page_title: Geoffrey A. Landis
section_title: NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
hierarchical_section_title: Geoffrey A. Landis / Career / NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
caption_attribution_description: English: The "Zephyr" landsailing rover, a concept for a wind-propelled rover on the surface of Venus. Image from NASA John Glenn Research Center, for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts ("NIAC") project.
context_page_description: Geoffrey Alan Landis is an American aerospace engineer and author, working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on planetary exploration, interstellar propulsion, solar power and photovoltaics. He holds nine patents, primarily in the field of improvements to solar cells and photovoltaic devices and has given presentations and commentary on the possibilities for interstellar travel and construction of bases on the Moon, Mars, and Venus.
  Supported by his scientific background Landis also writes hard science fiction.
  For these writings he has won a Nebula Award, two Hugo Awards, and a Locus Award, as well as two Rhysling Awards for his poetry. He contributes science articles to various academic publications.
context_section_description: Landis was a fellow of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts ("NIAC"), where he worked on a project investigating the use of laser- and particle-beam pushed sails for propulsion for interstellar flight. In 2002 Landis addressed the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the possibilities and challenges of interstellar travel in what was described as the "first serious discussion of how mankind will one day set sail to the nearest star". Dr. Landis said, "This is the first meeting to really consider interstellar travel by humans. It is historic. We're going to the stars. There really isn't a choice in the long term." He went on to describe a star ship with a diamond sail, a few nanometres thick, powered by solar energy, which could achieve "10 per cent of the speed of light".
  He was selected again as a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow in 2012, with feasibility concept of a landsailing rover for Venus exploration, called Venus Landsailing Rover, and in 2015 was the science lead on a NIAC study to design a mission to Neptune's moon Triton.
  In 2017, Landis's work was the subject of the book Land-Sailing Venus Rover With NASA Inventor Geoffrey Landis, published by World Book as part of their "Out of This World" book series for ages 10–14+.
caption: The Zephyr landsailing rover, a concept for a wind-propelled rover on the surface of Venus.  Image from NASA John Glenn Research Center, for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts ("NIAC") project.
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