This beautifully illustrated pop science book which answers the enduring questions raised by science fiction, such as Do hoverboards really exist? , How can you bring a dinosaur back to life? and Can we really travel in time and space?

Packed with stunning images, including 75 illustrations created exclusively for this book, Blueprint for a Battlestar takes twenty-five remarkable and memorable technologies from the world of sci-fi, from Star Wars and The Matrix to Ironman and The Terminator. Each concept will be explained and dissected to reveal the real science behind it. Some are boldly obvious - such as the Death Star and exoskeletons - and some less so (think bio-ports or cloaking devices). All are fascinating and will make wonderful explorations into the science of the future as we understand it today.

A NASA and JPL insider, Rod worked for the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, CA, for 10 years, where he produced Launchlink, a public celebration of NASA's Space Shuttle in conjunction with NASA and FOX-TV, as well as authoring numerous handbooks. He has served as the Vice President of Communications for the World Space Foundation, a space-advocacy association based in Los Angeles and closely aligned with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. While there he was the senior editor and contributor to their two publications, The Astronautics Journal and Foundation News. Rod is a frequent contributor to many publications, including Space.com, LiveScience, NBC News, WIRED, The Huffington Post, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. A producer, writer and director of documentary programming for The History Channel and Discovery Communications, Rod also spent two years as a visual effects consultant on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and was a visual effects producer for Joe Dante's Warlords: Battle for the Galaxy for Paramount Studios. He co-produced and was the lead researcher for Patrick Stewart's Nine Worlds, a CD-ROM released by Paramount Interactive, and was editor and webmaster of the product's award-wining website for three years. He has written the widely-praised Innovation the NASA Way (McGraw-Hill Education, 2014) and Curiosity: An Inside Look at the Mars Rover Mission (Random House, 2014). Destination Mars (Prometheus, 2012) was hailed as The best recent history of Mars exploration by The Washington Post.His best-selling book Missions to the Moon, has sold widely since 2009 (Carlton/Sterling, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). Destination Moon was released in 2005, and has been reprinted four times. Rod lives in Pasadena, CA.