General Atomic Orion Scale Reference DiagramWilliam-Black on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/william-black/art/General-Atomic-Orion-Scale-Reference-Diagram-787218336William-Black

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General Atomic Orion Scale Reference Diagram

By
William-Black
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Description

The text portion of the chart is sourced from George Dyson's definitive book, Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship.

I've modeled the Recoverable Flight Test Vehicle, the Orbital Flight Test Vehicle, and the Interplanetary Ship. The data is in the table, however I left the Advanced Interplanetary Ship off, electing instead to add a Space Shuttle for scale reference. The Advanced Interplanetary ship will be the subject of a future post.

These designs represent the first generation optimized General Atomic nuclear pulse spacecraft, which, initially envisioned as ground-launch nuclear pulse systems, all could have been lofted by other means. Large, post-saturn time-frame boosters, such as the Convair Nexus were specifically intended for lofting heavy payloads such as the General Atomic nuclear pulse interplanetary spacecraft.

Note: Data in the table is based on nuclear pulse Earth surface launch.  

About the Space Shuttle model:

My sense of aesthetics insisted, in this particular case, on a space shuttle in its original livery, which I've reproduced down to the solid booster markings. It just didn't look right: the orange-tank shuttle next to a nuclear pulse spacecraft. 

Image size
3284x4226px 5.35 MB
© 2019 - 2026 William-Black
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