Habitable Planets, a Rand Report

Steven Dole finished R-414-P, a Rand report for the United States Air Force, in March of 1964. Normally, a 43-year-old think-tank report isn't something to blog about. In this case, the report's title was "Habitable Planets for Man."

The Rand Corporation has it available, free, online. At 6.6 MB, 169 pages, it's not a small download, but I'm glad I got a copy.

It's been a reference for science fiction enthusiasts for years.

With 236 planets orbiting other stars cataloged as of May of this year, life-favorable conditions on other planets is more immediately interesting.

Some of the science is a bit dated. I noticed that particularly in references to theories of planetary system formation. But, I think the document still a useful reference: if nothing else, as a discussion of what the questions in exobiology are.

Science-fiction blogs:

• Biology in Science Fiction ("Sounds like a useful reference if you are building a world for humans or human-like aliens.")
• Keith Graham's Wanderings ("The Rand Corporation is a think tank. They produce high quality analysis on different problems....")
• Cool Sci-Fi dot Com ("A classic bit of RAND Corporation speculation from the far off days of the Nineteen Sixties....")

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Update, August 28, 2007.

APN received a comment about this post:
"Thanks for the link. You did leave out the place where I found "Habitable Planets". Bob Sawyer, the SF writer for all seasons, paid good money for this report many years ago, and he says it is one of the contributing factors for his many Hugo nominations and awards.

http://www.sfwriter.com/blog.htm ( Robert J. Sawyer)

Keith P. Graham
http://www.cthreepo.com/blog (Keith Graham's Wanderings)

August 28, 2007 8:06"

Thank you for leaving this comment, and Robert (Bob) Sawyer's link.

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Related posts, at

• "A Serious Search for Other Worlds, Life, and - Maybe - Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence"