EDITORIAL INFORMATION

A scientific mission needs a team of well motivated researchers. They will have to defend their project for it to be accepted; they'll fight for the right to send some kilos of experiments to space; they'll build some instruments of a remarkable precision besides verifying that they are adequate to function in space; they'll wait for launching time while praying that the object of such commitment won't end up in the ocean depths; and they will have to wait perhaps for several years before they get to know the results of their experiments. Why then such an effort? Just for the sake of getting to learn something more about the Universe.

(Extracted from the introduction).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Table des Matières.

-Un Choix de Misions Propices Aux Découvertes.

-Première Partie. Le Solei et sa Familie.

-L'Exploration du Système Solaire: Aperçu Général.
-Ulysse: Survoi des Pôles du Solei.
-SOHO: Comprendre les Humeurs du Solei.
-Cluster: Des Brèches dans l'Écran qui Protège la Terre.
-Huygens: Le Plus Étrange des Mondes.
-Rosetta: Valse avec une Comète.

-Deuxième Partie. L'Univers Vu de l'Espace.

-Les Télescopes en Orbite: Aperçu Général.
-IUE: Un Vieux Routier de l'Ultraviolet.
-Hipparcos: L'Aspect du Ciel.
-Hubble: Le Transparence de l'Espace-Temps.
-ISO: L'Astronomie au Froi dans l'Infrarouge.
-XMM: Un Appétit Dévorant Pour les Rayons X.
-Intégral: Le Rayonnement Gamma d'une Nature Déchaînée.
-FIRST: L'Univers Moléculaire.

-Troisième Partie. Des Tâches Difficiles Pour le Siècle à Venir: Aperçu Général.

OUR REVIEW

In a nice book full of color, graphics and good photographs, ESA Publications Division offers us a well compiled collection of information about its current scientific missions. Every one of them has its own space within a highly divulgative, easy to read text. The probes, Ulysses, Huygens and Rosetta, as well as the satellites, IUE, Hipparcos, ISO, XMM, Integral, Hubble, FIRST and Cluster, receive due attention on the part of the author, who in a few pages writes us about their aspect, mission, and occasionally, their achievements as well. Most of its contents, therefore, belong to the missions of the European Space Agency program Horizon 2000.

The present edition has also been translated into other languages, like for example, into English. Thus the ESA keeps up with its policy of maximum information given to the general public about its projects, which depend on the countries integrating the agency, very often having rather different aspirations and priorities.

Nigel Calder is a well known British science writer. His experience leads us into the current research being done by ESA and allows us to have a look at its projects for the next century.