Les, the author
My first popular science, non-fiction book, Living Off the Land in Space (with co-author Greg Matloff) was published in 2007 and followed by three additional non-fiction books (related to space travel), Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel, Harvesting Space for A Greener Earth, and Sky Alert: When Satellites Fail, all from Springer books.
Travis S. Taylor and I wrote a two novel science fiction series for Baen Books in 2010 - Back to the Moon and On to the Asteroid! Shortly thereafter I co-edited the Going Interstellar anthology with Jack McDevitt and co-authored Rescue Mode with the great Ben Bova (a high point in my life!).
Publisher’s Weekly noted that “The spirit of Arthur C. Clarke and his contemporaries is alive and well…” when describing my 2018 novel, Mission to Methone and, about The Spacetime War (2021), said "Johnson...brings verisimilitude and scientific accuracy to this adventure, and his passion for the details of space travel will undoubtedly please readers..." My 2018 non-fiction book, Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World, with co-author Joe Meany, was reviewed in the journal Nature, excerpted in American Scientist and on Salon.com.
My latest anthologies, Stellaris: People of the Stars, coedited with Robert Hampson, was released by Baen Books in September 2019 and The Ross 248 Project, coedited with Ken Roy, in May 2023.
Travis S. Taylor and I are writing (for Baen Books) a 3-book hard-science, SF series about first contact. The first two books in the series, Saving Proxima and Crisis at Proxima, are available in book, e-book, and audiobook formats and are now busily writing the third book.
Ken and Roy and I edited a new technical monograph series about interstellar travel suitable for college undergraduates and first-year graduate students. All three are published by Elsevier and are now available.
My latest popular science, non-fiction book, A Traveler's Guide to the Stars was published by Princeton University Press in 2022. The book is now available in 7 languages!
Finally, I was honored to be selected to complete the late Ben Bova's Grand Tour series Pluto will be the last entry in the best-selling series. I think Ben would be pleased. I hope his fans are.
Next up for me are Monster Hunter: The Alien Files, with Larry Correia - my first foray into urban fantasy and a to-be-titled non-fiction book about space exploration for Princeton University Press. Stay tuned for details of both!
Les, the media consultant
I was technical consultant for the movies Europa Report and Lost in Space and for the pitching of the upcoming series, Beacon 23. I appeared on the Discovery Channel series, Physics of the Impossible in the “How to Build a Starship” episode and The Need for Speed on Curiosity Stream .I was interviewed for three episodes of the Science Channel series, Exodus Earth, as well as several other television documentaries. I was the featured ‘interstellar explorer’ in the January 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine and appeared again the March 2019 issue for my work on solar sail space propulsion.
Les, the NASA technologist
In my day job, I lead research on various advanced space propulsion technologies at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. During my career at NASA, I served the center's Chief Technology Officer, the Manager for the Space Science Programs and Projects Office, the In-Space Propulsion Technology Program, and the Interstellar Propulsion Research Project.
