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Project Orion (nuclear propulsion) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (4403 words) |
 | Project Orion was the first engineering design study of a spacecraft powered by nuclear pulse propulsion, an idea first proposed by Stanislaw Ulam in 1947. |
| Orion is the ideal method of propelling a multi-generational starship such as an interstellar ark to the stars at velocities of up to 10% of the velocity of light. |
| Stirling, Orion spacecraft are created during an arms race between the Domination of the Draka and the Alliance for Democracy, and used by both sides in their explorations of the solar system and as warships. |
| Project Orion (2038 words) |
| Orion is also the name of NASA's new spacecraft for human space exploration, previously known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which is designed to replace the Space Shuttle and eventually return to the Moon. |
| Orion was initially excluded from both camps because the Air Force felt it had no value as a weapon, and NASA had made a strategic decision in 1959 that the civilian space program would, in the near future at any rate, be non-nuclear. |
| For the project to take off literally, it was essential that NASA become involved, so Taylor and James Nance, a General Atomics employee and later director of the Orion project, made representation to Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). |
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