SLINGSHOT, page 37
part #1 of The Starchild Saga Series
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
D
r. Robert G. Williscroft is a retired submarine officer, deep-sea and saturation diver, scientist, author, and a lifelong adventurer. He spent 22 months underwater, a year in the equatorial Pacific, three years in the Arctic ice pack, and a year at the Geographic South Pole. He holds degrees in Marine Physics and Meteorology and a doctorate for developing a system to protect SCUBA divers in contaminated water. A prolific author of both non-fiction, Cold War thrillers, and hard science fiction, he lives in Centennial, Colorado.
Dr. Williscroft is a member of Colorado Author’s League, Independent Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors, Science Fiction Writers of America, Libertarian Futurist Society, Los Angeles Adventurers’ Club, Mensa, Military Officer’s Association, American Legion, and the NRA, and now spends most of his time writing his next book, speaking to various regional groups, and hanging out with the girl of his dreams, Jill, and her two cats.
OTHER BOOKS BY ROBERT G. WILLISCROFT
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 2021)
Short Stories:
The Daedalus Files:
Daedalus
Daedalus—LEO
Daedalus—Squad
Daedalus—Combat
Novels:
The Daedalus Files
Mac McDowell Missions:
Operation Ivy Bells
Operation Ice Breaker
Operation Arctic Sting
Operation White Out (2022)
The Starchild Trilogy:
Slingshot
The Starchild Compact
The Iapetus Federation
The Oort Chronicles:
Icicle—A Tensor Matrix
Federation—To the Stars
Andromeda—A Rising Tide (2022)
CONNECT WITH ROBERT G. WILLISCROFT
I really appreciate you reading my book! Here are my social media coordinates:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robert.williscroft
Parler: https://parler.com/user/RGWilliscroft
Gab: https://gab.com/RWilliscroft
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RGWilliscroft
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/argee/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rwilliscroft/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/RGWilliscroft
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/RWilliscroft
Book Website: https://RobertWilliscroft.com
Personal Website: https://argee.net
Blog: https://thrawnrickle.com/
Publisher: https://freshinkgroup.com/author/robertwilliscroft/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Robert-G-Williscroft/e/B001JP52AS
MATERIAL MOVED FROM FRONT OF SLINGSHOT
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my son Jason, who may actually live to see the first Launch Loop begin to move people and cargo into space, and to the Mohawk High-Iron Men, who will certainly play a major role in making it happen.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Several people contributed to the creation of this book.
Most significantly, my wonderful wife, Jill, whom I first met when I returned from a year at the South Pole conducting atmospheric research, and who finally consented to marry me nearly thirty years later, pored over each chapter with her discerning engineer’s eye. She kept my timeline honest, and made sure that regular readers could understand fully the arcane details of the Launch Loop and its linear drivers powered by OTEC generators.
Jill’s daughter, Selena, and twin sons, Arthur and Robert, also read the manuscript, and provided their insights.
Keith Lofstrom, the inventor of the Launch Loop, went through each chapter checking my math and engineering. He made several observations and corrections that improved this book.
John Knapman, Director of Research, International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), Keith’s colleague and fellow space settlement enthusiast, read the manuscript and pointed out several errors that I had overlooked, and made several excellent suggestions.
Hard science fiction author Alastair Mayer reviewed the manuscript and offered his scientific, engineering, and editorial insight.
Attorney and world-class Adventurer Marc Weitz identified a couple of problems that I had missed, to the betterment of the book.
John McCracken went through the manuscript with his eye for detail. The result is a better story.
A tip of the hat to Gary McCluskey for turning the cover from a sketch and several ideas into the breathtaking scene that graces the front of this book.
It goes without saying that any remaining omissions, errors, and mistakes fall directly on my shoulders.
