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

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/universetoday00:00 - Intro01:01 - Meet Les Johnson02:19 - Working at NASA and being a science fiction writer at the same time06:50 - Solar sails proplusion10:29 - Flying towards the Sun with solar sails14:32 - Near-Earth Asteroid Scout mission flying on the SLS21:07 - Why so few solar sails are used now27:07 - What's the future of solar sails39:07 - Methods of interstellar exploration53:02 - Role of science fiction in modern space exploration01:00:10 - Outro📺 VIDEO VERSIONhttps://youtu.be/vZhDbzdqAWQ📰 EMAIL NEWSLETTERRead by 55,000 people every Friday. Written by Fraser. No ads.Subscribe. It's FREE: https://universetoday.com/newsletter🎧 PODCASTSUniverse Today: https://universetoday.fireside.fm/Weekly Space Hangout: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/Astronomy Cast: http://www.astronomycast.com/🤳 OTHER SOCIAL MEDIATwitter: https://twitter.com/fcainTwitter: https://twitter.com/universetodayFacebook: https://facebook.com/universetodayInstagram: https://instagram.com/universetoday📩 CONTACT [email protected]⚖️ LICENSECreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)Support Universe Today Podcast