Les Johnson is a NASA physicist and author. By day, he serves as the senior technical assistant for the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. In the early 2000s, he was NASA's manager for interstellar propulsion research and later managed the In-Space Propulsion Technology Project. He is the author of Rescue Mode, coauthored with Ben Bova, as well as Back to the Moon and On to the Asteroid, both coauthored with Travis S. Taylor.

Travis S. Taylor is the cocreator and star of the National Geographic Channel's hit series Rocket City Rednecks. Taylor is a physicist who has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past twenty 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. His books include the Tau Ceti Agenda series and the Warp Speed series.