Mission To Methone

Written by Les Johnson

Narrated by Robert Rossmann

The year is 2065 and an accidental encounter in space leads to the discovery that we are not alone in the universe-and that our continued existence as a species may be in jeopardy.

Chris Holt, working in his office at the Space Resources Corporation, discovers that one of the asteroids he is surveying for mining is actually not an asteroid at all but a derelict spaceship. The word gets out and soon the world's powers are competing to explore and claim for themselves the secrets that it holds.

What they don't know is that across the galaxy, a war has been underway for millennia. A war between alien civilizations that have very different ideas about what should be done about emerging spacefaring civilizations like our own. The artificial intelligence resident in the derelict Holt discovered has been in our solar system since before the dawn of human civilization, watching, waiting and keeping quiet lest the interstellar war return and wipe out the sentient race that now resides there-humanity.

And that war might soon be again coming to our front door. The truth can only be discovered on Methone, a tiny, egg-shaped moon of the planet Saturn. Who will get there first? And will it be in time?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jan 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781977365590

Les Johnson

Les Johnson is a physicist and NASA technologist at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center where he is the Principal Investigator for two NASA missions: Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (to launch in 2021) and Solar Cruiser. He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, National Space Society, The British Interplanetary Society, and MENSA. While at NASA, Les managed the Interstellar Propulsion Research Project, the $200M In-Space Propulsion Technology Program, and the NASA MSFC Science Programs & Projects Office. He was the co-investigator on the Japanese-led T-Rex space tether experiment that flew in August 2010, the Principal Investigator for the NASA ProSEDS space experiment, received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal three times, and holds 3 space technology patents. His book, Solar Sails, a Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel was favorably reviewed in the journal Nature (10 April 2008). Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World also appeared in Nature (25 January 2018) and was excerpted in American Scientist (May-June 2018).