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Rating: 
Summary: Wingo Hits the Mark!
Review: Dennis Wingo has hit the mark. Read the other reviews for a quick synopsis of the book, and read this one to get my perspective on why this book is so compelling. Wingo clearly lays out a rational strategy for returning to the Moon, without adding to the US national debt. In fact, his approach has the potential to create an entirely new industry that will drive the continued exploration and development of space. He uses the most powerful driver in our modern world today - economic advantage. The bottom line is that the nation, economic sector, and/or companies that get in on the front end of this emerging market will reap the benefits in the years to come.
On a slightly nobler note - one of the lines in the NASA vision statement is to "Improve Life Here" on planet earth. I can think of no greater way that NASA could meaningfully or directly achieve this objective than to be the government agency that enables continued access to affordable energy as the US population shifts away from an oil-based economy. Whether it is 20 years or 50 years from now, the shift will occur as this non-renewable natural resource is eventually depleted. Wingo's book describes alternative strategies proposed by others that essentially restrict personal freedom and access to energy and resources in an attempt to balance the needs of the ever-growing human population. These strategies are completely counter to the American way of life, and our belief that even "the sky is no longer the limit".
Ensuring that America and other developing nations are not restrained by a lack of access to affordable energy may well do more towards achieving the noble goal of "peace for all mankind", than anything previously accomplished in the history of human space flight. When implemented, the strategy described by Wingo will ensure that NASA's contribution to the betterment of our world is never doubted again.
Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Here's your reason for going!
Review: Dennis Wingo has written a winner. If ever you happen to find yourself facing off with someone who asks, "Why go back to the moon?" point them in the direction of this book. With a great amount of detail Wingo has come up with a host of facts to suggest that going to the moon may be the only way we might be able to sustain our modern civilization. There is a wealth of data in the book which suggests that most of our future plans for energy production may be best completed by establishing a lunar economy. For once someone is suggesting that we go out there for something other than just science. In the 1960's the science community didn't much support the Apollo program and if we are looking to them for rationalizing a return we are just as likely to be disappointed. Wingo makes a great case for going for much more practical reasons. It's a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good set-up, but poor follow-through
Review: I found this book to be eye-opening and very persuasive in explaining the reasons and motivation for developing the resources of space. However, I felt it had poor follow-through when discussing possible implementations and scenarios.
The book starts off very well in talking about the history of energy, and how the rise of industry and natural resource utilization has directly correlated with the lengthening life expectancy rate and standard of living. The story becomes even more engrossing when looking ahead, and seeing that even with the most optimistic estimates, we will exhaust fossil fuels within the next 50-100 years.
This sets up a very good case for developing the resources of space. Unfortunately, I found the author's arguments to be less persuasive here. First in talking about Quantum Dot technology for solar cells. This sounds like an exciting breakthrough to make solar cells more efficient and economical. However, when explaining why the funding was canceled, the author comes dangerously close to a rant about "lack of vision," etc. An informed discussion, including what competing programs Congress chose instead to fund, would have been more constructive here.
I was also disappointed with the discussion of nuclear fusion. There's a very good discussion of how deuterium/trittium fusion may become economical within 20 years. There's also a good discussion of how fusion research over the last 50 years has led almost to a solution where the necessary high temperatures and magnetic fields can be sustained. Then, however, there's a relatively short discussion of how helium-3 would provide fuel for an even better fusion reaction, unfortunately it requires even higher temperatures and energies. Since helium-3 is a major hoped-for resource from the Moon, a better-developed discussion of the advantages _and_ problems of helium-3 would have made this section more credible.
Simlarly with the discussion of platinum-group metals and other minerals from the moon. The author does an excellent job of explaining why they are useful for the hydrogen economy, and the problems and limits with mining them on the Earth. He also builds his case well for the abundant resources on the Moon. Then, I felt he got sidetracked with an overly long discussion of past lunar exploration architectures, and a proposed commercial infrastructure. This would have been OK, but then there's only a very short section on how exactly lunar minerals might be extracted, with an overview of work done by Wolfgang Steurer.
