NEW STORIES AND ESSAYS FROM TOP AUTHORS AND EXPERT SCIENTISTS. Explorations of how interstellar travel may affect humanity by best-selling authors and scientists. BECOMING THE PEOPLE OF THE STARS Fundamental transformation. That is what it may take to reach our final destination. And we may not have a choice as dangers from without and pressure from within human civilization force us to adapt to a new star-traveling heritage. We may find that Homo sapiens is on its way to becoming a new and unique species. Homo stellaris: people of the stars. A BOUNDLESS SENSE OF WHAT’S POSSIBLE Inspired by a gathering of scientists, science fiction authors, and futurists at a series of annual meetings held by the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop, here are original science fiction stories and accessible speculative pieces by top scientists that will take you to that future! Stories from award-winning authors such as Kevin J. Anderson, William Ledbetter, Todd McCaffrey, and Sarah A. Hoyt. Plus essays on the science behind the fiction from Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom, Mark Shelhamer, Chief Scientist for NASA’s Human Research Program, and more! About Stellaris: People of the Stars: [A] thought-provoking look at a selection of real-world challenges and speculative fiction solutions. . . . Readers will enjoy this collection that is as educational as it is entertaining."— Bookist About Mission to Methone by Les Johnson : "The spirit of Arthur C. Clarke and his contemporaries is alive and well in Johnson’s old-fashioned first-contact novel, set in 2068.... includes plenty of realistic detail and puts fun new spins on familiar alien concepts.... There’s a great deal here for fans of early hard SF."— Publishers Weekly "With equal parts science fiction and international intrigue....an exciting, fast-paced read that you will not want to put down."— Booklist About Rescue Mode by Ben Bova and Les Johnson: "... a suspenseful and compelling narrative of the first human spaceflight to Mars."— Booklist Robert E. Hampson writes character-driven hard SF where space is messy, unforgiving, and achingly human. His fiction blends medical problem-solving, nuts-and-bolts engineering, and the logistics of living off-Earth—from underground Martian habitats to orbital shipyards—with an eye on plausible technology and the true costs of rescue. By day, he’s a professor of regenerative medicine, neuroscience, neurology, and biomedical engineering. By night, he digs into Mars geography, mission architecture, and bionics research so the science on the page feels lived-in and true. He is the author of The Moon and the Desert and Across an Ocean of Stars . Les Johnson is a futurist, author, and NASA technologist. Publishers Weekly noted that “The spirit of Arthur C. Clarke and his contemporaries is alive and well . . .” when describing his novel, Mission to Methon e. His most recent novels, The Spacetime War and Saving Proxima (with coauthor Travis S. Taylor), were published in 2021. In his day job at NASA, Les is the Chief Technologist at the Marshall Space Flight Center where he leads the center’s development of next-generation space technologies—including solar sails, which he believes will eventually take us to the stars.