The Future And You--May 8, 2013

Les Johnson (author, speaker and NASA administrator) is today's featured guest. Topic: Sky Alert: When Satellites Fail (Les Johnson's latest nonfiction book). Les describes how much we depend on our fragile network of satellites orbiting the earth, how vulnerable they are to various dangers, and how our day-to-day lives would suffer if they were destroyed. Les Johnson serves as the Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He was the technical consultant for the movie Lost in Space. And In his spare time he writes popular science books and articles--for example. In collaboration with C Bangs (an artist) and Greg Matloff (a professor of astronomy) he wrote:Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Earth (2009); Living Off the Land in Space (2007); and with Greg Matloff and Giovanni Vulpetti he wrote Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel (2008). And with Jack McDevitt Going Interstellar (2012). Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the May 8, 2013 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 52 minutes] This interview was recorded using Skype on April 30, 2013.