This invaluable book provides an introduction to space science. It brings together the various space science disciplines in one volume, and will benefit a wide audience, particularly students starting their graduate studies. The text presents a unique outlook, which will encourage students to think in broad terms across the whole range of space science, from the Earth’s climate system to cosmology. There are also chapters describing basic techniques necessary to progress in space science research.

Space research is one of the most evocative and challenging fields of human endeavour. In the half-century that has elapsed since the beginning of the space age, we have been exposed to wonders beyond the imagination of even the most visionary of science fiction writers. We have peered deep into the Universe and studied physics that we can never duplicate on the Earth. We have begun to understand our own Sun, and the flow of energy outward through the Solar System that is fundamental to our existence. Robotic agents have explored the planets in the Solar System and the environment of our own planet, the Earth. Human beings have trodden on the surface of the Moon, and now have a constant presence in near-Earth orbit. We are also advancing on that most fundamental of questions: whether life has ever evolved elsewhere in the Solar System or elsewhere in the Universe.