Cislunar Nuclear Rescue Ship by wblack
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Description
Cislunar Nuclear Rescue Ship
I found this one on Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rocket site: link here.
From a concept proposed in NUCLEAR SPACE PROPULSION by Holmes F. Crouch (1965).
Lunar re-source exploration, colonization, orbital facilities construction and management and expansion would mean increased round trip lunar transport, both chemical and nuclear, and in the course of this there inevitably will arise malfunctions and emergencies These are the realities of increased space travel.
In such an environment of increased orbital traffic there would be need for a nuclear rescue ship operating in cislunar space. The primary role of such a ship would be to save human life, manage accident aftermath and debris, and to salvage the spacecraft when possible.
Such a rescue ship would require propulsive capability to drastically change orbit planes and altitudes. It would require excess ΔV to proceed with dispatch to rendezvous with a disabled spacecraft. In addition, capability would be required for transferring personnel and equipment, making repairs to a disabled vehicle, and even taking it in tow if conditions warranted.
Here I’ve worked from the diagram available on Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rocket site to produce this model.
There are some design features to note: the Neutron Isolation Shield between the drive reactors. Winchell Chung points out that nuclear reactors are throttled by carefully controlling the amount of available neutrons within the reactor. A second reactor randomly spraying extra neutrons into the first reactor would make reactor control problematic.
Also of note: Rear Main H2 Tanks are cut at an angle to fit into the cone created by reactor shadow shields.
As always, thank you all for your thoughtful comments, interest, and encouragement.
Comments (13)
geirla
Great modeling! I love those rescue ships and the giant robot arms. And the neutron shield is a great add -- one of those pesky little physics things we have to keep in mind.
shayhurs
Nice!
thelordofdragons
superb modeling and presentation
flavia49
gorgeous work!!
peedy
Fantastic modeling. Corrie
thecytron
Xcellent detailed presentation!
Apple_UK
The level of detail in your work continues to inspire me :)
Bambam131
Amazing modeling and presentation, I hope to have something up here real soon as this is truly inspiring and I miss working on my ships. I have been trying to recover a 1 TB harddrive and I am up to 84% done. This has been recovering for about 6 weeks as it is do 1 bit at a time. I know sounds crazy but this is Spine-Rite and it is supposed to be the beast at recovery. I hope to have everything back up and running in about 3 weeks all together. I love your modeling and the amount of detail that you put into each image that you post. Keep up the most excellent work my friend. cheers, David
wblack
Thank you David -- and thank you all for your kind and thoughtful comments and interest. I think we all can say we have missed both David and Apple UK and it is good to see them both here. I for one cannot wait to see more of David's amazingly detailed work -- and I hope everyone has checked out Apple UK's awesome "Progeny of Terra" character garbed in a very cool realistic spacesuit posted here in the SF category.
NefariousDrO
Such a cool modeling job, the realism and attention to detail is absolutely incredible. Your work continues to inspire me in so many ways.
1358
seriously keen work, point accurate... a doable design, not just for rescue but a broad mission spectrum. very nicely done!
dcmstarships
simply spectacular. I hope you keep finding these wonderful old gems of past speculative spaceship designs.
SIGMAWORLD
EXCELLENT!