Many new tests of gravity and, in particular, of Einstein's general relativity theory will be carried out in the near future: The Lense--Thirring effect and the equivalence principle will be tested in space; moreover, gravitational waves will be detected, and new atomic interferometers and clocks will be built for measurements in gravitational and inertial fields. New high-precision devices have made these experiments feasible. They will contribute to a better understanding of gravitational physics. Both experimental developments and the theoretical concepts are collected in this volume. Exhaustive reviews give an overall insight into the subject of experimental gravitation.

This book presents the most important and crucial problems of space automation in context of future exploration programs. These programs could involve such issues as space situational awareness program, planetary protection, exploitation of minerals, assembly, manufacturing, and search for new habitable location for next human generations. The future exploration of Space and related activities will involve robots. In particular, new autonomous robots need to be developed with high degree of intelligence. Such robots would make space exploration possible but also they would make space automation an important factor in variety of activities related to Space.

This volume contains five articles describing the mission and its instruments. The first paper, by the project scientist Richard C. Elphic and his colleagues, describes the mission objectives, the launch vehicle, spacecraft and the mission itself. This is followed by a description of LADEE's Neutral Mass Spectrometer by Paul Mahaffy and company. This paper describes the investigation that directly targets the lunar exosphere, which can also be explored optically in the ultraviolet. In the following article Anthony Colaprete describes LADEE's Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer that operated from 230 nm to 810 nm scanning the atmosphere just above the surface. Not only is there atmosphere but there is also dust that putatively can be levitated above the surface, possibly by electric fields on the Moon's surface. Mihaly Horanyi leads this investigation, called the Lunar Dust Experiment, aimed at understanding the purported observations of levitated dust. This experiment was also very successful, but in this case their discovery was not the electrostatic levitation of dust, but that the dust was raised by meteoroid impacts. This is not what had been expected but clearly is the explanation that best fits the data. Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Volume 185, Issue 1-4, 2014.

It is within the means of many nations to conduct or participate in cost-effective Earth observation missions. This study provides a definition of cost-effective Earth observation missions and information about background material and organizational support. It discusses cost drivers and provides advice on achieving cost-effective missions and discusses training and education. The conclusions and recommendations range from more general factors, which drive the small satellite mission activities, to visions of future cost-effective Earth observation missions. Complementary to large complex missions, small satellite missions have specific advantages: more frequent missions opportunities and therefore faster return of science and application data, a larger variety of missions and greater diversification of potential users; more rapid expansion of the technical and/or scientific knowledge base; greater involvement of local and small industry. This volume will prove to be a useful source of information to governments, space agencies, academia, and industry.

New Horizons: Reconnaissance of the Pluto-Charon System and the Kuiper Belt C. T. Russell Originally published in the journal Space Science Reviews, Volume 140, Nos 1-4, 1-2. DOI: 10. 1007/s11214-008-9450-0 (c) Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2008 Exploration is mankind's imperative. Since the beginnings of civilization, men and women have not been content to build a wall around their settlements and stay within its con nes. They explored the land around them, climbed the mountains, and scanned the horizons. The boldest among them pushed exploration to the most distant frontiers of the planet. As a result, much of the Earth was inhabited well before the days of the renowned European - th th plorers of the 15 and 16 centuries. Exploration did not cease, after the circumnavigation of the globe; it continued to the present. Today explorers are going in new directions, not just east and west, north and south. They explore backward in time and upward in space. Arc- ology explores the shorter time scales, and geochemistry the longer time scales of geophy- cal events: asteroidal and cometary collisions, magnetic reversals, continental formation and more. However, on Earth we cannot go back inde nitely, for much of the evidence of the very earliest days has been lost.

Earth as an Evolving Planetary System, Fourth Edition discusses key topics dealing with the evolution and interaction through time of Earth's crust, mantle, core, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. It addresses the questions of why Earth is unique among planets of the solar system, and how the various subsystems in the planet have interacted over 4.6 billion years in the habitable planet that we live on. This new edition includes over 100 new pages of material, data, and images and is a key reference for students and researchers in Earth and planetary sciences. Earth as an Evolving Planetary System, Fourth Edition includes new material that has become available since the third edition, including new sections on the Mid-lithosphere discontinuity, geoneutrinos, mantle oxidation, continental emergence, Earth cycles (new chapter) and recycling processes, the evolution of Earth from a stagnant lid to a plate tectonic regime, the controversy over how the continents have grown, when plate tectonics began, and exoplanets.

