May 042010
 

Even way back a decade ago. my scribblings in Aerospace Projects Review on Project Orion (see HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE) were always intended to form the nucleus of a real-and-for-true book on Project Orion. My inability to self-publish a cost-effective version of what I wanted did a good job of persuading me that I had cheaper things to do with my time. Well, it may yet come to pass… I’m now in the “hey, that’s a good idea” phase of discussions with a publisher to publish my Orion book.

The current plan is that it will include all the APR stuff, as well as subtantially more than didn’t make it in there (including the recent Douglas stuff and post-Orion concepts). I’d like it to have a lot more color artwork, but I’ve no skill in that department… so anyone interested, let me know.

 Posted by at 11:21 pm

  21 Responses to “Project Orion: The Book”

  1. I am a professional (published) artist, E-mail me if interested.

  2. Need help???? 😉

  3. I know there’s already been one book about Orion; but if you do one I’d certainly buy it.

  4. can i help or just buy the book ?

  5. If you need a cover shot for cheap email me.

  6. > I know there’s already been one book about Orion

    Indeed there has, George Dyson’s excellent book. Mine will be designed not to compete, but to complement. It also means that the obvious book title, “Project Orion,” has already been taken and I’ll have to come up with something else… hopefully something innately interesting.
    Off the top of my head:
    “Nuke Your Way To The Stars”
    “Nuclear Thunder”
    When Americans Weren’t A Bunch Of Wailing Pansies”
    “Nukin’ It Old School”
    “Four Thousand Tons of Nuclear Whoopass”

    Clearly creating advertising copy ain’t my schtick. I suspect in the end it’ll probably be something like…
    “Orion: The Something-Or-Other Blah-De-Blah.”

  7. As for art: It’s early yet in the process, and I’m not sure what the publisher will have to say about such things as a big mass of color artwork (color costs money to print, I gather), and what, if any, financial renumeration might be in order for artists. So don’t start banging out art just yet. But if you think you’re up to it, what I might *suggest* is that you put together a couple pieces of your finished art (not necessarily Orion, but something vaguely similar that shows your skills) and some cartoons/scribbles/sketches that show what your ideas for future Orion art might be.

    Some people, I already know what your art is like, and would love to have you on board. Others I’m less familiar with. And I’m not sure that I’ll have free reign to include any and all art that I want to.

    As I said… it’s early days yet.

  8. “When Americans Weren’t A Bunch Of Wailing Pansies”

    That gets my vote, with “Four Thousand Tons of Nuclear Whoopass” a close 2nd. (Or first if it focused on delivery applications. 🙂 )

  9. sign me up for a preorder .. 😎

  10. > “Orion: The Something-Or-Other Blah-De-Blah.”

    “The Orion Project: A Design History/ A Graphic Design History”

    “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion: A Design History”

    “See you on Titan, chumps! Blam! Blam! Blam!”

    I like that last one, but it’s not mine… I saw it online *years* ago.

  11. “Caution SEVERE Blast Hazard”? 😉

  12. Oh yeah, forgot to say that I am interested in the book itself. I’ve been considering the Orion issues that I haven’t bought yet. A book that contained them all sounds even better!

  13. You can put me down for pre-order.

  14. I just ran the numbers… I currently have 212 pages of Orion stuff on-hand from the APR run. For a book I’d do a *lot* of reshuffling… the breakdown of info in the extant articles was done to facilitate separate articles, but probably isn;t a very good approach for a unified book.

    Other sections to be added:
    Early history of explosive propulsion
    Post-Orion nuclear pulse programs
    Orion in fiction

    I’d think it would be a neat idea to have an “Orion in art” section as well, bringing together the known pieces of artwork. Rick Sternbach’s stuff, Don Davis did a number of Enzmann Starship paintings that I’ve *never* seen reproduced, outside of some photocopies of indifferent quality that I got some years back; General Atomics art (most of which is sadly classified); modern interpretations. But this sort of thing would be somewhat outside of my skillset… not only getting the art, but getting the artist’s permission. That might be troublesome.

  15. Actually, getting permission to use art is fairly straightforward. You just write the artist a letter that says “I am writing a book on XXX and would like permission to use your image YYY as (an illustration within the book, cover, etc.). The ms will be sent to the publisher on zz.zz.20___. I look forward to hearing from you at your convenience.” Most artists (if they are interested in the subject of your book) will reply and grant you permission so long as the image is properly attributed. A few may charge you a small licensing fee. There’s a standard contract with boilerplate copy for you both to sign, which basically states what rights you’re paying for. That’s really all there is to it.

  16. > That’s really all there is to it.

    Unless the art belongs to a megacorp.

    And of course there’s the problem of finding a decent quality copy of the artwork… it sometimes does not (readily)exist. Take, for example, this:
    http://up-ship.com/blog/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/orion-art.JPG

    From this: http://up-ship.com/blog/blog/?p=5167

  17. I guess something like “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion: A Design History” is best for a title, though you’ve got to admire “When Americans Weren’t A Bunch Of Wailing Pansies” and “Caution SEVERE Blast Hazard.”

  18. “Riding Hell To The Heavens – the story of Project Orion and its atomic bomb powered rockets.”

  19. Good news to hear. I’ll buy the book. One question. Are you still working on the futuristic propulsion systems book you mentioned a few months ago?

  20. Yes, but the Orion book would be the obvious one to produce first. It’s much closer to finished… three quarters or so vs. a third or so.

  21. […] my lungs no longer trying to turn themselves inside out, I’ve been back to banging away on my Nuclear Pulse Propulsion book. Yes, I’m kinda behind on this, Yes, that’s nothing especially […]

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