Space Exploration: The Impact of Science and Technology

Humans have explored Earth, its Moon, and its atmosphere, but people have traveled hardly any distance into space. The vast distances between stars and galaxies mean that scientists on Earth study most of the universe from far away. Exploring space offers its own unique challenges and rewards. This book examines the politics of space--the space race, weapons in space, and international cooperation, the realities of living in space, the uses of satellites and space probes, space age technologies that changed life on Earth, the future of space exploration, from space tourism to space elevators. This book goes beyond the science to explore the pros and cons of each new development, and examines the ways in which space exploration has changed our society and the world.