Robert G. Williscroft, PhD
Centennial, Colorado
July 2018
FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION
Launching to space is not just a matter of getting out of the atmosphere. To stay up, you need to get into orbit, which means traveling at 7.7 kilometers per second or more (about 17,300 mph), starting at the equator. Today, we do this with rockets, but they are expensive and use most of their fuel just lifting the rest of the fuel. Very little of the fuel actually lifts the payload. Many skilled people are needed to build and launch rockets. Their salaries, divided by low launch rates, are why rockets cost so much. Is there another way?
Arthur C. Clarke’s 1979 science fiction novel The Fountains of Paradise (inspired by Jerome Pearson’s 1975 Acta Astronautica paper) introduced us to the space elevator, a 100 thousand kilometer superstrong cable extending vertically from the equator far into space, supported by centrifugal acceleration. Step into an elevator car on the ground, and step out in orbit a few days later. Inspiring! Mind opening! And still not achieved decades later, mainly because we don’t know how to make material that is strong enough. Some of us said, “THAT won’t work. But what if...?” Two years and a dozen what-ifs later, I discovered the launch loop, which will throw payload into orbit, not lift it.
Imagine a stream of water out of a fire hose. Without air friction, the stream might make a parabolic arc 20 meters high. Faster, and the arc goes higher and farther. A stream moving 7.3 kilometers per second would come down on the other side of the planet, and a stream moving 11 kilometers per second would keep going into interplanetary space. Wrap the stream in a frictionless hose, and...THAT won’t work either. But what if...?
The launch loop: replace the water with flexible iron pipe, 5 centimeters outer diameter, 3 metric tons per kilometer, moving at 14 kilometers per second. Bend it to the curvature of the earth with a stationary magnetic track, 7 metric tons per kilometer, 2,000 kilometers long, at 80 kilometers altitude. Stabilize the moving iron with electromagnets controlled by fast electronics. Turn it around at the ends with powerful magnets, and complete the loop.
On the eastbound section, 5-metric-ton payloads ride on magnets designed for high drag, which accelerates payloads at 3 gees. Payloads exit the east end of the track between 7.7 and 11 kilometers per second, to equatorial low earth orbits, to the moon, or to interplanetary space. Launching a payload weighing 5 metric tons to low earth orbit consumes 180 megawatt-hours, about $15,000 worth of electricity, or $3 per kilogram of payload. Passengers will still need vehicles and air, but freight can be launched on wooden shipping pallets. This small launch loop can launch 2,000 5-metric-ton payloads to orbit per day. Heavier launch loops can launch thousands of standard 30-metric-ton intermodal shipping containers per hour. They can also store peak power for the global electrical grid. Space travel can be as cheap as ocean cargo travel.
The whole world launches 400 metric tons to orbit per year. Launch loops will be assembly lines to launch megatons of payload. They will open up new markets and business opportunities because of the low cost and routine nature of the operations. One example, my current focus, is Server Sky (http://server-sky.com), which will use space solar power to do the world’s data center computing.
In the early 1980s, there were other Fountains what-if-ers. I published in an American Astronautical Society Newsletter and other journals, and presented at many conferences. Much of that is preserved at http://launchloop.com. In England, physicist Paul Birch wrote about orbital rings in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. Ken Brakke, a math professor in Pennsylvania, published his version of orbital rings.
Ken, Paul, and I met at one of the Space Studies Institute conferences at Princeton. We spent three days developing nomenclature, doing math, finding errors and fixes. I met Robert Williscroft in the mid-1990s in Philadelphia while I was on a trip to the East Coast. He had contacted me about a novel he was outlining—Slingshot. We spent a day together becoming acquainted and have kept in touch since then. Slingshot in its current form is a result of our brainstorming during that visit.
For years afterwards, Paul and I swapped ideas. Under Jerome Pearson’s leadership, and with our friend John Knapman (http://spacecable.org.uk), we submitted grant proposals until Paul’s untimely passing in 2012. We were friends, never competitors, though Paul was much better at reciting Tennyson. I hope one of us will be the first launch loop astronaut. Conflict makes great stories, but friendship makes great lives, so I now pass page control to my friend R. G. ...
