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It wasn't well worded. His point is that a great argument can be made that we have had both the technological and financial capability to start sending humans to Mars on the regular since the 1980's. What we've lacked is only the political and social will to do so.

NASA often comes up with fantastic new excuses for this, some more valid than others. "We need to learn more about the long term physiological effects" is valid, but is mostly invalidated by the tremendous amount of research that has already been done. When do we have, "enough"?

Saying we need this hibernation technology to do it is a lot like saying we need a better propulsion system to do it. We don't. Would it be nice? Sure. Is it an excuse for not going? Hell no.

For a much more in-depth analysis of this, and for a look at what is in many opinions a vastly superior way to do approach this, check out that book.

Amazon link.

Edit: As an added note, Elon Musk has a similar outlook. The implementation he's seeking is significantly different, but it has the same attitude. But unlike Zubrin, Musk had the capital to say, "screw it, I'll do it myself".

"This New Ocean" is an excellent, highly readable overview of all spaceflight, including the Apollo Program. It won a Pulitzer Prize, too.

https://www.amazon.com/This-New-Ocean-Library-Paperbacks/dp/0375754857

Amazon.com Review

More comprehensive than The Right Stuff, more critical than Apollo 13, This New Ocean is a near-perfect history of the men (and occasional women) who have "slipped the surly bonds of Earth." Eminent science journalist and space expert William E. Burrows covers just about everyone in history--from Daedalus to John Glenn--who ever designed or flew a rocket, trying to "ride the arrow" to the moon and beyond. It's a trail of testosterone from start to finish, but it makes for an engrossing read. One of Burrows's most interesting points is that without the cold war we never would have made it into space. He writes, "...the rocket would forever serve two masters at the same time, or rather a single master with two dispositions: one for war and one for peace." Werner von Braun, Robert Goddard, and other rocketry pioneers may indeed have wanted to explore space, but they knew the only way to get there was on the military's back.

Burrows extensively researched his subject, and he seems to want to include a little bit of everything; too much detail bogs down the narrative in places. Then again, he is no apologist for the space programs of the United States and the former U.S.S.R., and to tell their complete stories requires laying a great deal of political and scientific groundwork. When it comes to the great, memorable moments in space history, Burrows really shines. In telling the stories of Sputnik's first orbit, Neil Armstrong's moonwalk, Challenger's fiery death, and Sojourner's Martian road trip, he captures both the gee-whiz technological accomplishment and the very human emotions of the men and women involved.

--Therese Littleton

Okay, for sci-fi, you have to get The Culture series in. Put Player of Games face out.

I don't read a lot of space books, but Asteroid Hunter by Carrie Nugent is awesome. I mostly have recommendations for spaceflight and spaceflight history, and a lot of these come from listeners to my podcast, so all credit to them.

• Corona, America's first Satellite Program Amazon
  
• Digital Apollo MIT Books
  
• An Astronaut's Guide to Earth by Chris Hadfield (Amazon)
  
• Capture Dynamics and Chaotic Motions in Celestial Mechanics: With Applications to the Construction of Low Energy Transfers by Edward Belbruno (Amazon)
  
• Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration by Buzz Aldrin (Amazon)
  
• Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Part 1 on Amazon)
  
• Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael Neufeld (Amazon)
  
• Space Shuttle by Dennis R Jenkins (Amazon)
  
• The History Of Manned Space Flight by David Baker (Amazon)
  
• Saturn by Lawrie and Godwin (Amazon)
  
• Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Lovell (Amazon)
  
• Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz (Amazon)
  
• Space by James A Michener (Amazon)
  
• Encounter With Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes (Amazon)
  
• Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography by Arthur C Clark (Amazon)
  
• Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Bate and White (Amazon)
  
• Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein (Amazon)

Here's a good place to start online.
https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/stsref-toc.html

Here's a documentary NASA made toward the end of the program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvaG0xDdP8g

Here are a couple of books that might help as well.
https://www.amazon.com/NASA-Space-Shuttle-Manual-Construction/dp/1844258661/

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Shuttle-Operators-Manual-Revised/dp/0345341813/

You might be interested in reading

Science of Interstellar

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0393351378/

It discusses in great detail the realistic aspects of the movie.

Pretty sure it's from this one, the editorial review mentions a Saturn V fold out.

Anyone else gonna read Artemis ? If you have and have anything to say about it, I’d love to hear.

With all the fuss about Apollo 11, this visually astonishing precursor mission that launched to the Moon OTD 50 years ago is often overlooked. Tom Stafford & Gene Cernan saved the day in the malfunctioning Lunar Module and John Young became the first human ever to orbit another world alone. The Apollo 10 Lunar Module "Snoopy" is still floating around the Solar System somewhere!

NASA Public Domain Video Source:

https://archive.org/details/Apollo-10_Onboard-Film-Mags_KDCALIVY.mxf

https://archive.org/details/Apollo-10_Onboard-Film-Mags_AABJFGHW.mxf

Music:

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-in-Space/dp/B00M2H27VY

This would be a better question for /r/skeptic. You might also check out Michael Shermer's book Why People Believe Weird Things.

Think again. Michael Collins was not the only astronaut to be out of contact with Earth. There were six successful Apollo missions: 11, 12 and 14-17. Each Apollo mission had a Command Module pilot who was in the position of being isolated from human contact while on the far side of the Moon, not just Collins. Wikipedia lists the Apollo crews here including the Command Module pilots, four of whom, including Collins, are still alive.

This site has a quote from Collins on loneliness, and another on his concerns that he may have had to leave his fellow crewmen behind if their Lunar Module failed to lift off.

A good start would be Michael Collins autobiography Carrying the Fire

The flight that formed the basis for this 80's TV commercial with Wally Schirra! Speaking of the crew, Donn Eisele's long-lost memoir was finally published last year. It's on my to-read list.

Now he just needs a helmet!


Astronaut Orange Helmet with Movable Visor
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WDRTLKG/

Composite of SDO footage of Venus and Mercury solar transits as approximate stand-ins for Earth and Moon

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3941

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4461

Sound of the Sun:
http://quake.stanford.edu/~sasha/SOUNDS/sounds.html

Music:
Max Richter: Lost in Space
https://www.amazon.com/Lost-in-Space/dp/B00M2H27VY

Scientific Reference:
Simultaneous HARPS and HARPS-N Observations of the Earth Transit of 2014 as Seen from Jupiter: Detection of an Inverse Rossiter-McLaughlin Effect
Molaro, P.; Monaco, L.; Barbieri, M.; Zaggia, S.; Lovis, C.
The Messenger, vol. 161, p. 20-23 , September 2015
https://www.eso.org/sci/publications/messenger/archive/no.161-sep15/messenger-no161-20-23.pdf