"The Starflight Handbook is an compendium of the many and varied methods for traversing the vast interstellar gulf."--Publisher.

Solara Brooks needs a fresh start, someplace where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. The outer realm may be lawless, but it's not like the law has ever been on her side. Still, off-world travel doesn't come cheap; Solara is left with no choice but to indenture herself in exchange for passage to the outer realm. She just wishes it could have been to anyone besides Doran Spaulding, the rich, pretty-boy quarterback who made her life miserable in school. The tables suddenly turn when Doran is framed for conspiracy on Earth, and Solara cons him into playing the role of her servant on board the Banshee, a ship manned by an eccentric crew with their own secrets. Given the price on both Doran and Solara's heads, it may just be the safest place in the universe. It's been a long time since Solara has believed in anyone, and Doran is the last person she expected to trust. But when the Banshee's dangerous enemies catch up with them, Solara and Doran must come together to protect the ship that has become their home???and the eccentric crew that feels like family.

When Princess Cassia Rose fled her home world of Eturia to escape an arranged marriage, she had no idea her sudden departure would spark a war. Now after two years hiding as a ship hand, she is finally returning to her beloved home...but not in the way she imagined. Shackled by bounty hunters, she is violently dragged back to account for her crimes. Her only solace is that the Banshee crew managed to evade capture, including Kane Arric, her best friend...with occasional benefits. Meanwhile, Kane and the rest of the crew of the Banshee plan a desperate rescue mission. But when they arrive on Eturia, Cassia isn't exactly in need of heroics--she's claimed her birthright as Eturia's queen, but has inherited a war-torn planet simmering with rebellion. Cassia must make alliances, and Kane, the bastard son of a merchant, isn't a choice that will earn her any friends. Kane knows he will never find someone to replace Cassia--and is certain she returns his feelings--but how can he throw away his own promising future waiting on a queen? When the outer realm is threatened by the dangerous Zhang mafia, Cassia, Kane and the rest of the Banshee crew uncover a horrifying conspiracy that endangers the entire universe. In the face of unspeakable evil, Cassia must confront her own family's complicated legacy on Eturia and decide once and for all who her real family is.

Seventeen incredible authors. Seventeen amazing stories. One fantastic sci-fi universe, where the only limit is one's imagination. Welcome to Starflight. Based on the exploration-based Starflight video game series created by Greg Johnson and the Binary Systems team, the stories in Tales From the Starport Lounge flesh out and shine a light into the darkest corners of the known universe. Join the last vestiges of Humanity and their alien allies (the reptilian Thrynn, the insectoid Velox, and the plant-based Elowan) as they attempt to carve out their own territory in a sector of space filled with wondrous opportunity and deadly threats. Brave explorers seek out new worlds to colonize while merchants cruise from starport to starport, their holds laden with exotic goods. Not all in this futuristic setting have noble intent. For every prospector and trader attempting to make a difference, a dozen pirates, smugglers, and mobsters engage in all manner of criminal enterprise. Gangs fill the underbellies of every major city and raid the trade routes between the stars, pushing the outnumbered and outgunned Interstel Police to their limit and forcing civilians to take matters into their own hands. It's a rough and tumble universe, where one wrong move could spell doom for an expedition, or grant enough wealth to buy a planet. Board your ship and set course for stars unknown! The universe awaits. Stories include: "Those Who Came Before" by Michael Gants, "Choices" by Christopher Woods, "Black Box Blues" by Philip K. Booker, "Rock of Truth" by Bart Kemper, "Obligations" by Marisa Wolf, "Hindsight" by R.J. Ladon, "Peacestone" by Brisco Woods, "Everyone Gets What They Have Coming" by D.J. Butler, "A New Beginning" by J.F. Posthumus, "Fire at Will" by Declan Finn, "Hiro of Arth" by David A. Tatum, "Rover Rescue" by Michael J. Allen, "Territory" by Nick Steverson, "Turn of Luck" by William Joseph Roberts, "Always on Duty" by Benjamin Tyler Smith, "To Cache a Killer" by Michael J. Ciaravella, "Through the Time Lens" by Robert Silverberg Plus an introduction by Starflight creator, Greg Johnson

The Starflight Handbook A Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel"The Starflight Handbook is an indispensable compendium of the manyand varied methods for traversing the vast interstellar gulf--don'tleave the Solar System without it!" --Robert Forward "Verysensible, very complete and useful. Its good use of references andtechnical 'sidebars' adds to the book and allows the nontechnicaltext to be used by ordinary readers in an easy fashion. I certainlywould recommend this book to anyone doing any thinking at all aboutinterstellar flight or the notion of possibilities of contactsbetween hypothetical civilizations in different stat systems."--Louis Friedman Executive Director, The Planetary Society TheStarflight Handbook is the first and only compendium on planetEarth of the radical new technologies now on the drawing boards ofsome of our smartest and most imaginative space scientists andengineers. Scientists and engineers as well as general readers willbe captivated by its: * In-depth discussions of everything from nuclear pulse propulsionengines to in-flight navigation, in flowing, non-technicallanguage * Sidebars and appendices cover technical and mathematical conceptsin detail * Seventy-five elegant and enlightening illustrations depictingstarships and their hardware

As space ventures have become more numerous, leading scientists and theorists have offered ways of building a living habitat in a hostile environment, taking an ‘ecosystems’ view of space colonization. The contributors to this volume take a radical multi-disciplinary view of the challenge of human space colonization through the ongoing project Persephone. This book fundamentally challenges prevalent ideas about sustainability and proposes a new approach to resource austerity and conservation and providing truly sustainable approaches that are life-promoting. Readers will learn the details of the plans for Persephone – a real project that is part of the company Icarus Interstellar’s plans for the design and engineering of a living interior on a worldship to be constructed in Earth’s orbit within 100 years. Although the timeframe itself is only an estimate, since it is contingent on many significant developments, including funding and technological advances, the industry consensus is that within 100 years we will see manned space exploration beyond our solar system. This notion is shared by organizations such as the Initiative for Interstellar Studies and the DARPA-funded 100-year starship project. This book specifically develops the principles for the construction of a living habitat within a worldship – a multi-generational starship that contains its own world that supports colonists as it travels across great distances between stars at a speed much slower than light. Far from being a sterile industrial setup, such as the ISS, or even being a bucolic suburbia as proposed by Gerard O’Neill in the 1970s, this worldship will provide the pre-conditions for sustaining life beyond Earth’s environment, which may also lead to the evolution of non-terrestrial ecologies. Drawing on the principles of ecopoiesis and insights offered by the Biosphere 2 experiment that demonstrated what we have to learn about ecosystem construction, this book proposes first designing the soils of such a space. It should then be possible to set up the conditions that a first generation of colonists may experience in leaving our solar system to find new worlds to settle - perhaps in spreading life throughout the universe. Although the book takes a unique view of ecology and sustainability within the setting of a traveling starship it is equally concerned with the human experience on artificial worlds. Chapters come from a range of multi disciplinary thinkers who shed light on the brave new future ahead from different angles.

Publisher Fact Sheet An exploration of the human side of spaceflight: what living & working in space will really be like in the decades to come.