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/
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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
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https://youtu.be/vZhDbzdqAWQ
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