For thousands of years, humanity has explored the Solar System by observing with the naked eye. Only for the last few hundred years since the advent of the telescope have we been able to get a closer view of some of our nearer neighbours.

But it is only in the last 60 years that our knowledge of the Solar System has been revolutionized by the advent of the space age. By visiting many of the most interesting objects in the Solar System, coupled with amazing technical developments in our instrumentation, our understanding of the Solar System has been transformed.

I will cover some of the most interesting and unexpected results of the space era study of the Solar System, including some of the missions with which I have been involved.