Before a spacecraft encounters its target star, it must pass through our solar system and cross the vast extent of interstellar space. At a few hundred au from Sun, the spacecraft will cross the edge of the heliosphere, where the interstellar medium (ISM) begins to dominate the solar wind emitted by the Sun. The ISM is not empty, and the spacecraft will encounter gas and dust particles at high speeds. We examine the impact of such particles on the spacecraft, quantify the damage they would make, and look at mitigating actions. We also see how the concept of the Bussard ramjet could, in principle, exploit the ISM particles as a source of fuel and propellant. When arriving at its target star, the spacecraft can study its heliosphere, and look for analogues to the minor bodies in our own solar system.

This chapter investigates how organisations navigate decision-making in environments saturated with hype. Building on the ‘used apple policy’ dilemma, it shows how uncertainty forces decision-makers to act without reliable metrics, compelling reliance on promissory narratives and emerging evaluative tools. The chapter situates hype at the centre of organisational strategy, not as noise but as a resource that structures attention and action. It highlights the paradox of decision-making under conditions where hype is simultaneously misleading and necessary. The analysis reveals how evaluative infrastructures – rankings, categories, and analyst frameworks – provide provisional anchors that enable managers to commit resources despite incomplete knowledge. By tracing how hype generates urgency and compels action, the chapter underscores the centrality of hype to contemporary capitalism and introduces the ‘business of hype’ – a growing industry dedicated to producing, evaluating, and monetising promissory products.

Even though an interstellar spacecraft would spend most of its time away from the gravity of stars and planets, knowledge of orbital mechanics is important if a spacecraft is to make a rendezvous. In this chapter we examine the essentials of orbits as well as orbital manoeuvres, in particular the Hohmann transfer orbit. We will see that the efficiency of a rocket impulse depends on where in an orbit it is performed, something known as the Oberth effect. Finally, we examine how spacecraft can accelerate or decelerate in a star system using gravity assists around planets.

Health financing is a key component of any health system, but its role is more complex than simply raising and spending money on health. It is a crucial determinant of the overall performance of the health system, defining, among other things, how much money is available to be spent on health and who pays for it, who gets to benefit fromthose financial resources, what services that money can purchase and who ultimately receives resources from the health system as income. Without careful attention to the way health financing systems are designed, incentives for providers or patients can bemisaligned with policy goals, leading to poor health outcomes, financial hardship for users of health care, wasted resources, failure to address inequalities and disruption of countries’ progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) (Box 0.2.1).

This chapter explores how industry analysts construct categories to order the complex and dynamic field of digital innovation. Categories, presented through visual and textual devices, enable clients to make sense of the ‘sea of hype’ and discern promising technologies from transient fashions. The analysis shows how categories are built around client concerns, foregrounding usability, business value, and strategic alignment rather than technical novelty alone. These categories are not static: some endure, while others quickly vanish, reflecting the contested and provisional nature of market ordering. The chapter situates category work as a form of hype work, showing how categories create ‘protected spaces’ that foster emerging innovations. By tracing the visual, rhetorical, and evaluative processes involved, it demonstrates that categories are central promissory products that tame hype, constituting innovation arenas where futures are selectively legitimised and market order is continually renegotiated.

In a chemical rocket, the kinetic energy of the propellant is obtained from chemical bonds by burning the fuel. The available energy per unit mass is limited to about 10 MJ/kg, which limits the effective exhaust velocity to about 4.5 km/s. Nuclear reactions, on the other hand, can release the much larger binding energy between nucleons, of order 10^8 MJ/kg, implying effective exhaust velocities of around 0.05 c. In this chapter we look at the basics of nuclear fission and fusion, including reactors and the optimal reactions for propulsion. We then examine the various ways in which these can be used to propel a rocket, which includes both sustained reactions and miniature explosions. Although nuclear-propelled rockets have not been used in space (as far as we know), there has been quite some research and development. We will also look at the principles of antimatter propulsion and see what effective exhaust velocity this could achieve.

This chapter is about the global epistemological politics of religion illustrated through a study of the transnational history of Pakistan and Israel. It argues that the entangled nature of these state-building ventures contributed to the circulation of particular understandings of ‘religion’ and its relation to the state, that this structured the minority politics of the British Indian Muslims and the Palestinian Jews, and that it both limited and enabled the claims to the nations and states that came to replace them. The case study focuses on two key individuals in the history of the Indian and Palestine partition and the Pakistani and Israeli independence that followed: Reginald Coupland and Muhammad Zafarullah Khan. It asks how they, the institutions they represented, and the ideas they carried, circulated, and influenced changed over the final decade before independence. It shows how claims for the recognition of religion in international relations are not separate from these forms of colonial epistemological politics but are intimately connected to them.

Chapter 3.9 Explains how payment mechanisms should respond to the notion of antibiotics as global public goods. Global public goods are goods and services whose benefits are universal in scope. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a major health and economic threat world-wide, making novel antibiotics a global public good. Payment mechanisms have an important part to play in encouraging crucial research and development (R&D). Key learning includes that

• The antibiotics market is broken. Despite global concerns about the failure of current antibiotics, industry struggles to develop the innovative drugs needed.

• The pharmaceuticals market is patent-centric and does not incentivize innovation. The development pipeline is dominated by redeveloped versions of classic compounds than to developing novel antibiotics.

• National and global incentive programmes are crucial in making the antibiotics market attractive to industry and in prompting the development of innovative, high-priority antibacterial drugs.

• Incentives must address barriers at different stages of the value chain, including the:

• – Scientific stage, for example by splitting the roles of the public and private sector in R&D

• – Regulatory stage, by speeding up approval processes and harmonizing approaches across countries, and

• – Economic stage, countering low commercial rewards compared to other therapeutic areas

• Drug regulatory agencies must strike a balance between rapid approval and ensuring that licensed drugs meet quality, safety, and efficacy standards.

• International coordination is key to reviving the antibiotics market and development pipeline.

Chapter 1.2 assesses community-based health insurance. Community-based health insurance (CBHI) is a voluntary, self-organized approach to financing health care for groups of individuals in the absence of other forms of health care coverage. CBHI scheme members organize themselves; collect and pool their insurance premiums; and use them to purchase health services for members. Key learning includes that

• CBHI is not a miracle solution to affordable access to health care.

• – The very poor often do not enroll, and when they do they tend to use fewer health services.

• – Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments are not necessarily reduced.

• Low uptake, poor delivery of promised benefits and challenges around governance undermine the impact of CBHI.

• CBHI does not overcome broader issues such as a lack of financial resources.

• CBHI might serve as a transitionary mechanism towards UHC and offer some financial protection for the most vulnerable provided that

• – Policy-makers create a supportive political and economic environment

• – Social capital can be mobilized

• – Schemes are institutionalized within the health sector.