Interstellar Travel

After Arrival

1st Edition - June 1, 2025
Editors: Les Johnson, Kenneth Roy
Language: English
Paperback ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 9 1 6 3 7 - 0
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 9 1 6 3 8 - 7

Interstellar Travel: After Arrival is a comprehensive, technical look at the necessary considerations for settlement on an extra solar planet following interstellar travel, addres… Read more

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Interstellar Travel: After Arrival is a comprehensive, technical look at the necessary considerations for settlement on an extra solar planet following interstellar travel, addressed by leading experts in the fields of space development. The book features the current and future plans for lunar, Mars, and asteroid settlement, and how what we learn from such future endeavors might apply to settlement at destinations around other stars. In addition, scientists who have been considering the construction of large space structures and terraforming discuss realistic options to be considered.

Other chapters cover necessary considerations such as whether terraforming is possible and how it might be accomplished, the ethical issues and scientific constraints to interacting with an alien biosphere, and what we might learn from settling within our own Solar System that would apply to settling elsewhere. The third book of a three-book compilation, this new release presents up-to-date and realistic technical and scientific considerations of the challenges that settling on an exoplanet would bring, including review of the current technological capabilities and how they might be put towards life on an extra solar planet.

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 flight demonstration of advanced space technology systems including solar sails, power systems, and most recently, space based solar power. 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). Les is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the British Interplanetary Society, the National Space Society, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and MENSA – and is the Program Chair of the Interstellar Research Group.

Affiliations and expertise

Physicist and NASA Technologist, NASA Science and Tech Office,George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, The Interstellar Research Group, Oak Ridge, USA

Kenneth Roy

Kenneth Roy is a newly retired professional engineer. His professional career involved working for various Department of Energy (DOE) contractors in the fields of Fire Protection and Nuclear Safety. As a long-time research interest, Kenneth has been working with the idea of terraforming. He invented the “Shell Worlds” concept as a way to terraform planets and large moons well outside a star’s Goldilocks’ zone and under stars that have a radically different spectrum from our Sun. This was published in the January 2009 Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS). Kenneth has published multiple papers on terraforming and space colonization that have appeared in leading journals and has written chapters that have appeared in several space related books. Kenneth is a founding member of the non-profit corporation Interstellar Research Group (formerly the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop) and remains active in the organization.

Affiliations and expertise

Formerly Founding member and Engineer, Tennessee Valley, The Interstellar Research Group, Oak Ridge, USA

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