Back to the Moon

A crackling, realistic thriller of intrigue and courage overflowing with cool near-future ideas for a return to the glory days of lunar exploration from the “dream-team” of science fiction writer Travis S. Taylor (also a NASA and DOD consultant) and Les Johnson, Deputy Manager for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA—a man who definitely knows whereof he speaks.

The space race is back on. While NASA stages a fiftieth anniversary return to the Moon, a gritty private company puts together its own moonshot, complete with space tourists in tow. Across the globe, the Chinese are determined to arrive first this time. What’s more, they’ll do whatever it takes to win—including stealing every bit of American technology they can pilfer and hack. But just as politics and spectacle threaten to overshadow real accomplishment yet again, something goes horribly wrong on the lunar surface. Now the front-line troops, the astronauts themselves, must put aside the squabbles of others and take fate into their own hands. For it is time to prove that humans are not merely redundant cogs in a vast “lunar delivery process”–but that exploration and adventure in space is humanity’s destiny.

About Travis S. Taylor
“[E]xplodes with inventive action.—Publishers Weekly on Travis S. Taylor’s The Quantum Connection.

“[Warp Speed] reads like Doc Smith writing Robert Ludlum. . .You won’t want to put it down”—John Ringo

About Les Johnson:
“. . . .Solar Sails. . .convincingly captures the history of. . .solar sails. . .for aerospace students and keen enthusiasts alike.”—Nature

Dr. Travis S. Taylor heads up the cast of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch and can be seen on The Machines that Built America on the History Channel. He has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past thirty-plus years. His expertise includes advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed-energy systems, future combat technologies, and next-generation space launch concepts. Taylor is also the author of pulse-pounding, cutting-edge science fiction novels, including the highly popular One Day on Mars, Tau Ceti Agenda, and the groundbreaking Warp Speed series. He is a regular on the History Channel’s Life After People and The Universe series.

Les Johnson is a futurist, author, and retired NASA Chief Technologist at Marshall Space Flight Center. Publishers Weekly noted that “The spirit of Arthur C. Clarke and his contemporaries is alive and well . . .” when describing his novel, Mission to Methone. His most recent novel, Crisis at Proxima (with coauthor Travis S. Taylor), was published in 2024. He and Travis S. Taylor were also the authors of Back to the Moon and On to the Asteroid. In his day job at NASA, Les has worked on the development of next-generation space technologies—including solar sails, which he believes will eventually take us to the stars. He has recently appeared on Fox News and the Ingraham Report as a commentator on the latest expedition to the moon, Artemis II.