Where can I find some good books that can help me with the technical aspects of spacecraft? I'm looking for many links.
Here are some samples of what is out there: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/realdesigns.php#id--Avatar_ISV_Venture_Star http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/appworkedexample.php How Electric Spacecraft Could Fly NASA to Mars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberth_effect
And there's also this: Project Hyperion The book I am currently reading, The Sparrow, makes use of this kind of asteroid ship and in Larry Niven's Protector, the Pak Protector also makes use of this type.
Don't know if you have on-demand or not, but "Through the Wormhole" with Morgan Freeman has a lot of good shows where it talks about the technology of space travel. One guy said he could make an artificial Black Hole and contain it in some kind of contraption. The gravitational force of the black hole could propel a spaceship carrying a million people the speed of light.
Can you provide more background on what you're actually looking for? There's plenty of information on spacecraft about, but a spacecraft designed in the 1960s differs somewhat from a spacecraft designed in the 2010s and if you're looking at the year 2100 or so, things will be considerably different once again. Are you looking at manned/unmanned spacecraft?
I have several books on writing hard sci-fi (even though I don't write it myself, I do read it a lot.) You might want to check out "Space Travel: A writer's guide to the science of interplanetary and interstellar travel" by Ben Bova with Anthony R Lewis. It was published in 1997 as part of the Science Fiction Writing Series produced by Writer's Digest Books. Two chapters are of particular interest to this OP's thread: Rockets, and Advanced Spacecraft. These two chapters deal specifically with: Chemical Rockets Cryogenics Thrust and Specific Impulse Nuclear Rockets Burn, then Coast Electrical Rockets Plasma: the fourth state of matter Solar Sails Match the Rocket to the Job Mass Ratio Rockets for a Mars Mission Missiles and Launch Centers Reusable Launch Vehicles Skyhook Mass Drivers Laser Propulsion The MHD Torch Ship Storm Cellars Imagination and Knowledge There is also a separate chapter on "Starships" which deals (in detail) with building spacecraft that will voyage beyond the Solar System; types of propulsion; keeping passengers alive, etc. I don't know if the construction and knowledge about technical aspects of spacecraft has moved on a lot since 1997 (I suspect not!) but even so, this book is chock-a-block with ideas and technical know-how, couched in terms that a writer without an extensive background in physics and 'rocket science' can understand. Highly recommend this book. Even if it's just to read it. It's a great read, by a prolific and well-respected writer of Sci-Fi.
