Robert Forward was a physicist and aerospace engineer. (as well as a strong proponent of free markets)
I once read a story about a journey into a black hole. The ship was tiny, less than an inch long, and the pilot was a scaled down robot/androd who was a mental clone of a human pilot in an orbiting station. As the pea-sized ship approached the event horizon, the pilot’s consciousness was reverse-replicated back to the human... or something like that.
Unfortunately I don’t remember all the details and I don’t remember the title and author but I do remember that in that one short story there was a complete layman’s guide to understanding black holes, event horizons and time dilation as the black hole was approached. It was an excellent job.
I don’t think it was Robert Forward because it was written in the last 5-10 years, but it could have been written by him, I’m sure.