AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Reaching towards the stars9/3/2023 ![]() “Les Johnson is that rare breed of writer who can make rocket science comprehensible even to the layperson. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the ultimate destiny of humanity, to be among the stars.”-Michio Kaku, author of the bestseller The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything From ion rockets and solar sails to fusion engines and even warp drive, Johnson pushes the boundaries of where physics ends and our imagination begins. You will never see the night sky in the same way again. ![]() “Les Johnson takes us on a delightful, fascinating, and mind-bending journey to the stars. He takes us on a fantasy interstellar voyage-and teaches us a lot of physics and engineering along the way.”-Martin Rees, author of On the Future: Prospects for Humanity “Les Johnson has written a fascinating book. It’s a flight of imagination backed up with real out-of-this-world science.”-Bill Nye, CEO of the Planetary Society But then he describes with wonderful detail the Starshot nanocrafts, chipsats, Starwisps, worldships, and metamaterial LightSails that we might use. “We effortlessly travel round and round our sun, and we wonder: How hard would it be, really, to travel to another star? Les Johnson shows us the rocket science we’d need that’s easy enough. ![]() "You’d be hard pressed to find a better choice than a book covering what it would take to get man to another star system, written by one of the world’s leading scientists actively working to turn science fiction into science fact."-Sean CW Korsgaard, Analog "The end result is a satisfying read."-Sean Blair, BBC Sky at Night ![]() But what will power their vessels? The author entertainingly describes sci-fi options such as warp drives and hyperspace, as well as potentially feasible ones such as antimatter drives, and definitely possible methods such as ion drives, solar sails and nuclear-pulse propulsion, the last involving dropping a continuous series of nukes out the back of your spacecraft and riding the blast waves."- Wall Street Journal Johnson explains, have therefore imagined multigenerational “worldships”. The nearest, Proxima Centauri, would take many millennia to reach. are notoriously far away, as the physicist and NASA technologist Les Johnson vividly emphasizes. Whether we get there by solar sails or ion thrusters or nuclear bombs, the advances we make in pursuit of interstellar travel will likely also change the way we live on Earth."-Fionna M. "What will it take to explore a distant star within 100 years? To illuminate the momentousness (and ethics) of sending humans light-years from home, NASA scientist Les Johnson helps us digest mind-boggling numbers-the distance between stars, the energy required to travel that far-while laying out the opportunities and limits of existing technologies. Johnson describes the harsh and forbidding expanse of space that awaits us, and he addresses the daunting challenges-both human and technological-that we will need to overcome in order to realize tomorrow’s possibilities.Ī Traveler’s Guide to the Stars is your passport to the next great frontier of human discovery, providing a rare inside look at the remarkable breakthroughs in science and technology that will help tomorrow’s space travelers chart a course for the stars. But interstellar travel will not be easy, and it is not for the faint of heart. He discusses the latest exoplanet discoveries, promising interstellar missions on the not-so-distant horizon, and exciting new developments in space propulsion, power, robotics, communications, and more. Les Johnson takes you on a thrilling tour of the physics and technologies that may enable us to reach the stars. A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars reveals how. With known exoplanets now numbering in the thousands and initiatives like 100 Year Starship and Breakthrough Starshot advancing the idea of interstellar travel, the age-old dream of venturing forth into the cosmos and perhaps even colonizing distant worlds may one day become a reality.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |