An astronomical adventure

摘要

If a publishing house had mentioned to me that it proposed to publish a compendium of 100 essays that covered all of the important topics in space science, totalling nearly 2,000 pages and written by the world's leading space scientists, I would have expressed enthusiasm but great doubt that it could be done. Space scientists are extremely busy people and it would be almost impossible to find an editor with both the prominence and the patience to see such a mammoth project to completion.