Mars via the Moon

Dr. Erik Seedhouse is a research scientist specializing in environmental life sciences and physiology, the subject in which he obtained his Ph.D. while working for the European Space Agency between 1996 and 1998. In 2009, he was one of the final candidates for selection as an astronaut in the CSA’s Astronaut Recruitment Campaign. He is a certified commercial suborbital astronaut and is the Canadian Payload Broker for XCOR via Arête. Between 2008-13 he was Director of Canada's Manned Centrifuge and Hypobaric Chamber Operations. He is a spaceflight instructor for the American Astronautics Institute/Project PoSSUM and the Training Director for Astronauts for Hire. He works as manned spaceflight consultant, triathlon coach, author and public speaker. He is currently co-authoring a book with Franklin Chang-Díaz on the subject of VASIMR and teaching commercial astronauts in Melbourne, Florida, which is where he'd like to spend much more time.

• Martian Mission Killers.- Government Anchors.- Commercial Anchors.- Technology.- The Human Element: Missions.- Regulation.- Headwinds and Tailwinds.- Making the Business Case.

"Mars via the Moon is the author's twentieth book. Attractively illustrated and priced, I found it to be thoughtful and intriguing." (Richard McKim, The Observatory, Vol. 136 (1254), October, 2016) "Seedhouse presents the case of using the Moon as a technological stepping-stone to an eventual mission to Mars. ... Mars via the Moon effectively, if briefly, outlines the key issues with respect to space explorers once again leaving low-Earth orbit for more ambitious goals. It supports the premise of using the Moon as the best means of proving the technology, identifying sustainable industry, and addressing the long-term physiological and perhaps psychological limitations of humans before attempting a mission to Mars." (Anthony Young, The Space Review, the spacereview.com, January 2016)