Long before the space race captured the world's attention, K. E. Tsiolkovskii first conceived of multi-stage rockets that would later be adapted as the basis of both the U.S. and Soviet rocket programs.
Often called the grandfather of Russian rocketry, this provincial scientist was even sanctioned by Stalin to give a speech from Red Square on May Day 1935, lauding the Soviet technological future while also dreaming and expounding on his own visions of conquering the cosmos. Later, the Khrushchev regime used him as a "poster boy" for Soviet excellence during its Cold War competition with the United States. Ironically, some revisionists have since pointed to such blatant promotion by the Communist Party in an attempt to downplay Tsiolkovskii's scientific contributions.
James T. Andrews explores the complexities of this man to show that Tsiolkovskii was much more than either a rocket inventor or a propaganda tool. He was a science popularizer, novelist, technical inventor, and visionary, whose science fiction writings included futuristic drawings of space stations long before they appeared on any engineer's drawing board.
Mining a myriad of Russian archives, Andrews produces not only a biographical account but also a study of Soviet technological propaganda, local science education, public culture in the 1920s and 1930s, and the cultural ramifications of space flight.

Andrew F. Nagy Originally published in the journal Space Science Reviews, Volume 139, Nos 1-4. DOI: 10. 1007/s11214-008-9353-0 (c) Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2008 Keywords Aeronomy The term "aeronomy" has been used widely for many decades, but its origin has mostly been lost over the years. It was introduced by Sydney Chapman in a Letter to the Editor, entitled "Some Thoughts on Nomenclature," in Nature in 1946 (Chapman 1946). In that letter he suggested that aeronomy should replace meteorology, writing that the word "meteor is now irrelevant and misleading." This proposal was apparently not received with much support so in a short note in Weather in 1953 Chapman (1953)wrote: "If, despite its obvious convenience of brevity in itself and its derivatives, it does not commend itself to aeronomers, I think there is a case for modifying my proposal so that instead of the word being used to signify the study of the atmosphere in general, it should be adopted with the restricted sense of the science of the upper atmosphere, for which there is no convenient short word. " In a chapter, he wrote in a 1960 book (Chapman 1960), he give his nal and de nitive de nition, by stating that "Aeronomy is the science of the upper region of the atmosphere, where dissociation and ionization are important." The Workshop on "Comparative Aeronomy" was held at ISSI during the week of June 25-29, 2007.

A new and detailed picture of Mercury is emerging thanks to NASA's MESSENGER mission that spent four years in orbit about the Sun's innermost planet. Comprehensively illustrated by close-up images and other data, the author describes Mercury's landscapes from a geological perspective: from sublimation hollows, to volcanic vents, to lava plains, to giant thrust faults. He considers what its giant core, internal structure and weird composition have to tell us about the formation and evolution of a planet so close to the Sun. This is of special significance in view of the discovery of so many exoplanets in similarly close orbits about their stars. Mercury generates its own magnetic field, like the Earth (but unlike Venus, Mars and the Moon), and the interplay between Mercury's and the Sun's magnetic field affects many processes on its surface and in the rich and diverse exosphere of neutral and charged particles surrounding the planet. There is much about Mercury that we still don't understand. Accessible to the amateur, but also a handy state-of-the-art digest for students and researchers, the book shows how our knowledge of Mercury developed over the past century of ground-based, fly-by and orbital observations, and looks ahead at the mysteries remaining for future missions to explore.

