Kelvin Long was born in Cambridge, England. He holds a Bachelors degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Masters degree in Astrophysics, both from Queen Mary College University of London. He has been a college and university teacher and served for several years in the Parachute Regiment Volunteer Reserve of the British Army. He currently works as a physicist in industry. He has published numerous papers and articles on the subject of astrophysics and space exploration and is currently the Assistant Editor of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. He has also contributed to many other publications on interstellar travel. He has appeared on the Austrian Broadcasting Radio Station FM4 as well as in the documentary How to Colonize the Stars produced by Christian Darkin. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a chartered member of the Institute of Physics, a member of The Planetary Society, a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and an associate member of the International Association for Astronomical Artists. He is a Practitioner of the Tau Zero Foundation, which actively promotes and coordinates international research into interstellar flight and within this capacity was the co-founder of an interstellar research initiative called Project Icarus. He is happily married to Gemma and likes to spend his spare time reading and writing science fiction, spacecraft model building, and using his Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

Brings together serious ideas from scientists around the world investigating groundbreaking new technologies for spacecraft propulsion systems

Separates the realistic from the fantastic and makes clear which popular concepts in science fiction are based on unproven physics and which are based on real science

Presents convincing arguments on how we can achieve the seemingly impossible task of sending robotic explorers many millions of miles to distant stars in the next few decades

Includes supplementary material: [...]

Foreword.- Preface.- Chapter 1: Reaching for the Stars.- Chapter 2: The Dream of Flight and the Vision of Tomorrow.- Chapter 3: Fundamental Limitations to Achieving Interstellar Flight.- Chapter 4: Aviation - The Pursuit of Speed, Distance and Height.- Chapter 5: Astronautics - The Development and Science of Rockets.- Chapter 6: Exploring The Solar System and Beyond.- Chapter 7: Exploring Other Star Systems.- Chapter 8: Solar System Explorers - Historical Spacecraft.- Chapter 9: Electric and Nuclear-Based Propulsion.- Chapter 10: Sails and Beams.- Chapter 11: Nuclear Fusion Propulsion.- Chapter 12: External Nuclear Pulse Propulsion.- Chapter 13: Towards Relativistic Propulsion - Antimatter and the Interstellar Ramjet.- Chapter 14: Aerospace Design Principles in Interstellar Flight.- Chapter 15: The Scientific, Cultural and Economic Costs of Interstellar Flight.- Chapter 16: The Role of Speculative Fiction in Driving Technology.- Chapter 17: Realizing the Technological Future and The Roadmap To The Stars.- Chapter 18: From Imagination to Reality.- Epilogue.- Appendices.- Index.