Historically, higher education institutions have required students to enroll in at least one discipline in the physical or natural sciences. Now, many schools offer an integrated science course to give students a taste of the natural and physical sciences. These courses are usually survey courses that do not demonstrate the interdependencies among the various science disciplines. Typically in such courses, students are exposed to each of the science disciplines individually. On the other hand, astrobiology, a relatively new science, is intrinsically multidisciplinary requiring the knowledge...

This volume examines the multidisciplinary aspects of a mission to the stars. The feasibility of a journey to the stars in a lifetime of a single human being is quite unlikely. Thus, during the conduct of a one semester course in astrobiology, undergraduate students, and some high school students, were asked to contribute to this volume. The laboratory section for the course within the Honors College of George Mason University was taught in the manner of a problem based learning pedagogy. Not only were science and engineering aspects of a multigenerational starship voyage addressed, but also...