Orbits
Can a lone space garbage man in the year 2064 fight the forces of oppression and tyranny with his reliable ship Excelsior and his faithful crew? There's a lot of garbage out there floating in space, and maybe Thomas Major is the right man who can clean it all up. Oh, and he just happens to be the best damn pilot in orbit. In this exciting series, the crew of Excelsior is thrust into orbits of deception, peril, and romance as they fight the communist menace, and other dangers, in the solar system and become an unbreakable team of freedom fighters.
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Orbits is the new science fiction adventure series on ebooks which takes place in the not too distant future. In the near future, space junk or space debris will be a major threat to the space traveling public. At the same time, the perpetual battles between good and evil, oppression and freedom will find their way into Earth orbit. Man will be confronted with the same questions he has always faced but in a completely different environment. It will take a special group of humans to face the challenges presented in this new environment. Meet these individuals - the crew of Excelsior - and follow their adventures in Orbits.
The Latest Adventure
Book 4
LiMing has been keeping a deep secret from her cremates on the Excelsior. She has seen the artificial intelligence code and know the consequences if it is installed again. But her brother desperately needs her help. So she must choose between family and her crew. Captain Thomas Major is shaken from a deep slumber and instantly senses that something is profoundly wrong. His suspicions are confirmed when he finds LiMing hiding that mysterious code. He agrees to transport LiMing to an enigmatic orbital hospital where he completely embarrasses himself before the alluring Heather Fairfield. But when he learns the truth about LiMing’s brother, the horrors of the war come back with a vengeance. He knows that he must act to stop the spread of the perils again. He will have to make the ultimate decision of life and death. But what about the fate of LiMing and her brother?
Previous Adventures
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Heading 5
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Click on Book Cover Above
Book 1 - The Hunt for Everything
In Book 1 of this new space adventure series, the crew of Excelsior must race against time and the forces of a powerful government ideology to locate a mysterious data module in a cause for freedom while encountering beautiful women who are both friend and foe. Success will depend on the bravery and skill of the crew of Excelsior who are unwittingly thrust into a cosmos of deception, despotism, and danger.
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Book 2 - Dangerous Debris
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In this exciting adventure, the crew of Excelsior encounters a strange group of humans seeking something every human wants. But are they in fact human? Will they succeed in their quest? Thomas Major and his crew will assist while dodging an old nemesis, and be a witness to a transformation that can only be described as miraculous. Faithful Rosalind gains knowledge of her lost husband, but will the acquiring of that knowledge cause her to question her position on Excelsior?
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Book 3 - The Long Voyage
In the third book in the Orbits Series, the intrepid crew of the Excelsior travels to Mars in search of crewmen Rosalind's long lost husband. Their desperate search is interrupted by a stop at the beautifully designed deep space station Pegasus, where communist dissident LiMing rejoins the crew to assist in their fight and flight from the communist menace. On Pegasus, Rosalind undergoes a religious experience but then must desperately escape from the bowels of the most fearsome warship of the Chinese Space Force - the Xi Jinping after gaining intelligence of her husband's whereabouts. The battle ensues when Captain Thomas Major guides Excelsior into a trojan asteroid field where he must match wits with a Red Dragon interceptor fighter hunting Rosalind's husband. The final battle culminates at Mars where Captain Major executes the most daring maneuver to directly confront the warship Xi Jinping. The battle over, Rosalind finds what she has been seeking. She comes to realize the meaning of her fond memories, and realizes she has found a new home on Excelsior.
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Meet The Crew of Excelsior
Thomas Major - Is a pilot of the space garbage ship called Excelsior. Not only is he the best pilot out there, but he will defend freedom and fight tyranny no matter what the danger. An ordinary and underestimated man with strength, integrity, and skills.
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Rosalind Rose - Using her math skills she can calculate anything for any mission. Beautiful and trusted by Major, she is the heart of the crew and is searching for something she lost.
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Carlos - Young, enthusiastic, and idealistic. He pushes Major into the proper role of a space ship captain. He can fix anything on Excelsior, and will never forego the opportunity for a space walk or the affections of a young lady.
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LiMing - Communist dissident. She is in a perpetual cat and mouse game with the Central Communist Party as she and her shadowy hacker group combat and hope to overthrow their tyranny on Earth and in orbit. She has found allies in the crew of Excelsior.
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FROM NASA:
More than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris, or “space junk,” are tracked by the Department of Defense’s global Space Surveillance Network (SSN) sensors. Much more debris -- too small to be tracked, but large enough to threaten human spaceflight and robotic missions -- exists in the near-Earth space environment. Since both the debris and spacecraft are traveling at extremely high speeds (approximately 15,700 mph in low Earth orbit), an impact of even a tiny piece of orbital debris with a spacecraft could create big problems.
The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, including to the International Space Station and other spacecraft with humans aboard, such as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
NASA takes the threat of collisions with space debris seriously and has a long-standing set of guidelines on how to deal with each potential collision threat to the space station. These guidelines, part of a larger body of decision-making aids known as flight rules, specify when the expected proximity of a piece of debris increases the probability of a collision enough that evasive action or other precautions to ensure the safety of the crew are needed.
Space debris encompasses both natural meteoroid and artificial (human-made) orbital debris. Meteoroids are in orbit about the sun, while most artificial debris is in orbit about the Earth (hence the term “orbital” debris).
Orbital debris is any human-made object in orbit about the Earth that no longer serves a useful function. Such debris includes nonfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris, and fragmentation debris.
There are approximately 23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. They travel at speeds up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft. There are half a million pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger (up to 0.4 inches, or 1 centimeter) or larger, and approximately 100 million pieces of debris about .04 inches (or one millimeter) and larger. There is even more smaller micrometer-sized (0.000039 of an inch in diameter) debris.
Even tiny paint flecks can damage a spacecraft when traveling at these velocities. A number of space shuttle windows were replaced because of damage caused by material that was analyzed and shown to be paint flecks. In fact, millimeter-sized orbital debris represents the highest mission-ending risk to most robotic spacecraft operating in low Earth orbit.
What's Next For Excelsior?
The Excelsior and crew have been through four harrowing adventures. They've faced the deception of communist spies, the inhumanity of bio-engineered slaves, the more fearsome Chinese Space Force warship, and the prospect of another artificial intelligence war. They need a vacation. In the upcoming Book 5 of the Orbits series, Captain Major decides to take his crew on a relaxing space cruise vacation. Unfortunately, that relaxing vacation turns into a comic misadventure of mutiny and murder. Once again the resourcefulness of the crew of the Excelsior and the piloting skills of Captain major will be called upon to solve the mystery and avert disaster.
