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A Conversation with Les Johnson
Catching up with Les Johnson, former Chief Technology Officer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and veteran space technologist with a forty year career in aerospace, as he digs into the real engineering behind interplanetary travel, solar sails, nuclear rockets, and the future of humanity in space. From leading advanced propulsion programs at NASA to writing both hard science and science fiction, Les brings a rare mix of technical depth and big picture perspective.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Les went from a 12 year old kid dreaming of NASA to Chief Technology Officer at Marshall Space Flight Center
• How solar sails and nuclear thermal rockets really work – and why they may be key to deep space and Mars missions
• What makes sustaining life on Mars so difficult, especially when it comes to radiation and long term survival
• How Les thinks about existential risks like AI, nuclear war, and quantum computing as “slow catastrophes” rather than movie style disasters
• Why he’s skeptical we must have a single “theory of everything” and how his liberal arts background helps him explain complex physics to everyday people
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By Michael PeresCatching up with Les Johnson, former Chief Technology Officer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and veteran space technologist with a forty year career in aerospace, as he digs into the real engineering behind interplanetary travel, solar sails, nuclear rockets, and the future of humanity in space. From leading advanced propulsion programs at NASA to writing both hard science and science fiction, Les brings a rare mix of technical depth and big picture perspective.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How Les went from a 12 year old kid dreaming of NASA to Chief Technology Officer at Marshall Space Flight Center
• How solar sails and nuclear thermal rockets really work – and why they may be key to deep space and Mars missions
• What makes sustaining life on Mars so difficult, especially when it comes to radiation and long term survival
• How Les thinks about existential risks like AI, nuclear war, and quantum computing as “slow catastrophes” rather than movie style disasters
• Why he’s skeptical we must have a single “theory of everything” and how his liberal arts background helps him explain complex physics to everyday people