Summary of Jacob Ward's The Loop

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The next habitable planet is Mars, which is the most survivable other planet in our solar system. But that’s not saying much. Other planets are more horrible. With the sun high in the sky, you would enjoy temperatures as high as 68° F on Mars, but if you exited the ship at one of the poles, the temperature could be less than −200° F. #2 Exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system, seem to offer the possibility of a livable atmosphere and surface. However, before we pop the champagne and pour our savings into SpaceX, we should consider what it takes to get to another planet. #3 We can’t know what life would be like on Proxima Centauri b, or what the place even looks like. But we can imagine that it’s a perfectly habitable place, with warm winds and a liquid ocean, and strange, vivid landscapes of rock and vegetation. #4 The trip to Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, would take more than 130,000 years. We wouldn’t be able to travel at that speed, and human life spans are too short for the trip. We would need to put ourselves in a coma for the journey.