Terminus of an Arc

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Image featured: on Winchell Chung’s Atomic Rockets site, Project Orion page, under William Black's 3D Orions.

Artwork featured in Issue 34 of 3D Art Direct Magazine Link here

At orbital apogee the Orion spacecraft orient prior to Mars transfer burn. They will make the crossing at 125,490 fps – a 39 day fast transfer trajectory to Mars (85,562 mph/137,700 kph).

Image is part of a future historical setting, more detail is found on my profile page under the heading Orion’s Arm Future History, A Synopsis. A Timeline Graph is to be found here: Timeline.

The vehicles have shed their forward payload shroud, and from this angle details of the nuclear pulse system are fully visible: pusher-plate, bomb aperture (centered in the pusher-plate), and the bomb placement gun (located ahead of the pusher-plate and inside the ring of the second-stage shock absorbers) identifiable by its conical plasma shield. The first-stage shock absorbers are gas filled torridal bags – visible as black bands along the body of the pusher-plate – the second-stage shock absorbers are the long-arm shock absorbers positioned between the pusher-plate and the main hull of the vehicle. The two sets of shock absorbers are de-tuned in relationship to one another in order to step down the powerful 150 km/sec (300,000 mph) slam of the plasma (generated by the nuclear impulse device) to something man and machine can stand.

Mars Settlement Project Complete Sequence Image Links:

Final Preparations:

Right Before

Launch:

Orion Nuclear Ground Launch

Terminus of an Arc

Entry, Descent, Landing:

Propulsion Module/Entry Vehicle Separation

Piercing the Veil

Flight Control

A Sound of Thunder

Cue The Pyrotechnics

Riding The Fire

Over Noctis Labyrinthus

Terminal Descent

Post Landing:

Martian Dusk