2001: A Space Odyssey Revisited In July of 1997 Stanley K. Borowski and Leonard A. Dudzinski presented a paper, “2001: A Space Odyssey Revisited - The Feasibility of 24 Hour Commuter Flights to the Moon Using NTR Propulsion with LUNOX Afterburners," at the 33rd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, Seattle, Washington. In April 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the enigmatic product of director Stanley Kubrick and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, hit movie screens across the United States. Stanley Borowski and Leonard Dudzinski, engineers at NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, were among the many inspired by 2001's vision of spaceflight. The film brought to life the exciting possibilities awaiting humankind beyond the Apollo program - images of commercial spaceplanes, large orbiting space stations and commuter flights to sprawling settlements on the Moon. Less than six months after experiencing the thrill of Dr. Heywood Floyd's commuter flight to the Moon on the big screen, Apollo 8 would orbit our celestial neighbor ten times on Christmas Eve, followed seven months later by the historic lunar landing mission of Apollo 11. In their paper, Borowski and Dudzinski examined "two key technologies" which, they wrote, might form the basis of a lunar transportation infrastructure that could "evolve with time to rival the operational capabilities presented in 2001." The first of these was liquid oxygen (LOX) production from lunar materials. Oxygen, they noted, is abundant in lunar dirt and rocks, and many techniques exist for freeing it. The authors proposed mining and refining microscopic volcanic glass beads similar to the "orange soil" found at Apollo 17's Taurus-Littrow landing site. This could, they estimated, provide a lunar oxygen (LUNOX) yield of one ton per 25 tons of feedstock; that is, 13 times better than the yield of typical lunar dirt. Borowski and Dudzinski proposed building a nuclear-powered LUNOX base at 21 degrees north latitude, 29 degrees east longitude, in Mare Serenitatis, site of "a vast deposit" of oxygen-rich glass beads. They estimated that the site might contain as much as 700 million tons of LUNOX. Their second key technology was LOX-Augmented Nuclear Thermal Rocket (LANTR) propulsion. A Nuclear-Thermal Rocket (NTR) comprises a tank of cryogenic liquid hydrogen, a nuclear reactor, and a rocket nozzle. The liquid hydrogen serves as coolant for the nozzle walls, then passes through the reactor, which heats it to a hot, rapidly expanding gas. The gas leaves the reactor through the nozzle at supersonic speed, carrying away reactor heat and pushing the rocket through space. Unlike a chemical rocket, a conventional NTR uses no oxygen. This means that, while the hydrogen it expels is very hot, it never actually ignites. The chemical energy in the hydrogen is thus wasted. Borowski and Dudzinski proposed injecting LOX into the nozzle to chemically burn the hydrogen, thereby augmenting the NTR's thrust. LANTR would be "an extremely versatile propulsion system" capable of "big engine" performance using "smaller, more affordable, easier-to-test NTR engines." Borowski and Dudzinski envisioned a four-vehicle LANTR fleet. Each LANTR would carry enough nuclear fuel for 44 Earth-moon round-trips. It could accomplish 13 flights per year, yielding a service life of 3.3 years. Nearly spent LANTRs would be launched on a one-way trip into solar orbit. The LANTR design would be capable of functioning as a conventional NTR - that is, without LOX - until LUNOX mining and refining were established, they added. When LUNOX production began, 24-hour "commuter" flights from low-Earth orbit (LEO) to the moon would become possible. To support weekly LANTR commuter flights, the lunar base would need to produce 11,000 tons of LUNOX per year. Of this, the LANTR fleet would expend 4900 tons during 24-hour flights from LLO to LEO, and a four-vehicle Lunar Landing Vehicle (LLV) fleet would use 6000 tons to transport 30-ton loads of LUNOX to a propellant depot in 300-kilometer-high circular Low Lunar Orbit (LLO). Borowski and Dudzinski estimated that, at that rate of production, the volcanic glass deposit in Mare Serenitatis could provide sufficient LUNOX for 63,000 years of weekly 24-hour flights.

Great image and concept! But "a four-vehicle Lunar Landing Vehicle (LLV) fleet would use 6000 tons to transport 30-ton loads of LUNOX to a propellant depot"? 6000:30 or 200:1 seems like a really bad cargo to propellant ratio for just getting to Lunar orbit.

Hey geirla As to your point: Agreed -- I've been trying to find out more about this project, I'm not sure if the numbers offered in the proposal are firmed up or mere ball-park estimates. One thing for certain is if any blue-print references exist they are still classed "sensitive," all I could get my hands on were NASA art department materials for reference -- and I outright rejected the lander design depicted -- here I've substituted my own design from the RNS system.

Fantastic image and modeling! Corrie

Great rendering work!

a gorgeous image, bud, and some fascinating history!

Neat.

Fabulous work!!

Lunox, hop over to http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/home.php and download "Orbiter 2010", also download Orbitersound (Orbiter itself is without sound). Then when you have mastered the basics of spaceflight (warning this is really a steep learning curve :) ) you should download the add-on "To the Moon in 24 Hours" wich is based on this space vessel. (and the good part is that this will cost all a lot of time but no money since its all free)

Great realism, love it !!