Colonizing a New World (2002 Apogee Books), co-edited with Frank Crossman. {{ISBN|978-1896522906}}
The Holy Land (2003). {{ISBN|978-0974144306}}
Benedict Arnold: A Drama of the American Revolution in Five Acts (2005). {{ISBN|978-0874779752}}
On to Mars 2: Exploring and Settling a New World (2005 Apogee Books), co-edited with Frank Crossman. {{ISBN|978-1894959308}}
Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil (2007). {{ISBN|1-59102-591-5}}
How to Live on Mars (2008). {{ISBN|978-0307450111}}
Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism (2011). {{ISBN|978-1594035692}}
Mars Direct: Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future (2013). {{ISBN|978-1101617861}}
The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility Prometheus Books (2019) {{ISBN|9781633885356}}
The Case for Nukes: How We Can Beat Global Warming and Create a Free, Open, and Magnificent Future (2023) {{ISBN|978-1736386064}}
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1635768802/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The New World on Mars: What We Can Create on the Red Planet] (2024) {{ISBN|978-1635768800}}

= Articles =

1991, Mars Direct: A Simple, Robust, and Cost Effective Architecture for the Space Exploration Initiative, AIAA Journal{{cite conference |last1=Zubrin |first1=Robert |last2=Baker |first2=David |last3=Gwynne |first3=Owen |title=29th Aerospace Sciences Meeting |date=1991-01-07 |chapter=Mars direct - A simple, robust, and cost effective architecture for the Space Exploration Initiative |conference=29th Aerospace Sciences Meeting |publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics |doi=10.2514/6.1991-329 |chapter-url=https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.1991-329 |access-date=2021-10-01 |archive-date=October 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211001170404/https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.1991-329 |url-status=live }}
2004, Getting Space Exploration Right, The New Atlantis{{cite web |author=Zubrin, Robert |date=2006-03-25 |title=Getting space exploration right |magazine=The New Atlantis |url=https://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/8/zubrin.htm |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060325000305/https://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/8/zubrin.htm |archive-date=2006-03-25}}
2006, An Energy Revolution, The American Enterprise{{cite web |date=2006-10-29 |title=An Energy Revolution |magazine=The American Enterprise |edition=online |url=http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18976/article_detail.asp |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029152836/http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleID.18976/article_detail.asp |archive-date=2006-10-29}}
2007, The Hydrogen Hoax, The New Atlantis{{cite book |last=Burckhardt |first=Martin |date=2015 |title=Score |url=https://www.penguin.de/ebook/Score/Martin-Burckhardt/Knaus/e464237.rhd |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2023-07-30 |publisher=Knaus |language=DE |format=Book |publication-date=February 9, 2015 |isbn=978-3-641-15640-4}}
{{cite journal |date=July–August 2015 |title=Moving the Earth |department=Science Fact |journal=Analog Science Fiction and Fact |volume=135 |issue=7&8 |pages=141–143}}

References

External links

{{cite magazine |title=List of Zubrin's articles |magazine=National Review |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/author/robert-zubrin/}}
{{IMDb title|0437325|The Mars Underground}}

Category:1952 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:American aerospace engineers

Category:American founders

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:American male novelists

Category:American nuclear engineers

Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent

Category:American satirists