What does a NASA scientist thinks about the future of interstellar travel? Find out about the challenges and the realities of travelling beyond our solar system. Buy Les's book 'A Traveller's Guide to the Stars': https://geni.us/fwewWAR Watch the Q&A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYPggcRNEDg The age-old dream of venturing forth into the cosmos and perhaps even colonising distant worlds may one day become a reality. Join Les Johnson as he explores the physics and technologies that may enable us to reach the stars. From the latest exoplanet discoveries to promising interstellar missions on the not-so-distant horizon. In this talk, discover the exciting new developments in cosmic travel, as well as the daunting challenges that we will need to overcome in order to realise tomorrow’s possibilities. Thumbnail image credit: Andrzej Mirecki via Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail#/media/File:IKAROS_solar_sail.jpg Les Johnson is a husband, father, physicist, and author of science fiction / science fact. His latest non-fiction book about the new wonder material, Graphene, was reviewed in Nature, excerpted in American Scientist and Salon.Com. His next novel, Saving Proxima, with co-author Travis Taylor, will be released by Baen Books in hardcover in the summer of 2021. In his "day job" he works in the Science and Technology Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama where he serves as the Solar Sail Principal Investigator for NASA's first interplanetary solar sail mission, the Near Earth Asteroid Scout and the Principal Investigator of the Solar Cruiser mission. -- A very special thank you to our Patreon supporters who help make these videos happen, especially: modsiw, Anton Ragin, Edward Unthank, Robert L Winer, Andy Carpenter, William Hudson Don McLaughlin, efkinel lo, Martin Paull, Ben Wynne-Simmons, Ivo Danihelka, Kevin Winoto, Jonathan Killin, Stephan Giersche, William Billy Robillard, Jeffrey Schweitzer, Frances Dunne, jonas.app, Tim Karr, Alan Latteri, David Crowner, Matt Townsend, THOMAS N TAMADA, Andrew McGhee, Paul Brown, David Schick, Dave Ostler, Osian Gwyn Williams, David Lindo, Roger Baker, Rebecca Pan -- The Ri is on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheRoyalInstitution and Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ri_science Listen to the Ri podcast: https://anchor.fm/ri-science-podcast Our editorial policy: https://www.rigb.org/editing-ri-talks-and-moderating-comments Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter Product links on this page may be affiliate links which means it won't cost you any extra but we may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase through the link.