James L. Burch*C. Philippe Escoubet Originally published in the journal Space Science Reviews, Volume 145, Nos 1-2, 1-2. DOI: 10. 1007/s11214-009-9532-7 (c) Springer Science+Business Media B. V. 2009 The IMAGE and CLUSTER spacecraft have revolutionized our understanding of the inner magnetosphere and in particular the plasmasphere. Before launch, the plasmasphere was not a prime objective of the CLUSTER mission. In fact, CLUSTER might not have ever observed this region because a few years before the CLUSTER launch (at the beginning of the 1990s), it was proposed to raise the perigee of the orbit to 8 Earth radii to make multipoint measu- ments in the current disruption region in the tail. Because of ground segment constraints, this proposal did not materialize. In view of the great depth and breadth of plasmaspheric research and numerous papers published on the plasmasphere since the CLUSTER launch, this choice certainly was a judicious one. The fact that the plasmasphere was one of the prime targets in the inner magnetosphere for IMAGE provided a unique opportunity to make great strides using the new and comp- mentary measurements of the two missions. IMAGE, with sensitive EUV cameras, could for the rst time make global images of the plasmasphere and show its great variability d- ing storm-time. CLUSTER, with four-spacecraft, could analyze in situ spatial and temporal structures at the plasmapause that are particularly important in such a dynamic system.

Voted the Best Space Book of 2018 by the Space Hipsters The dramatic inside story of the epic search and recovery operation after the Columbia space shuttle disaster. On February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated on reentry before the nation's eyes, and all seven astronauts aboard were lost. Author Mike Leinbach, Launch Director of the space shuttle program at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center was a key leader in the search and recovery effort as NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Service, and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies combed an area of rural east Texas the size of Rhode Island for every piece of the shuttle and her crew they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history. This comprehensive account is told in four parts: Parallel Confusion Courage, Compassion, and Commitment Picking Up the Pieces A Bittersweet Victory For the first time, here is the definitive inside story of the Columbia disaster and recovery and the inspiring message it ultimately holds. In the aftermath of tragedy, people and communities came together to help bring home the remains of the crew and nearly 40 percent of shuttle, an effort that was instrumental in piecing together what happened so the shuttle program could return to flight and complete the International Space Station. Bringing Columbia Home shares the deeply personal stories that emerged as NASA employees looked for lost colleagues and searchers overcame immense physical, logistical, and emotional challenges and worked together to accomplish the impossible. Featuring a foreword and epilogue by astronauts Robert Crippen and Eileen Collins, and dedicated to the astronauts and recovery search persons who lost their lives, this is an incredible, compelling narrative about the best of humanity in the darkest of times and about how a failure at the pinnacle of human achievement became a story of cooperation and hope.

NASA's Genesis mission, launched on August 8, 2001 is the fifth mission in the Discovery series. Genesis addresses questions about the materials and processes involved in the origin of the solar system by providing precise knowledge of solar isotopic and elemental compositions for comparison with the compositions of meteoritic and planetary materials. This book describes the Genesis mission, the solar wind collector materials, the solar wind concentrator and simulations of its performance, the plasma ion and electron instruments, and the way these two instruments are used to determine the solar wind flow regime on board the spacecraft. The book is of interest to all potential users of the data returned by the Genesis mission, to those studying the isotopic and chemical composition of the early solar system whose work will be influenced by the measurements made by Genesis and by all those interested in the design and implementation of space instruments to study space plasmas.

In the new space age after the end of the Cold War, orbit and frequency allocations, traffic control, safety, and a number of support services such as space weather forecast and orbital debris monitoring need to be coordinated transparently and effectively by clear rules at an international level. The establishment of an international civil space regulatory framework is the central theme of this book, in particular, the possible extension to space of the international regulatory framework model adopted for aviation more than 60 years ago with the establishment of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The book also highlights the increased reliance of aviation safety on space-based navigation and communication systems, the increasing space systems traffic through the international airspace under the jurisdiction of the ICAO, and the emerging hybrid systems such as aero-spacecraft and space planes, to advocate the practical benefits of directly expanding the ICAO Convention domain beyond the airspace to include outer space up to the geostationary orbits.

