The Daedalus Files, page 12
The plot of the novel is driven by the development and construction of the project, which is being threatened by ill-informed environmentalists bent on destroying the project. The launch loop is far greener than the current method of launching vehicles into space, but a sinister power has misled the environmentalists into believing that sabotaging the launch loop is saving the planet. Meanwhile, the sinister power is protecting its own economic interests.
As usual, Williscroft has created a cast of interesting and driven characters. The book is a fascinating read, and you are guaranteed not only to learn a lot, but to dream about the future of space travel.
Marc Weitz, Past President
The Los Angeles Adventurers’ Club
Click here to read Slingshot
Dr. Robert G. Williscroft served twenty-three years in the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He commenced his service as an enlisted nuclear Submarine Sonar Technician in 1961, was selected for the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program in 1966, and graduated from University of Washington in Marine Physics and Meteorology in 1969. He returned to nuclear submarines as the Navy’s first Poseidon Weapons Officer. Subsequently, he served as Navigator and Diving Officer on both catamaran mother vessels for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle. Then he joined the Submarine Development Group One out of San Diego as the Officer-in-Charge of the Test Operations Group, conducting “deep-ocean surveillance and data acquisition”—which forms the basis for his Cold War novel Operation Ivy Bells: : A Mac McDowell Mission.
In NOAA Dr. Williscroft directed diving operations throughout the Pacific and Atlantic. As a certified diving instructor for both the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) and the Multinational Diving Educators Association (MDEA), he taught over 3,000 individuals both basic and advanced SCUBA diving. He authored four diving books, developed the first NAUI drysuit course, developed advanced curricula for mixed gas and other specialized diving modes, and developed and taught a NAUI course on the Math and Physics of Advanced Diving. His doctoral dissertation for California Coast University, A System for Protecting SCUBA Divers from the Hazards of Contaminated Water was published by the U.S. Department of Commerce and distributed to Port Captains worldwide. He also served three shipboard years in the high Arctic conducting scientific baseline studies, and thirteen months at the geographic South Pole in charge of National Science Foundation atmospheric projects.
Dr. Williscroft has written extensively on terrorism and related subjects. He is the author of a popular book on current events published by Pelican Publishing: The Chicken Little Agenda—Debunking Experts’ Lies, now in its second edition as an eBook, and a new children’s book series, Starman Jones, in collaboration with Dr. Frank Drake, world-famous director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe and the SETI Institute.
Dr. Williscroft’s 1st novel in The Starchild Trilogy, Slingshot, tells the story of the construction of the world’s first Space Launch Loop. Slingshot was launched at the Seattle International Space Elevator Conference in August 2015. His 2nd novel in The Starchild Trilogy, The Starchild Compact, is based on the discovery that Saturn’s moon Iapetus is actually a derelict starship, and how Earth explorers eventually meet with the “Founders,” who originally arrived on the starship and populated the Earth long ago. In the 3rd book in The Starchild Trilogy, The Iapetus Federation, the Federation expands Solar Systemwide, while a new Caliphate sweeps Earth. The Starchild Institute creates wormhole portals to enable the Exodus. Earth becomes medieval, while human focus shifts to the Iapetus Federation. Humans settle every potentially habitable spot in the Solar System and begin expanding into the rest of the Galaxy.
Dr. Williscroft’s most recent novel, Icicle—A Tensor Matrix, is a hard science fiction story about a wealthy engineer in today’s world who has terminal cancer and arranges for his head to be cryonically preserved. He wakes up about a century later inside an electronic matrix. He becomes the spearhead of humanity’s defensive effort against an invading space fleet operating under the Dark Forest Theory (Like hunters in a “dark forest,” a civilization can never be certain of an alien civilization’s true intentions. The extreme distances between stars creates an insurmountable “chain of suspicion,” where any two civilizations cannot communicate well enough to dissipate mistrust, making conflict inevitable.) This is the first of three books in The Oort Chronicles.
