Universe Today Podcast

[Interview] Solar Sail Propulsion: Reality VS Fiction with Les Johnson

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Les Johnson is the Principle Investigator with NASA's upcoming Near-Earth Asteroid Scout mission that will fly on the SLS and test solar sail navigation. But at the same time, he's a science fiction author. So, in this interview, we discussed both these sides of his life.

📖 Les Johnson's Books: https://www.lesjohnsonauthor.com/

🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday

  • 00:00 - Intro
  • 01:01 - Meet Les Johnson
  • 02:19 - Working at NASA and being a science fiction writer at the same time
  • 06:50 - Solar sails proplusion
  • 10:29 - Flying towards the Sun with solar sails
  • 14:32 - Near-Earth Asteroid Scout mission flying on the SLS
  • 21:07 - Why so few solar sails are used now
  • 27:07 - What's the future of solar sails
  • 39:07 - Methods of interstellar exploration
  • 53:02 - Role of science fiction in modern space exploration
  • 01:00:10 - Outro

    • 📺 VIDEO VERSION

    https://youtu.be/vZhDbzdqAWQ

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