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Orbital Ring Engineering is your best tool to learn about what’s possible now, and what will be attainable in the near future!
Also explore our blog to find a collection of articles, opportunities to explore the math behind the science of orbital rings, a coding forum for pursuing ways to get us into space faster and with more efficiency, and more.
About The Book
and Astronomy’s Shocking Twist
Orbital Ring Engineering is a deep dive into the physics, material science, and engineering required to construct an orbital ring. It presents a set of assumptions and guides the reader through a discovery process, delving deeply into the various materials, physics, electrical engineering, orbital mechanics, and mathematics involved in this endeavor.
The book invites readers to think about the challenges and contribute to the innovations. What are the optimal numbers? Are my assumptions correct?
This website presents the design concepts highlighted in the book, as well as some findings. To learn more about the math and assumptions presented in the book Orbital Ring Engineering, keep exploring this website.
About The Book
and Astronomy’s Shocking Twist
Orbital Ring Engineering is a deep dive into the physics, material science, and engineering required to construct an orbital ring. It presents a set of assumptions and guides the reader through a discovery process, delving deeply into the various materials, physics, electrical engineering, orbital mechanics, and mathematics involved in this endeavor.
The book invites readers to think about the challenges and contribute to the innovations. What are the optimal numbers? Are my assumptions correct?
This website presents the design concepts highlighted in the book, as well as some findings. To learn more about the math and assumptions presented in the book Orbital Ring Engineering, keep exploring this website.
“Astronomy’s Shocking Twist” is a hard science fiction series that unfolds over 800 years. It opens with the current political climate and the race to establish a human presence on the Moon.
“Astronomy’s Shocking Twist” is a hard science fiction series that unfolds over 800 years. It opens with the current political climate and the race to establish a human presence on the Moon. Everything shifts dramatically in 2035 when Samantha Celeste Jones reveals a groundbreaking discovery through a press report, much to the chagrin of the United States government.
This ten-part series delves into technological innovations and their consequences, intertwining hard science fiction narratives with detailed speculative science companion books that examine the technologies in depth.
These books offer a journey into humanity’s future within such a scenario. They begin by describing the technologies employed in the stories, and the first few books will elaborate on these technologies in great detail. The third book in the series will mark the beginning of the story timeline and will be the first science fiction book in the ten-part series.
The series is divided into two distinct tracks: a speculative science track and a hard science fiction track. The speculative science track will begin with the first book published, which describes the technologies required to build a mass transit system for launching into space: Orbital Ring Engineering.
The term “hard science fiction” has several interpretations, so here are the rules for this series. I will do my best to use existing technologies or reasonable extrapolations from known technologies. There will be strict adherence to physics, materials science, and biology to the best of my ability.
The main area where things will delve into the realm of speculative science fiction is in engineering. Engineers will face significant challenges in the stories. I make no claims that they will be able to accomplish the tasks at hand; however, the survival of the human race will depend on them!
What’s inside
The Evolution into Space and the Orbital Ring
Escaping the Gravity Well
Momentum Transfer and Levitation
Returning to Earth
From Science to Science Fiction to Engineering
The Anchor Lines
Accelerating and Deploying the Orbital Ring
Economic and Motivational Reasoning
Chapter 1
The Evolution into Space and the Orbital Ring
In a century, commuting to space may become as routine as taking a train. Unlike a space elevator, an orbital ring is a true mass transit system into outer space. It is a megastructure capable of transporting millions of passengers and thousands of tons of cargo into space every day. It is a safe and reliable system capable of launching cargo to Mars with very little propellant. An orbital ring would enable fast, reliable, and safe transportation around the inner solar system. As we shall see in this book, out of all the potential methods of escaping Earth’s gravity, an orbital ring is the fastest, most reliable, and highest- capacity space mass transit system imaginable, and as we shall see, it is also one of the most feasible.