Overall, I thought this book built its motivations very well with its discussions of resource limits on the Earth, but then failed to follow through by showing how extraterrestrial resources might be used to solve those problems.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent New Book on Commercial Space Development
Review: I just finish reading Dennis's book this last week, and I have to say it was one of the more useful and interesting space books I've read in a while. This book is probably one of the only places you can find a clear case set forward for the existance and potential of lunar PGM deposits. Even if the transition to a hydrogen economy didn't depend on the availability of Lunar PGMs, their mere existance provides a very lucrative potential market.
Very insightful review of past lunar architectures, including many details I didn't yet know about. While I may not agree 100% with the proposed approach at the end of the book, it is well worth the read, and a good starting point.
All in all, if you're interested in space settlement, or alt.space, this book should definitely be on your "to-read" list.
Rating:
Summary: Good reasons to go back to the moon here
Review: This is a book that could be highly enjoyable for anybody with an interest in the space program, returning to the moon or building a way to go to Mars.
In Dennis Wingo's book, "Moonrush," great attention is paid to an America divided and burdened by war and a president who wants to commit the nation to an expensive project that would last years and require new technologies to build.
Sound familiar? The story is not President Bush's January call for NASA to put astronauts back on the moon and then Mars. The president is Abraham Lincoln, and during the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress approved a costly plan to connect the nation via the railroad.
The railroad cut trip times to California, opened the West and helped exploit the discovery of precious minerals, including gold, thus bolstering the fledgling American economy. Going back to the moon, Wingo maintains, then a "moonrush" - hence the book title - could be the 21st-century equivalent of California's gold rush.
The book is a basic primer on what industry could do on the moon, but "Moonrush" also works as a reference book on the history of NASA endeavors to reach the moon. In a few brief chapters, Wingo takes the reader from the early Wernher von Braun concepts through the Apollo program and the failed attempts to make it back to the moon in the 1970s and '90s.
Wingo points out in "Moonrush" that all the reasons naysayers give not to invest in new space exploration don't add up.
Rating:
Summary: Linking Space Exploration to Earthbound Issues
Review: This is from the author so duh, I give it five stars. Recently the World Wildlife Federation put out a press release that it would take the resources of two more Earth's to bring all of the Earth's population to a level of affluence that we have in the west. Well, look up in the sky. The Moon is the first one and there are literally millions of asteroids and comets in our solar system as well that are ready to be visited and their resources used to improve life here. What are these resources? Platinum Group Metals for starters. Platinum is required for fuel cells. Fuel cells are required to free us from oil and move us to the hydrogen economy. These extraterrestrial resouces are millions of times more plentiful "out there" than here on the earth and they can be obtained without strip mining our Earth. Pretty good reason to go. Hope you enjoy the book! Dennis
Rating:
Summary: Linking Space Exploration to Earthbound Issues
Review: This is from the author so duh, I give it five stars. Recently the World Wildlife Federation put out a press release that it would take the resources of two more Earth's to bring all of the Earth's population to a level of affluence that we have in the west. Well, look up in the sky. The Moon is the first one and there are literally millions of asteroids and comets in our solar system as well that are ready to be visited and their resources used to improve life here. What are these resources? Platinum Group Metals for starters. Platinum is required for fuel cells. Fuel cells are required to free us from oil and move us to the hydrogen economy. These extraterrestrial resouces are millions of times more plentiful "out there" than here on the earth and they can be obtained without strip mining our Earth. Pretty good reason to go. Hope you enjoy the book! Dennis
Rating:
Summary: A Real approach to commercialisation of space
Review: This is the first book I've ever read about space commercialisation that doesn't require copious amounts of unobtainium. No Helium 3 mining for all of the fusion reactors back on Earth. Just a cleverly argued tome about how mining our sleeping satellite for Platinum Group metals could enable the Hydrogen economy here on Earth, whilst saving our own ecosystem from the damage that mining those metals here on our own planet creates. I am for once hopeful that here is a true way to commercialize space in a big way.
Rating:
Summary: Very Insightful
Review: This was truly an insightful book. I found the information accurate and up to date. Isn't it time humanity invest in the expansion of our kind throughout the solar system to better life here on Earth? The corporate world will lead us to the planets when profits are available.
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