Solar Sails: Traveling the Solar System (and Beyond!) with Sunlight. Seminar: Sept. 28
Les Johnson - Near-Earth Asteroid Scout Solar Sail Mission Principal Investigator NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 | DLC | 12:00 P.M.
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Les Johnson is a physicist, an author, and the Principal Investigator for the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout solar sail mission at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He was the NASA co-investigator on the European Union’s InflateSail solar sail mission and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s T-Rex tether mission.
During his career at NASA, Les served as the Manager for the Space Science Programs and Projects Office, the In-Space Propulsion Technology Program, and the Interstellar Propulsion Research Project. He thrice received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement Medal and has 3 patents.
Les is an author of several popular science books including “Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel” [featured in Nature, April 2008] and his latest, “Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World” [reviewed in Nature January 2018].
He is also a science fiction writer; his fourth novel, “Mission to Methone,” was published in February 2018 by Baen Books.