Keith Lofstrom
Inventor of the Launch Loop
California
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
Once I completed The Iapetus Federation, the third book in The Starchild Trilogy, it was clear that I needed to make some adjustments to Slingshot. I had set up the chapters and sub-chapters in both The Starchild Compact and The Iapetus Federation to make it easier to follow the timeline of the story. So, I modified the chapter and sub-chapter titles in Slingshot to be consistent with this.
In this second edition, each chapter and sub-chapter has a title that indicates the location where the action is taking place. I also created a complete interactive Table of Contents that reflects these titles. Click on any Table of Contents line to be taken to that section or image. Click on the section title, sub-title, or image caption to be taken back to the pertinent Table of Contents line.
I trust these changes will make this book even more enjoyable.
Robert G. Williscroft, PhD
Centennial, Colorado
July 2018
FOREWORD TO THE THIRD EDITION
This third edition contains some minor line edits, formatting changes, and some changes to the Glossary. I also shortened my bio and added several more books that I have written since the original publication of Slingshot.
Robert G. Williscroft, PhD
Centennial, Colorado
November 2021
FOREWORD TO THE FOURTH FULL-COLOR EDITION
This full-color fourth edition was puplished by Fresh Ink Group as the first book in The Starchild Saga.
Fresh Ink Group
Guntersville, Alabama
June 2023
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Launch Loop International (LLI)
Klaus Blumenfeld—German Field Engineer in charge of OTEC power; BS in physics from Darmstadt Technische Hochschule; MS and PhD in electrical engineering and power systems from Cal Tech.
John Boyles—Board Member LLI; shrewd attorney; arranged a quick hearing by the Supreme Court that opened the way for Slingshot to go forward.
Mabel Fitzwinters—Board Chairman LLI; heavy-set; models herself after Dixy Lee Ray.
Margo Jackson—Field Engineer in charge of underwater construction; BS in physics from Berkley; MS from Duke University in Marine Engineering.
Rex Johnson—Board Member LLI; knows his way around the halls of Congress; acquainted with Carleton Montague and Delmer Woodward.
Alexander Regent (Alex)—Field Engineer in charge of project; BS in engineering and a double MS in aquatic and aerospace engineering from MIT; MIT Hyperchess champion.
Eastern Complex
Kelly Bjork (BJ)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from Minnesota; ex-Navy diver.
Calvin Gofort (Gofer)—Dive Supervisor on Eastern Complex; professional diver from English oil fields; Scottish accent.
Cody Haydon (Cody)—Lead engineer on Eastern Complex; Colorado School of Mines undergraduate; MIT PhD in Ocean Engineering; Senior engineer for the OTEC development team at MIT; several major water construction projects, including Lincoln II connecting Manhattan and New Jersey.
Max Heister (Maxie)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from New Jersey; former oil rig diver.
Sean Isaacs (Sean)—Diver on Eastern Complex; Boston Irishman.
Fred Jones (Jonesy)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from Philadelphia; strong Philly accent; former hard-hat construction diver; newest member of the dive team.
Samantha McNabb (Sam)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from California; wreck diver (with Woody); pioneered rebreathers for recreation (with Woody).
Thomas Mickelson (Micky)—Diver on Eastern Complex; Nebraska farm boy; ex-Navy diver
Jessie Oberlin (Jess)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from Philadelphia; German background, but speaks only English; ex-Navy diver.
Antonio Park (Tony)—Crane operator Eastern Complex; from Brooklyn; operated container cranes up and down the east coast.
Joe Paulson (Joey)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from Washington state; ex-NOAA diver
Todd Pelton (Todd)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from Texas; former oil rig diver.
Douglas Ready (Doug)—Crane operator Eastern Complex; from Chicago; operated container cranes and general cargo cranes on the Great Lakes.
