The true, surprising contemporary story of the most daring human conquest in the history of our species—the epic evolving human colonization and settlement of other worlds of our solar system told in a captivating, engaging, and often humorous way by a 30-year NASA insider

"Spellbinding...game changing...a bold challenge to civilization's future." (Alan Stern, principal investigator, New Horizons Mission to Pluto; former NASA associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate)

Today, Elon Musk's SpaceX is building one human-rated reusable spacecraft every week designed to send 100 colonists to Mars on each voyage. With this brilliant plan, SpaceX aims to colonize the Red Planet, transporting colonists and millions of tons of cargo over 250 million miles of deep space, creating the first city on another world. This is not science fiction. These ships are in construction every day at a startling pace in order to make humanity a multiplanetary species, beginning this decade.

This is why Departing Earth Forever had to be created. It is the first manual written to and for Martian colonists—and for humankind back on the home planet witnessing this single most historic and momentous event in human history.

Departing Earth Forever is written by a former NASA Space Life Sciences Advanced Life Support Engineer who, for three decades, recorded the inside view of how this historic migration was envisioned in the world's most prestigious space exploration agency. And now, this historic migration to other worlds has been seized and reimagined by US private enterprise. This is the incredible, historic story of how humanity is now moving out to permanently colonize other worlds.