Superb picture and interesting text!!

Fantastic image and POV! Great modeling. Corrie

Excellent integration of models and photo,great scene!

Great image and background on these space craft. It is hard to believe that at one time they considered using nuclear bombs as a means to launch space ships into space! What would the earth be like if they had done that!

Jeditojan, Thanks for your interest in my work. While this particular series of posts deals with Closed Cycle Nuclear Gas Core (i.e. Nuclear Light Bulb) heavy lift launch and orbital transfer vehicles, Orion plays a pivotal role in my future history. Orion – is exactly what Jeditojan describes: i.e. “using nuclear bombs to launch spacecraft.” Being a strong advocate of reason, I find the fact that Orion was suppressed to be one of the greatest tragedies’ of the modern era. In 1965 Freeman Dyson published an impassioned article in the journal “Science,” entitled “Death of a Project.” The story of Orion, he wrote, is significant because this is the first time in modern history that a major expansion of human technology has been suppressed for political reasons. The premise in my future history is that a private group sets out to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars (a fact which, over the span of the next 750 years, results in a solar system wide industrial civilization). This is a distinctly different context of events from which, I suspect Jeditojan poses the question: “What would the earth be like if they had done that!” (Objectively I cannot speak to what emotion is signified by Jeditojan’s exclamation point – his thoughts, sentiments, and judgments (pro or con) remain unspoken). Suffice it to say, the world would be different qualitatively; in regards to knowledge (i.e. the measure of scientific data acquired) and experience (i.e. in the operations of large crewed spacecraft over long duration missions), but perhaps most significantly, the difference would lie in the scale of mans achievements. The original General Atomic proposal would have entailed “Manned Missions to Saturn for 1970 (After Mars in 1965)” which is the title to a discussion series delivered by George Dyson and hosted by the NASA Engineering Colloquium. The final cost of project Apollo was reported to Congress as $25.4 billion in 1973. This includes launch vehicle engine development for the Apollo spacecraft; the Saturn I launch vehicle; the Saturn IB launch vehicle; the Saturn V launch vehicle; Mission support; Tracking and data acquisition; Ground facilities, and operation of installations. Eleven manned missions were flown in total. Seven manned Lunar missions were flown – six resulting in Lunar landings. Altogether eleven men spent 80 hours 30 minutes on the surface of the moon returning around one thousand pounds of mineralogical samples. General Atomic legacy designs would have afforded the capability of mission crews of a hundred (or more) specialists in spacecraft equipped for mission durations measured in years, not hours or days. Regarding Orion: Arthur C. Clark “Even now the only way we could get large payloads around the solar system is by something like Orion, because atomic bombs contain thousands of times more energy, indeed millions of times more energy, than any of the chemical fuels used in existing rockets – hydrogen and oxygen are feeble compared to the energies released by an atomic bomb. So when you talk of sending hundreds of tons, or even thousands of tons of payload, including human beings, to Mars, say, that’s the only way we could do it, even now. The space age hasn’t even begun yet. I believe the day will come when very few members of the human race will even be able to point at the part of the sky where the earth is.” Regarding Orion: Freeman Dyson “I am still very strongly interested in spreading life beyond the Earth. Humans of course should go along. The most important thing, to me, is just enlarging the domain of life. Life has this marvelous adaptability – it’s able to adapt itself to almost anything. Life [presumably meaning life on earth] has hardly even begun yet adapting itself to the universe – this little planet doesn’t give it so much scope.” Reference Link Rare Flight test footage. Freeman Dyson and Arthur C. Clark speaking on the subject of Orion, can be found here in an excerpt of the BBC documentary To Mars by A-Bomb. I also highly recommend the entire seven-part documentary, part one here: Project Orion- To Mars by A-Bomb-Part One. In the context of recent events, Scott Lowther, on his Unwanted Blog, posted this essay on the utility of the Orion nuclear impulse device as a tool to deflect potential impactors such as the recent Chelyabinsk Meteor – staging Orion vehicles out at the Sol-Earth Lagrange points as deep space detection and “picket ships.” Link: Nuking The Chelyabinsk Meteor.

outstanding model

Great image! The distance between the two vehicles and the backdrop of the Earth gives it a great sense of scale. Space id big.

nice!

This image almost looks like a real object

This is a very compelling image! The use of shadow is very effective at directing the eye to the subject. The distance craft really gives a sense of enormity to the scene. Nicely done!