The Relativistic Rocketeer

About the Book

This book is about building craft for space travel—a space travel that is not in the distant future but in the immediate future. There is no question that we have the technology to build and power large crafts capable of traversing the galaxy. For now, this book will focus on achieving the goal of intragalactic travel. We will describe various methods of power generation and propulsion, delineate the materials and technology for construction, discuss the building of the spacecraft from the outside in, and show what is required to sustain life on the craft for extended periods. While we will go into some detail on each of these—pointing out advantages and disadvantages to components and methods—this is not, nor is it intended to be, a highly technical book to be used by specialists. Rather, it is intended to inform the general readership about what is possible, and perhaps what is not, in building and operating a spacecraft for long-distance and long-duration travel with current and available means.

About the Author

Before embarking on a new career as a free-lance starship propulsion researcher and science writer, I worked as an inventor. With my brother, John, we co-invented and obtained numerous U.S. patents, several dealing with various forms of resource harnessing apparatus. With such serious but small scale research and development efforts, I had developed a renewed appreciation for the power of the Sun, and by corollary, the tremendous power of the cosmos including the cosmic energy source of nuclear fusion, the power that literally runs the stars. I hold Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics from George Mason University and have completed several graduate level courses in physics and mathematics.