In this 12th adventure in the new Tom Swift Invention Series, Tom Swift decides his 4-year-old space station, the Outpost in Space, is now too small. When you outgrow something that you need, you make it larger or you replace it. Tom's plan for a replacement is not just ambitious, it is almost impossible. He want to build a giant space station capable of rotating to provide its 1,000 or more inhabitants with near Earth-like gravity, room to grow, and incredible surroundings. Two problems are in his way: money and getting all the materials up there. When even his own government appears to condemn his efforts and threaten to cut off his supply chain, Tom must turn to an alternate source for his building materials-mining what he needs from asteroids. But he needs a way to transport raw materials to Earth and finished goods into orbit. The solution has never been tried except in science fiction. He decides to build a space elevator. But with so many challenges and even the United Nations looking like they want to take over the new station, he finds that he is just about on his own.

In this 10th book of the new Tom Swift Invention Series, young inventor Tom Swift finds himself with a mystery. Someone is insisting on a face-to-face meeting but refuses to tell Tom why or who he is. All sorts of bells and danger whistles go off in his mind. When the truth becomes known, it sets Tom on a path that will see him building a flying vehicle capable of locating buried bodies, being pressed into a rescue mission when a volcano erupts and threatens to destroy a major city, which then catapults him right into the toughest assignment he's ever faced. Flying through space or swimming deeper in the ocean than anyone ever has been child's play compared to what he faces. The very earth under our feet has a mysterious tear that could destroy several New England states. Nobody knows how long it has been there, but it isn't standing still It might even travel across the country eventually causing a super volcanic eruption under Yosemite. Tom has never faced the very planet he lives on as an opponent in a battle like this.