Nick Kanas is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directed the group therapy training program. For over 20 years he conducted research in group therapy, and for nearly 20 years after that he was the Principal Investigator of NASA funded research on astronauts and cosmonauts. He is the co-author of Space Psychology and Psychiatry, which won the 2004 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award.
Dr. Kanas has presented talks on space psychology and on celestial mapping at several regional and World Con science fiction conventions. He has been an amateur astronomer for over 50 years and is an avid reader of science fiction. He is also the author of Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography, Solar System Maps: From Antiquity to the Space Age, The New Martians - A Scientific Novel, and The Protos Mandate - A Scientific novel, all published by Springer.

Introduces generation star ships and the concept of artificial social systems for interstellar travel in form of a scientific novel

Authored by a leading expert in space psychology and psychiatry

Contains an extensive, non-technical discussion of the underlying science based on actual work and experiments

An article based on material from this book won the 2016 Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine readers poll for best fact article of the year

Preface.- Part I The Novel: The Protos Mandate.- Part II The Science behind the Fiction: Challenges of Manned Interstellar Travel.