Ben Bova (1932–2020) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was born on 8 November 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died on 29 November 2020 in Naples, Florida. Across six decades he wrote more than 120 books of fiction and nonfiction. He is best known for the Grand Tour series, hard science fiction novels set across the solar system — Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, the asteroid belt — and grounded in real planetary science. He edited Analog Science Fiction and Fact from 1971 to 1978, succeeding John W. Campbell, and later edited Omni, winning six Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor. He served as president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He held a doctorate in education and worked at the Avco Everett Research Laboratory during the Apollo program, experience that gave his fiction its technical credibility. His work is rigorous hard science fiction: plausible technology, real physics, and near-future space exploration and colonization, with recurring themes of human ambition, corporate and political struggle over resources, and the ethics of scientific progress. Notable titles include Mars (1992), Moonrise (1996), Jupiter (2000), Titan (2006), which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the comic Sam Gunn adventures. He received the Robert A. Heinlein Award in 2005 and was named a Grand Master by the SFWA in 2008.
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