| Foreword | p. xi |
| Acknowledgments | p. xiii |
| Introduction: Citizens of the Cosmos | p. 1 |
| Further Reading | p. 5 |
| The Old Frontier | p. 9 |
| Paleolithic Migrations | p. 10 |
| Neolithic and Bronze Age Migrants | p. 11 |
| Historical Migrations | p. 12 |
| Further Reading | p. 15 |
| The New Frontier | p. 17 |
| The Moon as a Habitat | p. 18 |
| Living Among the Near-Earth Objects | p. 20 |
| The Lure of Mars | p. 22 |
| Settling the Outer Solar System | p. 24 |
| Interstellar Environments | p. 25 |
| Further Reading | p. 26 |
| The Rocket and Its Limits | p. 29 |
| Rocket Fundamentals | p. 33 |
| Rocket Varieties | p. 36 |
| Electric Rockets | p. 36 |
| Nuclear-Thermal and Solar-Thermal Rockets | p. 37 |
| Rocket Futures | p. 38 |
| Further Reading | p. 38 |
| The First "Green" Space Technologies | p. 41 |
| Aeroassisted Atmospheric Reentry | p. 42 |
| Planetary Gravity Assists | p. 44 |
| Further Reading | p. 47 |
| Probes to the Planets: Where We've Been on Our Journey | p. 51 |
| Robots to the Moon! | p. 52 |
| The Lure of Our Sister Planet | p. 54 |
| Blistering Mercury | p. 55 |
| Tantalizing Mars | p. 56 |
| Distant Giants | p. 60 |
| Small Worlds | p. 63 |
| Further Reading | p. 65 |
| Probes to the Stars: Concept Studies | p. 67 |
| Interstellar H-Bombs | p. 69 |
| A Sanitized Orion | p. 70 |
| Some Wonderful Improbabilities | p. 72 |
| TAU: NASA's First Interstellar Probe Study | p. 73 |
| Star Sailing | p. 74 |
| Further Reading | p. 77 |
| Breaking Out Into Space: Visionary Futures | p. 79 |
| Cylinder Cities | p. 81 |
| Power for the Earth | p. 83 |
| Beyond the Space Cylinders | p. 85 |
| Life in the Space Cities | p. 86 |
| Further Reading | p. 88 |
| Thinking Interstellar | p. 91 |
| Earthly and Understandable Units of Measure | p. 92 |
| Distance in the Solar System and Beyond | p. 93 |
| NASA's Interstellar Initiative and the Interstellar Probe Mission | p. 96 |
| Further Reading | p. 102 |
| Technological Readiness | p. 105 |
| Technology Readiness Levels | p. 107 |
| Basic Principles Observed and Reported | p. 107 |
| Basic Principles Observed and Reported | p. 108 |
| Analytical and Experimental Critical Function and/or Characteristic Proof of Concept | p. 109 |
| Component and/or Breadboard Validation in a Laboratory Environment | p. 110 |
| Component and/or Breadboard Validation in a Relevant Environment | p. 111 |
| System or Subsystem Model or Prototype Demonstration in a Relevant Environment (Ground or Space) | p. 112 |
| System Prototype Demonstration in a Space Environment | p. 115 |
| Actual System Completed and "Flight Qualified" Through Test and Demonstration (Ground or Space) | p. 116 |
| Conclusion | p. 116 |
| Further Reading | p. 116 |
| Space Brakes ("Living Off the Land" by Using a Planetary Atmosphere) | p. 119 |
| Aeroentry | p. 120 |
| Aerobraking | p. 121 |
| Aerocapture | p. 123 |
| Aerocapture Application to Solar-System Resource Surveys | p. 126 |
| Some Aerocapture Issues | p. 127 |
| Aerogravity Assist | p. 128 |
| Further Reading | p. 128 |
| The Ion Trail | p. 131 |
| Ion Drive History | p. 132 |
| Electric-Propulsion Fundamentals | p. 133 |
| Initial Interplanetary Application of Ion Propulsion | p. 135 |
| Possible Ion Propulsion Technology Application to Solar-System Development | p. 137 |
| Further Reading | p. 138 |
| The Orbital Steam Locomotive | p. 141 |
| Solar-Thermal Rocket Fundamentals | p. 142 |
| Near-Term Application of Solar-Thermal Rockets | p. 144 |
| Possible Application of Solar-Thermal Technology to Solar-System Development | p. 146 |
| Further Reading | p. 146 |
| Sky Clippers | p. 149 |
| Photon Sailing History | p. 150 |
| Solar Sailing Fundamentals | p. 151 |
| Current Sail Technology | p. 153 |
| Missions for Near-Term Solar Photon Sails | p. 156 |
| Near-Future Solar-Sail Development Possibilities | p. 158 |
| Solar-Photon Sails and Space Development | p. 159 |
| Further Reading | p. 159 |
| Art or Science? | p. 161 |
| The Message Plaques | p. 162 |
| The Pioneer Plaques | p. 162 |
| The Voyager Plaques | p. 164 |
| A Future Message Plaque Possibility: Holography | p. 165 |
| Further Reading | p. 167 |
| Space Beanstalks | p. 169 |
| Electrodynamic Tethers: Tapping a Planet's Magnetic Field for Power and Propulsion | p. 170 |
| Tethers for Propulsion and Power at Jupiter | p. 176 |
| Momentum Exchange Electrodynamic Reboost (MXER) Tethers | p. 179 |
| Further Reading | p. 183 |
| Chemical Propulsion for Space Exploration: Good for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow | p. 185 |
| The Moon: A Refueling Depot for Deep-Space Exploration | p. 187 |
| Mars: The Red Planet May Provide Fuel for Round Trip Travel to Earth | p. 188 |
| Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune: Our Next Stops | p. 189 |
| Asteroids and Comets: Abundant and Dispersed Gas Stations | p. 190 |
| Human Exploration | p. 193 |
| Aerocapture | p. 195 |
| Solar-Electric Propulsion | p. 196 |
| Solar-Thermal Propulsion | p. 197 |
| Solar Sails | p. 199 |
| Space Tethers | p. 200 |
| Defending the Earth | p. 203 |
| Nuclear Impact-Threat Mitigation | p. 205 |
| Using Space Resources to Mitigate the Threat | p. 206 |
| Further Reading | p. 208 |
| Space Miners | p. 211 |
| Possible Near-Earth Resource Locations | p. 212 |
| Preliminary Exploration | p. 215 |
| Mining the Atens | p. 215 |
| Tapping More Distant Space Mines | p. 217 |
| Further Reading | p. 217 |
| Some Exotic Possibilities | p. 219 |
| Plasma Sails | p. 220 |
| Magnetic Propulsion | p. 222 |
| Antimatter Propulsion | p. 222 |
| Breakthrough Propulsion Physics | p. 225 |
| Replacing the Rocket: Antigravity | p. 226 |
| Replacing the Rocket: Thrust Machines | p. 226 |
| Tapping ZPE and Getting Something for Nothing | p. 227 |
| Hyperspace Shortcuts | p. 227 |
| Instant Earths | p. 228 |
| The Red-Eye Special | p. 229 |
| Further Reading | p. 229 |
| Sights on Centaurus | p. 233 |
| The First Starships | p. 234 |
| The Slow Boat to the Stars | p. 235 |
| Fast Ships | p. 237 |
| Spreading Through the Galaxy | p. 238 |
| Further Reading | p. 239 |
| Afterword | p. 241 |
| Index | p. 243 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
