This is my first post on the site - please forgive any noobish actions on my part, I will learn in time.

I signed up for this site a few weeks ago, I stumbled across an article about the USS Eldridge and the Philidelphia Experiment. That prompted me to sign up and add my somewhat limited experiences with the Government and my family.

My mother is a Phd in mathematics, genius of a person, named Top Ten Smartest People in Los Angeles in LA Magazine about 10 years ago, Mensa and Prometheius Society, ect. About 6 years ago, she started work for NASA and JPL. I didnt know much about her work, just that it had to do with Mars landings and/or Mars surface mappings. About a year into her working, she co-developed a propulsion/delivery system that would allow a spacecraft to move from one orbital to the next without expending any fuel. She called this idea the "Slingshot". It was in essence a large circular structure that would be placed in space at certain coordinates, and the ship or shuttle would fly through this object and be "Slingshot" into the next orbital. These would be built one by one, sent into orbit, and then upon completion, we would have a series of Slingshots that could effectively send a shuttle style ship directly to Mars without buring a massive amount of fuel. Soon after I heard about this idea, mom started complaining about being followed home from work. She taught at a high school and went to JPL after work, sometimes on weekends. The only vehicle she saw was a large white van with CA EXEMPT plates. There was no real interaction between mom and the white vans, only following her once in a great while AND seeing one outside the high school on 2 separate occasions. Never at the house (to my knowledge). Over the next 6 months or so, talk about the project has since ceased and she no longer works for either company. She doesnt talk about it much, and I dont ask. She now works with robotics and self reliant robotic technology.

My question is: Has anyone seen ANY information on this Slingshot idea anywhere? I have the feeling some major FUEL companies might not want this type of project to be completed. Think of the massive amount of fuel that would be saved, not to mention the budget for this idea to come to fruition was 10% of what was projected. ( I remember mom saying it was a 5billion dollar project as opposed to a 50billion dollar government idea.) So therefore the government wouldnt get the liquid assests they expected. I have Google'd myself to death looking for any info but I have been so far unsuccessful. I am not a spook myself - so im not going to raid my moms personal files to find information. I have asked her recently to show me what she has - and she only replies that "its all at work".

Any insight or help would be appreciated. I will post more info as I come across it. Again please forgive me if I have posted redundant or useless information. Dont flame the noob.

bl0t, welcome aboard first off. This is really interesting. Was your mom's work compartmentalized or was it her project? The reason I ask is if she knew too much info, maybe random surveilence is part of the job. Perhaps being a teacher posed a potential threat to security in their eyes. Hard to know for sure. I'm curious if your mom would be interested in relaying some info to you that you could write down and keep hidden. I bet that info would be protected by her agreement not to disclose. So be careful what you chose to share.

Shadow:

Nice to meet you! In reference to your question:

It was a partnership initially; mom and a physics teacher she had been friends with for quite some time. Together they presented the idea to mutual friends at NASA, USAFA and Westpoint (she is an honorary liaison officer at both US institutions). I am not too involved with the logistics of the whole situation, I do know at some point later on in development the Air Force took over senior control of the project. She holds the patent on the concept, but what possible help that would be versus the government is questionable. Unless she provides me with docs willingly I am SOL for presenting more info on the subject.

Umm..

Usually these threads about people's mom are bogus - but certainly we would love for your mother to join us here in a discussion.

And I am sure some sort of slingshot plan could be orchestrated - many of us here feel NASA is stalling for time by using out of date methods and equipment.

Would your mom get into trouble for disclosing her info to the public?
If she wants to lurk here and look at the science stuff, she may want to get her feet wet in a discussion. I for one would love to hear more about her work. Interestingly enough, just having a confirmed thread from her on the subject might help her later down the line when NASA tries to cut her out of the loop. She could use the threads as a 'time stamp' as to prove her involvement. You should encourage her to tell you some stories that you could archive for another time. That is my paranoid side giving advice btw. Also, there was a thread here before about a guy who thought he was being followed. He would wait for them and document the times. He also photographed them in front of his house. Just some food for thought.

I wouldnt post the information here for the masses of people to see, specially since you have pretty much told us who your mom is (a little research will reveal).

check popular science this month or last i am pretty sure i saw it there. though with the amount of reading i do for work it could have been in one of my trade journals- i used to work spacelift from the West coast.