Authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith critically interrogate the prospects of establishing human colonies on other planets, taking technological, political, and legal factors into consideration.

Introduction: a homesteader's guide to the red planet? -- Part I: Caring for the spacefaring -- Part II: Spome, spome on the range: where will humans live off-world? -- Part III: Pocket Edens: how to create a human terrarium that isn't all that terrible -- Part IV: Space law for space settlements: weird, vague, and hard to change -- Part V: The paths forward: bound for Moonsylvania? -- Part VI: To plan B or not to plan B: space society, expansion, and existential risk -- Conclusion: Of hot tubs and human destiny.