The first three chapters provide an overview as well as some historical perspective. We start to explore the orbital ring in Chapter 4 by examining the anchor lines that attach the ring to Earth’s surface. Chapters 5 and 6 cover the levitation system and propulsion systems, respectively. In Chapter 7, we will discuss returning to Earth. We will conclude in Chapter 8 by discussing the economics and why one should be built. Each chapter can stand on its own, so you can read these chapters in any order you like.
What is an Orbital Ring
Imagine the International Space Station (ISS). It’s a tin can that seems to !oat 400 km (250 miles) above the surface of the Earth. Now, imagine a rope running next to the ISS. If that rope went all the way around the planet and connected itself to form a solid ring, it would also remain in that orbit. If the rope were made to go faster, it would want to push outward toward a higher orbit. That force could then be used to support a geostationary platform.
This is, of course, an overly simplified description. We will explore the math in more detail in Chapter 5, but for now, you can imagine that although an individual particle on its own would follow the path of inertia, the fact that each section of the cable is restrained by the cable translates that inertia into the rope wanting to expand outward. The force pulling inward is, of course, the centripetal force of gravity. The excess cable velocity would create an outward centrifugal force.
[Image 1.1 The orbital ring is not to scale. In reality, it would not be visible from this position in space or from the ground, with the possible exception of occasional reflections when the Sun is at just the right angle.]
How to Build an Orbital Ring
The idea is simple: put a cable in orbit around the planet. Then encase that cable with an outer shell. Next, spin the inner cable faster while slowing the outer shell down. Once the outer shell is stationary relative to the ground, drop down some anchoring lines, two at a time, with one line positioned north of the cable and one south. Doing this at regular intervals will help keep the orbital ring in a stable location while the forces created by the motion of the inner cable work to counter the influence of gravity.
Some of those lines connecting to the ground can be strategically placed so they can be used as trolley car cables to move up and down from the cable platform. If the orbital ring anchor lines are conductors, they can transport any excess electricity generated by solar panels on the orbital ring to the surface. Mass drivers built on top of the orbital ring would be able to launch cargo and passengers into space at velocities well beyond Earth’s escape velocity. This is an orbital ring, in a nutshell.
[Image 1.2: Centripetal vs. Centrifugal Force. According to Newton’s first law, a mass wants to follow its path of inertia. The centripetal force is the restraining force pulling the mass inward. The centrifugal force pulls outward against the centripetal force. Without the centrifugal force, the mass would fall straight inward following the direction of the centripetal force. If the centripetal force is removed, instead of following the direction of the centrifugal force, the mass would follow the path of inertia. This is why a centrifugal force is sometimes referred to as an imaginary force.]
Building an orbital ring would be no small feat, but the great thing is that it is what one would call an engineering problem, not a physics problem. In this book, we will go into great detail about the physics, materials science, and engineering involved in building such a megastructure.
A Brief Historical Diversion
China pioneered rocket technology during the Song dynasty, which spanned from 960 to 1279 A.D.; however, it wasn’t until 1942 that rockets finally reached the threshold of space. The development of the V-2 rockets during World War II marked a significant milestone. Regrettably, the history of rocket technology is marred by violence.
In 1903, visionary Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky formulated the rocket equation, laying the groundwork for modern rocketry. He further advanced the !eld by proposing the concept of multistage rockets in 1929. The Soviet Union successfully launched its inaugural rocket in 1928, marking a significant achievement in space exploration. After World War II ended, the dawn of the space race drastically accelerated progress in space.
The first animals in space were a group of fruit flies, launched to an altitude of 67 km at the tip of a V-2 rocket on February 20, 19471. These early experiments were designed to study the effects of cosmic rays on living organisms. A monkey named Albert II was blasted to an altitude of 133 km in a V-2 rocket on June 14, 1949, surviving the light but dying on impact.
