Compendium on Light-Speed Travel

About the Book

This book explores the ramifications of travel at the speed of light and the consequences of infinite Lorentz factors. Special and general relativity are assumed to apply to inertial reference frames traveling at the speed of light. The contents of this book are highly speculative and, hopefully, provide the reader with a sense of mystique and wonderment about the open-ended prospect of achieving infinite Lorentz factor in the distant future as science and technology advance. So I ask the reader to consider the contents of this book with an open mind and realize the amazing results that may manifest for light-speed inertial travel.

About the Author

James Essig’s love of interstellar travel had its genesis in his childhood. Through most of his elementary school-age years, he was a shy kid, but one who was far from the stereotypical, reserved nerdy geek. His grade school report cards where generally good but were far from the straight A cards. He had a very personal dream, however, that motivated him to get through the often boring school days. This dream is that for an unbounded future of human interstellar space-flight. His infatuation with manned space exploration began early in grade school, fueled by the Apollo Space program and lunar landings and the promise of manned missions to distant planets in the not-so-distant future. It seemed as though, by the 1980s, we would definitely be sending humans on Martian exploratory missions. His interest in manned space travel waned a bit during the late 1970s through the mid-1990s but picked up again after he had read a book on real-world potential interstellar travel methods based mainly on known and well-established physics. Mr. Essig holds a degree in physics from George Mason University.