Carlos Sanchez (Tex)—Lead pilot with Eastern Complex; from Texas.
Roxford Stewart (Stu)—Lead diver on Eastern Complex—in charge of diving; Duke Univ Mech Eng; former NOAA Diver in charge of U.S. Government East Coast diving; joined GlobeTech (international oil rig contractor) as their senior underwater engineer/chief diver.
Rodney Weis (Rod)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from Georgia; black; ex-Navy SEAL.
Edward Wood (Woody)—Diver on Eastern Complex; from California; wreck diver (with Sam); pioneered rebreathers for recreation (with Sam).
Western Complex
Emmett Bihm (Bimmy)—Lead diver on Western Complex—in charge of diving; from Minneapolis; ex-Navy salvage diver.
Jefferson Carver (Jeff)—Skimmer Two skipper; from Bermuda; strong Bermuda lilt; blue-black skin.
Abel Kilker (Abe)—Diver on Western Complex; from Arkansas.
Apryl Searson (Apryl)—Diver on Western Complex; from Oregon; trained EMT.
Domingo Solak (Solak)—Diver on Western Complex; from Balkans.
Pearl Wells (Pearl)—Dive Supervisor on Western Complex; black; tough-as-they-come Gullah-Geechee oil rig diver from the Carolina barrier islands.
Noemi Wien (Noe)—Lead pilot with Western Complex; joined when Radcliff & Woodward supplied a third floater.
Amelia Earhart Skyport
Shift One
Lance Fairbank (Lance)—High-Iron worker; New Jersey; has worked on “high-iron” projects worldwide.
Peter LaFleur (Pete)—High-Iron Mohawk; lives in Brooklyn; speaks a few Mohawk words; traces his ancestry back to Kahnawak Mohawks, early 1900s; has worked on “high-iron” projects all over the world; great-great…grandson of Peter LaFleur, high-iron worker and photographer of mid-20th C.
Mike Swamp (Mike)—Shift One Boss; High-Iron Mohawk; lives in Brooklyn; fluent Mohawk speaker; traces his ancestry back to Kahnawak Mohawks, early 1900s; has worked on “high-iron” projects all over the world.
Shift Two
Thomas Daillebaust (Tom)—Shift Two Boss; High-Iron Mohawk; lives in Brooklyn; fluent Mohawk speaker; worked on Geo. Washington Bridge in N.Y., and on “high-iron” projects all over the world; great…grandfather is Louis Joseph Dybo, a.k.a. “Chief Great Fire,” son of Thomas Joseph Daillebaust.
Mathew Munns (Matt)—High-Iron worker; from Texas; has worked on “high-iron” projects all over the world; Seidell’s best friend.
Guy Roth (Guy)—High-Iron worker; from Chicago; has worked on “high-iron” projects worldwide.
Kelly Seidell (Kelly)—High-Iron worker; from Texas; has worked on “high-iron” projects all over the world; Munns’ best friend.
Shift Three
Rodney Chrietzberg (Critz)—Shift Three Boss; High-Iron Mohawk; lives in Brooklyn; fluent Mohawk speaker; has worked on “high-iron” projects all over the world; great…grandfather David Chrietzberg broke back in 1980s.
Rudolph Pigman (Pigman)—”Capsule Attendant,” later, part of Shift Three; from Boise, Idaho.
Fred Noonan Skyport
Shift One
Ajay Dybo (AJ)—Shift One Boss; High-Iron Mohawk; lives in Brooklyn; fluent Mohawk speaker; worked on Geo. Washington Bridge in N.Y. with Mike Swamp, and has worked on “high-iron” projects all over the world; direct descendant of Louis Joseph Dybo, a.k.a. “Chief Great Fire.”
Prajeet Kahnawak (Jeeter)—High-Iron Mohawk; lives in Brooklyn; speaks a few Mohawk words; has worked on “high-iron” projects worldwide; traces his ancestry back to Kahnawak Mohawks, early 1900s.