Dr. Williscroft is an active member of the Colorado Author’s League, Science Fiction Writers of America, Libertarian Futurist Society, Los Angeles Adventurers’ Club, Mensa, Military Officer’s Association, American Legion, and NRA. He lives in Centennial, Colorado, with his wife, Jill, and their twin college boys (when they are home from school).
Please visit Amazon.com to discover other eBooks by Robert Williscroft and your favorite online or Brick & Mortar bookseller for their paper versions:
Current events:
The Chicken Little Agenda—Debunking “Experts’” Lies
Children’s books:
The Starman Jones Series:
Starman Jones: A Relativity Birthday Present
Starman Jones Goes to the Dogs (scheduled for release in 2020)
Short Stories:
The Daedalus Files:
Daedalus
Daedalus—LEO
Daedalus—Squad
Daedalus—Combat
Novels:
Mac McDowell Missions:
Operation Ivy Bells
Operation Snow Cone (Scheduled for release 2020)
The Starchild Trilogy:
Slingshot
The Starchild Compact
The Iapetus Federation
The Daedalus Files
The Oort Chronicles:
Icicle—A Tensor Matrix (scheduled for release in 2020)
The Oort—Interstellar Consequences (scheduled for release in 2020)
Oort Andromeda—Galactic Diaspora (scheduled for release in 2021)
I really appreciate you reading my book! Here are my social media coordinates:
Friend me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robert.williscroft
Follow me on Twitter: @RGWilliscroft
Like my Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-G.-Williscroft/e/B001JP52AS
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Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/argee/
Visit my book website: https://robertwilliscroft.com
Visit my personal website: https://argee.net
AFRICOM—American centralized military command and control for the African continent.
Atoll—A ring-shaped reef, island, or chain of islands formed of coral.
Baker Compound—The Slingshot facility on Baker Island.
BatCap—Power source for the Pulsed Energy Weapon, a unique marriage of a 3-D battery and a thin, large-surface-area flexible capacitor that the SWIC member wears on his back. The capacitor supports twenty rapid-release lethal laser bursts and recharges in less than a minute from the 3-D battery, or it can continuously support a lethal laser burst every five seconds. The 3-D battery needs recharging every five thousand bursts.
BUDS—Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training.
CS Platypus —Cruise Ship Platypus
Cumulonimbus calvus—A moderately tall cumulonimbus cloud which is capable of precipitation, but has not yet reached the tropopause.
Cumulonimbus cloud—Thunderhead cloud.
CYA—Cover your ass.
Deflector—A series of permanent and electro-magnets that bend the path of the rapidly moving iron ribbon.
EMT—Emergency Medical Technician.
ETA—Estimated time of arrival.
Fulton—A surface-to-air extraction system developed in the 1950s. It involves using a harness and a self-inflating balloon with an attached lift line. A C-130-type aircraft engages the line with a V-shaped yoke on its nose, and the person is reeled on board.
Gryphon-7—A wingsuit-like carapace strapped on the body. It stopped short of the feet, but in flight could extend to a full two meters, stretching beyond the feet. It attached to the legs and arms, with special controls for each hand, and had a broad Velcro band across the midriff. It had extensible delta wings with a three-meter wingspan. The back end contained a small steerable hypergolic rocket engine, and the left and right wings each contained pressurized hypergolic fuel components. Switches in the hand units controlled the fuel valves. The Gryphon had a heads-up display with height-over-ground, airspeed, groundspeed, compass, and GPS coordinates superimposed on a map, plus various system readouts.
Gryphon-10—Like Gryphon-7 with some radical changes including full body armor with circulating fuel for heat protection, an increased surface area using dimples, wrinkles, and rolls that dramatically boosted heat shedding, and it incorporated a new type of polymer that was stronger, lighter, and more heat resistant than anything before. The biggest change was Mother, the guidance computer unit designed to act on its calculations before the human pilot was even aware of them. Still man-transportable, although more ungainly than Gryphon-7. Its unpowered glide ratio was 14-1, and it could fly 100 level klicks under power.
