Looking for Life, Searching the Solar System

Paul Clancy is a senior strategic planning manager in the Human Spaceflight Directorate of the European Space Agency, in Paris. Andre Brack is Director of Research Emeritus at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire, Orleans. Gerda Horneck is Head of the Radiation Biology Section, and Deputy Director of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, at the German Aeospace Center.

• Preface; Part I. The Imperative of Exploration: 1. Exploration as a metaphor; Part II. How Can We Know Life?: 2. The molecular basis of life on Earth; 3. The limits to life; 4. The transfer of life between planets; 5. What are the signatures of life?; 6. After the discovery/life as a cosmic phenomenon; Part III. The Search for Life Beyond Earth: 7. The prospects for long-duration human space-flight; 8. Human exploration and the search for life; 9. Interplanetary ethics; Part IV. The Cosmic Biological Imperative: 10. The key technologies for human planetary exploration; 11. Exploration in space; 12. Exploration in time; 13. Prediction, imagination and the role of technology; Part IV. Our Cosmic Destiny: 14. Our cosmic destiny; Appendices; Index.

Review of the hardback: 'The authors of Looking for Life, Searching the Solar System have pooled their expertise to produce an accurate, up-to-date and highly readable survey of the field.' New Scientist