Out of the Cradle (book)

Out of the Cradle

Author	William K. Hartmann
Illustrator	William K. Hartmann Ron Miller Pamela Lee
Cover artist	Pamela Lee
Subject	Planetary exploration
Publisher	Workman
Publication date	September 1984
Pages	190
ISBN	0-89480-770-6
Preceded by	The Grand Tour: A Traveller's Guide to the Solar System (1981)
Followed by	Cycles of Fire (1987)

Out of the Cradle: Exploring the Frontiers beyond Earth is a 1984 book written and illustrated by planetary scientist William K. Hartmann, Ron Miller and Pamela Lee. Cradle describes potential crewed space missions to the planets, moons and asteroids of the Solar System. The approximately 100^[1] space art illustrations were in large part based on photographs from the uncrewed space probes Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, and the Viking Lander, available at the time of publication, with scientific extrapolation of the likely appearance of various planetary surfaces. The title is derived from a quote from Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, included in the preface: "Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in the cradle forever."

The book is notable for introducing Hartmann's 'golden rule' of space exploration (on p. 182):

Space exploration must be carried out in a way so as to reduce, not aggravate, tensions in human society.