Gryphon-10, Mk 4—Looked exactly like the Gryphon-10. It differed in subtle ways because of improvements developed during several LEO drops. Incorporated the latest model of a very efficient, hand-held, pulsed energy weapon into a node in the leading edge of either the left or right wing. Its power source is a lightweight BatCap. Before opening the carapace after landing, the SWIC member retrieves the weapon from its node and holsters it just like a sidearm.
Gryphon-10, Mk 5—Exactly like the Gryphon-10, Mk 4, except for the addition of a rear-firing pulsed energy weapon.
Howland Island—A coral island in the equatorial Pacific about sixty-five kilometers north of Baker Island. It was the destination of Amelia Earhart when she disappeared.
HP oxygen—High-pressure oxygen
Hypergolic fuel—Fuel that ignites spontaneously when the individual fuel elements come into contact.
Hypergolic rocket or jet—A rocket or jet that uses hypergolic fuel.
Jarvis Compound—The Slingshot facility on Jarvis Island.
Keith Lofstrom—Inventor of the Launch Loop.
Kick thruster—A small, reigniteable solid-state rocket attached to a capsule, used for vector changes after release from the rail, or to slow down a capsule used to transit from Baker to Jarvis.
Klick—Slang word for kilometer.
Launch Loop—A means for getting into space without using rockets.
Launch Loop International—The company that and manages Slingshot.
Launch pouch—Attaches to the capsule underside, enabling magnetic acceleration of the capsule by the rail.
LEO—Low Earth Orbit
Mach number—The ratio of the speed of a body to the speed of sound in the surrounding medium.
Maglev train—A magnetically levitated train; it floats above the track propelled by magnetism.
Mayotte Island—A small island northwest of Madagascar that has the largest coral-reef enclosed lagoon of any island in the world.
MOS—Military Occupation Specialty
Pallet—A regular cargo pallet used to transport cargo up the Skytower and along the rail for launch into orbit. Each pallet carried four tanks. Two were HP oxygen used by the flyer until Gryphon separation, attached to the wingsuit with breakaway connectors. The other two carried hypergolic fuel, UDMH and nitrogen tetroxide, for the small hypergolic maneuvering jets
Pulsed Energy Weapon—Fires pulsed high-energy laser bursts. Is virtually silent.
Rail—Common term for the portion of the launch loop between the skyports.
Ribbon—Common term for the soft-iron tube that is the heart of the launch loop.
SEAL—An acronym for Sea Air and Land; a member of a Naval Special Warfare unit trained for unconventional warfare.
Skyport—The structure at the top of the skytower.
Skyrail—An alternative name for a Space Elevator or Launch Loop.
Skytower—The elevator-like set of cables that extends from the Skyport to the island below.
Slingshot—The Space Launch Loop between Baker and Jarvis Islands in the equatorial Pacific.
Socket—The attachment point on the island for the skytower.
SPELCO—Special Parachute and Logistics Consortium
Stratosphere—The second major layer of Earth’s atmosphere, just above the troposphere.
Suspensor cable—A cable to which the skytower cable and double-lift cables are attached. It carries the weight of all the cables.
SWIC—SEAL Winged Insertion Command
Tensioner—A cable attached to the rail or downslopes and the ocean bottom, with a dynamic device that increases or decreases the tension as necessary to maintain Launch Loop stability.
Tropopause—The interface between the troposphere and the stratosphere.
Troposphere—The lowest region of the atmosphere, extending from the earth’s surface to a height of about 6–10 km, which is the lower boundary of the stratosphere.
UDMH—Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, a hypergolic fuel component (see nitrogen tetroxide).
UV light—Ultraviolet light.
Wingsuit—Aa suit with fabric filling the gaps between stretched out arms and ankles, and between the legs, enabling the wearer to glide through the air.
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Robert G. Williscroft, The Daedalus Files
