I bought The Starflight Handbook, (E.F. Mallove, G.L. Matloff) in 1989, shortly after its publication.

It is a technical, but not highly detailed, critical evaluation of potential propulsion systems for interstellar navigation. Its based on solid engineering principles, and has the math to back it up, (a minimum of calculus or DE, but you should be up on your algebra and trig).

It starts off with the rocket equation, staging, and other basic principles of astronautics, and then moves on to more advanced propulsion systems; ion, nuclear pulse, fission, fusion, Bussard Ramjets, solar sails, beamed propulsion, antimatter, etc. Several variations of each technology are discussed, along with hybrids and combinations, and each is evaluated with its potentials and liabilities. The authors are up-front honest about this. They are the first to admit that we don’t have any guarantees that any of these technologies will actually work in real engineering terms. But they examine all of those that can’t be ruled out altogether as physically impossible.

We should recall that the theoretical math and physics for interplanetary flight with chemical rockets were all worked out by early in the 20th century. It took only a few decades for this to be translated into engineering reality. By the early 60s we were building a rocket that could take us to the moon. I like to think we are in the same place relative to interstellar flight that we were with respect to interplanetary travel a century ago.

The book also covers more speculative propulsion tech, (science as we do not know it) such as “warp drives”, wormholes and FTL technologies, but it makes no promises it can’t keep. There are also chapters on related issues, such as navigation, suspended animation, mission profiles, etc.

The book is a fine introduction to the subject, and an indispensable reference for the science-fiction writer who wants to keep his spaceships as grounded in known science as possible. For this reason, I tried to find an updated version of the book, or some new text which would cover the same ground with the benefit of the 24 years that have elapsed since its publication.

Nothing. Nada. Can there be that there is nothing new on the horizon? Haven’t we come up with any new speculations or proposals (realistic ones, not hand-waving smoke-and-mirrors sci-fi stuff)?

I’ve heard talk of new ion propulsion, Kasimir Effect, and a few other ideas, but nothing that will get us up to what I see see as the forseeable future–from .1c to .5c–non-relativistic interstellar travel. Its hard to believe that a generation has passed since this book appeared and we aren’t any closer, even conceptually, to realistic star flight.

Have we finally hit the wall?