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  • © 2013

Making Starships and Stargates

The Science of Interstellar Transport and Absurdly Benign Wormholes

Authors:

  • Summarizes many different proposals and published papers on the actual construction of advanced spacecraft and "gates" to other regions of space
  • Covers current theory, latest and ongoing investigations and experiments, and speculation on what might and might not be feasible
  • Discusses the most advanced work on the physics of rapid spacetime transport, including traveling through wormholes
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books (PRAXIS)

Part of the book sub series: Space Exploration (SPACEE)

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Softcover Book USD 54.99
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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxvi
  2. Part I

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
  3. PART I

    1. Mach’s Principle

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 29-64
    2. Mach Effects

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 65-86
  4. PART II

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87
    2. Getting in Touch with Reality

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 89-132
    3. In Reality’s Grip

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 133-179
  5. PART III

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-181
    2. Advanced Propulsion in the Era of Wormhole Physics

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 183-206
    3. Where Do We Find Exotic Matter?

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 207-223
    4. Making the ADM Electron Plausible

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 225-234
    5. Making Stargates

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 235-257
    6. The Road Ahead

      • James F. Woodward
      Pages 259-267
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 269-279

About this book

To create the exotic materials and technologies needed to make stargates and warp drives is the holy grail of advanced propulsion. A less ambitious, but nonetheless revolutionary, goal is finding a way to accelerate a spaceship without having to lug along a gargantuan reservoir of fuel that you blow out a tailpipe. Tethers and solar sails are conventional realizations of the basic idea.

There may now be a way to achieve these lofty objectives. “Making Starships and Stargates” will have three parts. The first will deal with information about the theories of relativity needed to understand the predictions of the effects that make possible the “propulsion” techniques, and an explanation of those techniques. The second will deal with experimental investigations into the feasibility of the predicted effects; that is, do the effects exist and can they be applied to propulsion? The third part of the book – the most speculative – will examine the question: what physics is needed if weare to make wormholes and warp drives? Is such physics plausible?  And how might we go about actually building such devices? This book pulls all of that material together from various sources, updates and revises it, and presents it in a coherent form so that those interested will be able to find everything of relevance all in one place.

Reviews

“The author looks into published scientific papers in those topics on the possibility of travel at light-speed using different methods, looking into the physics and mathematics there etc. … the book also has excellent bibliography which can guide you either in the more popular books direction or to some more technical books. I found that it was interesting, well written and followed a logical structure so you see how the different principles and concepts are all necessary for it.” (AstroMadness.com, October, 2016)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Anaheim, USA

    James F. Woodward

About the author

Dr. James F. Woodward is a professor of history emeritus and adjunct professor of physics at California State University Fullerton.

Jim earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics at Middlebury College and New York University (respectively) in the 1960s. From his undergraduate days, his chief interest was in gravitation. For his Ph.D., he changed to the history of science, writing a dissertation on the history of attempts to deal with the problem of “action-at-a-distance” in gravity theory from the 17th to the early 20th centuries (Ph.D., University of Denver, 1972).

On completion of his graduate studies, Jim took a teaching job in the history of science at California State University Fullerton (CSUF), where he has been ever since. Shortly after his arrival at CSUF, he established friendships with colleagues in the Physics Department who helped him set up a small-scale, table-top experimental research program doing offbeat experiments related to gravitation – experiments which continue to this day. In 1980, the faculty of the Physics Department elected Jim to an adjunct professorship in the department in recognition of his ongoing research.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access