J.L. Burch*V. Angelopoulos Originally published in the journal Space Science Reviews, Volume 141, Nos 1-4, 1-3. DOI: 10.1007/s11214-008-9474-5 (c) Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 The Earth, like all the other planets, is continuously bombarded by the solar wind, which is variable on many time scales owing to its connection to the activity of the Sun. But the Earth is unique among planets because its atmosphere, magnetic eld, and rotation rates are each signi cant, though not dominant, players in the formation of its magnetosphere and its reaction to solar-wind inputs. An intriguing fact is that no matter what the time scale of solar-wind variations, the Earth's response has a de nite pattern lasting a few hours. Known as a magnetospheric substorm, the response involves a build-up, a crash, and a recovery. The build-up (known as the growth phase) occurs because of an interlinking of the geom- netic eld and the solar-wind magnetic eld known as magnetic reconnection, which leads to storage of increasing amounts of magnetic energy and stress in the tail of the mag- tosphere and lasts about a half hour. The crash (known as the expansion phase) occurs when the increased magnetic energy and stresses are impulsively relieved, the current system that supports the stretched out magnetic tail is diverted into the ionosphere, and bright, dynamic displays of the aurora appear in the upper atmosphere. The expansion and subsequent rec- ery phases result from a second magnetic reconnection event that decouples the solar-wind and geomagnetic elds.

Navigation in Space by X-ray Pulsars will consist of two parts. One is on modeling of X-ray pulsar signals. The second part explains how X-ray pulsar signals can be used to solve the relative navigation problem. This book formulates the problem, proposes a recursive solution, and analyzes different aspects of the navigation system. This book will be a comprehensive source for researchers. It provides new research results on signal processing techniques needed for X-ray pulsar based navigation in deep space.

Over the last few decades, both the aeronautics and space disciplines have greatly influenced advances in controls, sensors, data fusion and navigation. Many of those achievements that made the word "aerospace" synonymous with "high-tech" were enabled by innovations in guidance, navigation and control.

Europe has seen a strong trans-national consolidation process in aerospace over the last few decades. Most of the visible products, like commercial aircraft, fighters, helicopters, satellites, launchers or missiles, are not made by a single country - they are the fruits of cooperation. No European country by itself hosts a specialized guidance, navigation and controls community large enough to cover the whole spectrum of disciplines. However, on a European scale, mutual exchange of ideas, concepts and solutions is enriching for all. The 1st CEAS Specialist Conference on Guidance, Navigation and Control is an attempt to bring this community together.

This book is a selection of papers presented at the conference. All submitted papers have gone through a formal review process in compliance with good journal practices. The best papers have been recommended by the reviewers to be published in this book."

Much has been written about Neil Armstrong, America's modern hero and history's most famous space traveler. Yet shy of fame and never one to steal the spotlight Armstrong was always reluctant to discuss his personal side of events. Here for the first time is the story of Neil's life of flight, shared for five decades with his trusted friend Jay Barbree. Working from 50 years of conversations he had with Neil, from notes, interviews, NASA spaceflight transcripts, and remembrances of those Armstrong trusted, Barbree writes about Neil's three passions: flight, family, and friends. This is the inside story of Neil Armstrong from the time he flew combat missions in the Korean War, to when he flew Apollo-Eleven to the moon's Sea of Tranquility. Together Neil and Jay discussed everything, from his love of flying, to the war years, and of course his time in space. The book is full of never-before-seen photos and personal details written down for the first time, including what Armstrong really felt when he took that first step on the moon, what life in NASA was like, and what he felt the future of space exploration should be. As the only reporter to have covered all 166 American astronaut flights and moon landings Jay knows these events intimately. Through his friendship with Neil and his dedicated research, Barbree brings us the most accurate account of his friend's life of flight, the book he planned for twenty years.

Franz Georg Hey summarises the development and testing of a micro-Newton thrust balance, as well as the downscaling of a High Efficiency Multistage Plasma Thruster to micro-Newton thrust levels. The balance is tailored to fully characterise thruster candidates for the space based gravitational wave detector LISA. Thus, thrust noise measurements in sub-micro-Newton regime can be performed in the overall LISA bandwidth. The downscaled thruster can be operated down to serval tens of micro-Newton with a comparably high specific impulse. About the Author Franz Georg Hey works as mechanical, thermal, propulsion architect and technical lead of the micro-Newton propulsion laboratory of Europe's leading air and spacecraft manufacturer. The author is participating on major programmes for future satellite and electric propulsion development. The author's research is performed in close collaboration with the Dresden University of Technology, the University of Bremen and the DLR Bremen.

Comets consist of the most primitive material in the solar system and to understand the earliest epoch of solar system formation, we must investigate the nature of this material. Much of what we know of comets presently comes from remote sensing using Earth-based telescopes. The Rosetta mission is poised to make a dramatic advance in our understanding of comets.