A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars

by Les Johnson

A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars is a nonfiction book about interstellar travel by Les Johnson, who works on propulsion technologies at NASA, though not currently on interstellar travel, which remains well beyond the realms of today’s technologies. As he points out, “the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.2 light years away.” Still, who knows what the future will bring? As he also notes, until the early 1990s the only planets we knew were those going around the sun. It’s a nice account of where we are and what the future could hold, though there’s no need to pack your bags yet.