Dandridge Cole

Dear Friends,
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Dandridge Cole's
untimely passing just 4 years shy of the first Moon landing. In his book
Islands in Space: The Challenge of the Planetoids" he already foresaw
the great waste land that laid after the Apollo program had achieved its
objective of placing a man on the Moon. One of his suggestions was a
manned mission to Eros using Apollo hardware. He even outlined many of
the robotic precursor missions being discussed today to explore the
Asteroids. In Islands in Space discussed the possibility of Mining and
Colonizing the Asteroids. He even discussed the use of the Mass Driver
to move Asteroids accross the Solar System. As Jim Oberg pointed out to
me in a recent e-mail "Cole's work largely presaged that of O'Neill a
decade later"

I am thinking of contacting Apogee Books again to see if they are
interested in republishing Islands in Space, with a commemorative
introduction by someone famous in the Astronautics field.

Since the B612 Foundation are really into Asteroids, we should enlist
their aid. And, how about a seminar devoted to Cole at next year's ISDC?

James Desmond (J.D.) Bernal pioneered much of the early speculation
concerning space colonies. Isn't it about time we asked some publisher
to reissue his book "The World, The Flesh, and the
Devil". It cost me $150 to find and purchase the 1968 edition. Arthur C.
Clarke could write the introduction to this book. While we are at why
not lobby to have the works of Tsiolkovskiy, Robert H. Goddard, O'Neill,
and Hermann Oberth see the light of day again?

Bye for now,

Alex Michael Bonnici