This is a comprehensive new guide to space systems and exploration in the 21st century. Spanning a broad range of disciplines the reader can find out about all aspects of space, from how we use space to deal with global warming to the latest in space tourism. World experts, from astronauts and astrophysicists to space zoologists, tell us about the different ways we can use space to survive on Earth or create totally new industries. This book, largely written in narrative form, explains how we use space in our lives in ways that continue to expand wider and wider every year. The book is designed so that everyone from high school students to news reporters, from sci-fi fans to space groupies, can acquire a broad-based understanding of all the things that outer space represents to humans today -- and tomorrow. It is unique in its wide, thorough and international approach, with authors drawn from around the world.