A 10-book series by Paul G. de Jong
Astronomy's Shocking Twist
Humanity's path from first orbital infrastructure to interstellar travel — five technical books on the engineering, and five hard science fiction novels that live inside the physics. Known laws. Real materials. Normal lifespans. No shortcuts.
Five books on the engineering.
Orbital rings, mass drivers, space elevators, propulsion, habitats, generational ships. Rigorous but accessible — math kept as straightforward as possible.
See the technical track →Five novels, eight hundred years.
The human story of building space infrastructure, constrained by the same physics as the technical books. Propulsion limited by power. Materials limited by manufacturing.
See the fiction track →Engineering Orbital Rings, Mass Drivers and Space Elevators
A three-volume deep dive into mass transit to space: the economic case, the launch technologies from first principles, and a complete design review.