"Governments, companies, and private investors spend billions on astronaut-dependent space travel, but the work is dangerous and unhealthy to human bodies-so that executing missions may simply not be worth the cost. The future will be one of robots, heirs to the Perseverance rover on Mars, equipped with artificial intelligence and capable of autonomous exploration"-- Provided by publisher.

From fireworks to spaceflight --Why explore? -- Organizing space -- Near-earth orbit -- The Moon -- Mars -- Asteroids -- Space colonization -- Costs and prospects of space exploration -- Space law.