Saturn I with nuclear upper stage

 drawings, history, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  9 Responses »
Jan 102015
 

This is one of the more unlikely-looking launch vehicle designs I’ve seen… a 1961 Saturn I first stage with an S-IV second stage and a nuclear upper stage. In and of itself that’s not that unusual… but the upper stage is *really* long and thin and appears to be devoid of a recognizable payload. The result, if it managed to survive launch and bending forces, is that at burnout it would be accelerating *really* hard.

However, the great probability here is that this was not an actual serious engineering study for a launch vehicle, but instead a notional concept, useful for studying the whichness of the why regarding the use of automated systems for nuclear rocket preparation an launch.

missiles and rockets Sept 61 nuclear rockets

 Posted by at 5:27 am

Long Beach w/Polaris

 art, history, nukes, projects, rockets, ships, weapons  13 Responses »
Jan 062015
 

A scan of a piece of art from 1961 depicting a Long Beach-class guided missile cruiser launching a Polaris ballistic missile. Note that the caption says that this *will* happen; as it turned out, not only was the Long Beach never equipped with Polarises, it was also the only ship in its class. The US Navy decided that putting strategic nuclear ballistic missiles on easily-spotted and tracked surface ships was less desirable than putting them on far stealthier submarines.

missiles and rockets feb 61 polaris long beach

 Posted by at 7:49 am

Orion

 art, books, drawings, history, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, weapons, wisdom  22 Responses »
Jan 022015
 

A nice writeup of some of my Orion drafting & scribbling here:

Hard SF Feature 04: Scott Lowther

Some of my Orion diagrams:

npp_17001_1_doomsday npp_06001_1 npp_06001_2 npp_55001_4000_ton_nexus npp_55001_4000_ton_nexus_2

I suppose I really do need to finish that book some day. Having the publisher vanish on me kinda sucked the joy out of it, though. You’d think I’d be used to that sort of thing by now… I guess that there just might not be  a maximum level of disappointment. You can always be more disappointed.

 Posted by at 6:25 pm

Messiah update

 awesomeness, models, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, science fiction, spacecraft  2 Responses »
Dec 292014
 

Still plugging away at this. The forward “Shuttle” is just about done… some tinkering in the bay and with the forward landing gear, and it’ll be there. At 1/200 scale, the landing gear components are really small, so the decision has been made to mold this with the landing gear fixed in the stowed position, tucked up against the main body. It would look spiffy as a stand-alone kit at 1/72 scale, but I doubt there’s a market for that.

2014-12-29

 Posted by at 2:15 am

Special Bulletin

 history, nukes, youtube  9 Responses »
Dec 262014
 

From 1983, the fake new broadcast that spooked the bejeebers out of a bunch of folks…

In short: anti-nuclear activists build a nuke and deposit it in Charleston, South Carolina. The visual effects are pretty rudimentary and not very convincing *now,* but at the time it did cause a bit of a freakout among people who didn’t know they were watching fiction. The exact level of freakout is uncertain… the press likes to play up such things. The famous panic caused by Orson Wells’ 1939 radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” has been blown *way* out of proportion, with a whole lot of fiction being taken as fact (ironic, that is…).

 Posted by at 1:19 pm

USBP #12 and ANED #01 Now Available

 aircraft, American Nuclear Explosive Devices, books, drawings, history, new products, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, US Bomber Projects, weapons  2 Responses »
Dec 172014
 

The latest releases in the “US Aerospace Projects” line (see the full library HERE):

US Bomber Projects #12 contents:

  • Boeing Model 464-41: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
  • Boeing “Big Bird”: a long-durational, low-speed, low-altitude missile carrying loiterer
  • Douglas MX-2091-E: A 1950’s canard configured missile carrier
  • Boeing Model 701-238: A supersonic design on the road to the B-59
  • Northrop Nuclear Flying Wing: Atomic power with two crew pods
  • Martin Model 223-12: the final design in the XB-48 design series
  • Rockwell MRCC: An airplane that could be tossed into space atop an RSRM
  • Lockheed CL-820-8: A Mach 3 variable-geometry design

USBP #12 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

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usbp12promo

usbp12ad2

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New: American Nuclear Explosive Devices #01

This is a prototype issue for what may become a series but which I hope to turn into a Real Book. The plan is to eventually document via accurate and detailed diagrams every nuclear explosive device produced by the US (obviously some are a little lean on declassified data). This includes bombs, Re-Entry Vehicles, a few actual “physics packages” and some stand-alone test devices. ANED01 contains information and diagrams of the first three atom bombs worked on by the US: the Thin Man and Little Boy air-droppable bombs and the Trinity “Gadget” test device. The American Nuclear Explosive Devices webpage is HERE.

ANED01 is formatted for 11X17, so the diagrams are good and large.

ANED #01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

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aned01promo

 Posted by at 1:04 pm

Wake up for Pluto

 Hmm..., news, nukes, science, spacecraft  3 Responses »
Dec 022014
 

Spacecraft Bound for Pluto Set to Awake Nine Years After Launch

New Horizons has been in hibernation, but will – hopefully – on December 6. The Pluto flyby phase will begin in January, with the closest approach on July 14, 2015.

While this story is cool and epic, they’ve always got to dump cold water on it by point out reality:

No voyage like this has been conducted since the epic days of Voyager, and nothing like it is planned again.

Gah.

In a better world, half the money spent on Medicare would instead be devoted to mass producing and launching probes of this kind. Sigh.

 Posted by at 10:40 am
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