From the reviews: "This ambitious book attempts, with much success, to answer the question ‘why accept the costs and risks associated with space activity?’ It provides a comprehensive look both at the capabilities that have been developed to allow humans to access space and at the wide variety of activities enabled by those capabilities. … ... Read morean excellent introduction to space science and technology for an advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate student. … Berndt Feuerbacher and Heinz Stoewer are to be commended … ." (John M. Logsdon, Space Policy, Vol. 22 (2), 2006) "This handsome 400 page hardback volume is a collection of fourteen review articles … . The articles are organized into six sections covering general aspects of access to space … . The book is heavily illustrated throughout with colour images and graphics, adding to the quality feel … . Each article has a comprehensive list of references plus web references where relevant. … a comprehensive review of the importance of space based exploration on our understanding of the solar system and our Universe." (Roger Feasey, AAS Journal, February, 2007) "This book aims ‘to serve as a single, authoritative reference covering the state of the art and future developments in the various dimensions of scientific and application oriented activities in space.’ In this … aim I think it has been broadly successful. … All the chapters are competently written by experts in their respective fields … . The illustrations are good and up-to-date … . I am happy to recommend it for university and technical libraries, and for scientists and engineers … ." (Ian Crawford, The Observatory, Vol. 126 (1193), 2006) "The editors of this book attempted – and to a large extent succeeded – to provide a single reference volume for the wide topic of space sciences and space utilization … . The book can serve as an overview and a helpful reference for a wideaudience of graduate students and researchers as well as interested non-specialists. … All in all, this is a well-balanced and informative book, which I would recommend it to those who look for ‘global’ information in a single volume on space applications." (Ioannis A. Daglis, www.the-eggs.org, Issue 20, June, 2007) Show Less