Begin the Adventure. How to Break the Speed Barrier by A.D. 2070

A book of hard science culminating in three separate chapters of fiction (7, 8, and 9), this book, written for the technically-savvy layman and amateur scientist, is comprised of selected articles by the authors which previously appeared in various journals along with new material that ties it all together. The book critically examines Einstein's conclusion that nothing can go faster than light. A wide, popular audience is sought to swamp the myriads who take the phrase "You cannot exceed the velocity of light" on faith alone or who generalize from a too narrow base. The book is about star travel but it is not science fiction; it is a science story describing a scenario centered around a fresh look at relativity in the light of current thinking. In 1905, Einstein published his landmark special theory of relativity from which he concluded that nothing can go faster than light. However the current trend among scientists is that the relativistic changes are a sort of kinematical perspective and are no more real than the apparent bending of a stick which is partly immersed in water. A barrier is manifested in particle accelerators and with light sailing spaceships and the reason for the barrier is clearly explained; but under that reason, the barrier does not extend to rocketships. After development of arguments in the first six chapters, chapters 7, 8, and 9 are fictionalized accounts of voyages and journeys to the stars based on those arguments. Chapter 10 presents an hypothesis relating to the light barrier.