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This fascinating volume explores the origins and development of Project Orion, a 1950s proposal to propel interplanetary and even interstellar spacecraft by detonating nuclear weapons behind them. What's crazier than the idea itself is the fact that it probably would have worked. With an Orion drive, it would have been entirely possible to take off from the ground, fly to Mars or the moons of Saturn, and then return home with fuel to spare, a capability matched by no other engine design before or since. George Dyson explains in exhaustive detail how this propulsion system would have worked, and what difficulties its researchers faced in designing it. Included in the text are plenty of pictures, too, including photographs of the Orion team along with numerous original sketches.
This book does not limit itself strictly to the technical aspects of the project. It also gives biographical accounts of many of the engineers and physicists involved in it, allowing the reader to understand them as people rather than names on a page, and there is a detailed overview of the political environment in which Orion was born, struggled for survival, and ultimately died an obscure death. All of the text is well written and interesting. For anybody who wants to know about one of the most ambitious projects of the Cold War, or who has a passionate interest in the history of space exploration, this book is absolutely essential reading.
- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1 edition (April 16, 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0805059857
- ISBN-13: 978-0805059854
- Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 33 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#854,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1403 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Books)
- #593 in Astronautics & Space Flight
- #1268 in Aeronautics & Astronautics (Books)
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