Space Mass Transit Complete Design Review
Orbital rings? Mass drivers? Space elevators? This book has the numbers.
An orbital ring is a cable in orbit around the Earth, moving faster than orbital velocity, with a stationary casing riding on it. Anchor lines tie it to the ground, a mass driver on the ring throws spacecraft to the Moon, Mars and beyond, and space elevators bring people home. No rockets, no fuel, no countdown. Volume I is the complete design review: one ring, one design, every number checked and every one of them open to inspection.
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The three volumes.
Volume I is the complete design review and the one to read first. Volumes II and III carry the derivations behind its numbers: the first principles and the launch technologies.
First Principles: Orbital Mechanics, Materials Science, and Electrical Systems
Mass Transit Launch Technologies: Levitation, Linear Motors, Mass Drivers, and Space Elevators
About Paul G. de Jong
Engineering textbooks and hard science fiction, built on the same physics.
Astronomy's Shocking Twist is a ten-book project. Five technical books on the engineering of space mass transit, written to serve as undergraduate textbooks, and five hard science fiction novels set in the world those books describe. Known laws. Real materials. Normal lifespans. No shortcuts.
Technical works
These books are the scientific background behind the Astronomy's Shocking Twist series.
Orbital Ring Engineering
Mass transit to space: orbital ring, mass driver, and space elevator engineering. Volume I, the complete design review, is the one to read first.
Megawatt-Class Ion Propulsion
Megawatt-class ion propulsion for the ships of the series: the THOR Drive, in two volumes. The next release after Volume I.
Generational Ships
Designing ships and societies for multi-generation interstellar voyages.
Living In Space
O'Neill cylinders, Venus floating cities, lunar, asteroid, and gas giant moon mining.
The Complete Technology Overview for the Astronomy's Shocking Twist Series
System-level integration of all components across the technical series.
Hard science fiction
Five novels over eight hundred years. Hard science fiction in the strictest sense: every law of physics is obeyed as currently understood. The titles follow the story outline and are not final.
The Beginning of the End
The discovery that changes everything, and humanity's first steps toward orbital infrastructure.
Escaping Gravity
Humanity adapts to life in space as the first orbital infrastructure comes online.
The Journey Begins
The long voyage outward, generational ships, propulsion, and the human cost.
The Catastrophe Unfolds
Arrival, conflict, and the work of building humanity's next home.
The Great Beyond
Eight hundred years after the discovery, what humanity has become.
Related books
These books stand outside the ten-part series and support it.
Why Space
The economic case for space mass transit, written for the general reader. The standalone companion to Orbital Ring Engineering.
Orbital Ring Engineering
The original single-volume edition of 2025. The three volumes of Orbital Ring Engineering replace and expand it; Volume I is the one to read first.