“I didn’t think about the dangers before going into space, but now I realize how hazardous it is!”

–Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, first person to walk in space

With the opening of the International Space Station at the start of this century and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic company planning to take people above the Earth’s atmosphere next year, widespread space travel will soon leave the realm of science fiction.

Tourist trips to the Moon, asteroids, comets, Mars, and beyond are likely to become available in the next fifty years. But space isn’t Cancún. Travelers will live life on a razor’s edge, faced with potential disasters, from the thunderous liftoff to the unpredictable volcanic eruptions on Io, Jupiter’s most spectacular moon; from the high-speed impact of pebble-sized micrometeorites to the crumbling of a comet’s surface beneath your feet.

Now renowned physicist and astronomer Neil F. Comins, Ph.D., has written a hands-on guide to outer space for potential tourists and armchair travelers. Bringing to life the hard science are the fictional log entries of an imaginary colleague from the future, astronaut Mack Richardson. Together they reveal the risks and challenges that await tourists in the days they would spend orbiting the Earth, the weeks required for a trip to the Moon, and the years needed to go anywhere else in the solar system. Space is the new frontier of extreme adventuring, and The Hazards of Space Travel is a fun, fascinating, and informative guide to your own imminent space odyssey when the sky’s no longer the limit.