Lords of the Universe

摘要

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos provides a chronology that traces the trajectory of three space "barons": Elon Musk, the South African immigrant founder of SpaceX; Jeff Bezos, the stepson of a Cuban immigrant who uses the wealth amassed from his Amazon success to fuel Blue Origin; and Richard Branson, the brash Briton who set up his space company, Virgin Galactic, in the United States. Cameo appearances are made by other barons: Andrew Beal of Beal Aerospace, who made his money in banking and real estate, and Paul Allen, a cofounder of Microsoft who has invested prolifically in space activities. Musk and Bezos are the lead characters in this telling, with a focus on their personalities and what drives them rather than on the companies they created or the technologies they developed. The book's lack of attention to actual space exploration activities is a regrettable shortcoming, but perhaps that decision was a deliberate one to make it accessible to a broader audience that relishes the human drama more than it does technology landmarks.