Historian Jay Gallentine has a reputation for stripping away technobabble to focus on the human stories of space exploration. His casual and irreverent writing style renders a topic accessible and enjoyable, while retaining accuracy worthy of a reference tome.

Jay’s first book, "Ambassadors from Earth," detailing the turbulent early days of solar system exploration, received the 2009 Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Literature.

Jay's second book is "Infinity Beckoned." In the same lighthearted and non-technical fashion, readers will learn brand-new stories about such topics as looking for life on Mars with the 1976 Viking landers, and the top-secret town in Crimea used to control Soviet moon rovers.

Jay's third book, "Born to Explore," examines the life of JPL's John Casani in context with the problem-plagued Galileo mission to Jupiter.