A pair of Russian dogs, Tsygan and Dezik, were launched to an altitude of 100 km on July 22, 1951, by the Soviet Union. These were the first vertebrates to survive a trip to the Kármán Line, the internationally agreed-upon border with outer space.
The first manmade satellite to orbit the Earth was called Sputnik 1. It was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, and its radio pings were heard around the world. This event marked the start of the Space Race.
[1. NASA. (n.d.). Animals in space. NASA History Division. https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html
2. NASA. (n.d.). Animals in space. NASA History Division. https://history.nasa.gov/animals.html]
[END OF CHAPTER 1 PREVIEW]
Chapters
Pages
More books
The book is divided into three sections.
Section 1 of Orbital Ring Engineering serves as an introduction and provides a historical overview. It examines the various technologies that led to the concept of an orbital ring and offers an overview of what an orbital ring is, along with other related concepts.
Section 2 of Orbital Ring Engineering begins by laying the groundwork for what is needed to build an orbital ring. It explores the details of where the initial ring should be placed, the material science involved, and a potential design. In this section, we examine the technology and delve deeply into the technical aspects required to make the orbital ring functional, making it the most technical of the sections.
Section 3 of the book looks more closely at what an orbital ring can be used for and how it will be utilized. In section 3 of Orbital Ring Engineering we explore the reasons why we would build an orbital ring, and give some political and economic context.
From the Blog
Astronomy’s Shocking Twist and Orbital Ring Engineering: Origin Story
Learn about the process and history that inspired the author for the creation of the Astronomy’s Shocking Twist saga. | Orbital Ring blog
The Dream of a Floating Highway to Space
Engage with us in the dream of building a floating highway to space. An article from the author of the book “Orbital Ring Engineering”.
The Role of Science Fiction in Advancing Space Infrastructure Concepts
While the principles of orbital mechanics were laid by scientists, envisioning space megastructures came from the realm of science fiction.
From Science to Science Fiction to Science
From early astronomical theories to today’s space travel, we explore the creative methods humanity has devised to escape Earth’s gravity.
SkyHook, LightCraft, Mass Drivers, and Space Launch Systems
Here is where we discuss SkyHooks, LightCraft, Mass Drivers, as well as current and future Space Launch Systems and technologies.
Tethered Rings, Launch Loops, Space Fountains, and The Space Elevator
Follow-up to The Gravity Well, exploring Space Transit Systems such as Tethered Rings, Launch Loops, Space Fountains, and The Space Elevator.
Chapter Three: The Gravity Well
Chapter 3 of the book explores “The Gravity Well”, as well as history and pioneers in space mass transport systems, and Orbital Ring design.
Orbital Ring: An Open-Source Project for the Python Coding Community
Join the Orbital Ring Open-Source Python project on GitHub, and join the coding community that takes the challenge of designing the future.
About the author
Paul de Jong is a speculative science and hard science fiction author, a lifelong inventor, explorer, and student, and a serial entrepreneur with a deep love for physics. Over the years, he has examined many perspectives of space travel and infrastructure, working out the details in his journals.
The seeds for this book series were planted more than ten years ago while he was developing some inventions related to space travel. Working out the details in his journals led to these stories, which interweave fiction with technical non-fiction. They have been largely inspired by Isaac Arthur’s YouTube channel: @isaacarthurSFIA, “Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur”.
You can find him on a few social networks.
A book, a Vision, and a Coding Community
While writing Orbital Ring Engineering, I started with a set of assumptions that turned out to be completely wrong. Some of the issues I encountered could be solved analytically, but the time-dependent processes, like orbital ring deployment, really needed iterative solutions.
That process led to some very surprising results, which I describe in Chapter 6 of the book. I did the numerical analysis using simple Python code, running it repeatedly to hone in on results that actually worked. The code was crude but magical at the same time. This got me thinking: why not create an open source project to optimize various space-based applications like orbital rings, space elevators, and mass driver systems?
Learn more about the project, and join our Python coding community.
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