For those interested, work on the “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion” book continues. Below is yet another example of the diagramming that will be in it. This shows an as-yet incomplete drawing of the British Interplanetary Society’s “Daedalus” starship, second stage, in scale with a Saturn V. Note that this vehicle is not even remotely small, even though it was the second of two stages, carried no crew, and did not carry fuel to even begin to attempt to stop at the target star. Daedalus would be essentially the interstellar version of Voyager… the minimum craft for the job, which is to just blow right on by and take some snapshots.
Nuclear Pulse Propulsion will go into Daedalus is some depth, and will have a number of illustrations of it.
FYI: The primary internet computer is in the shop to get “Win 7 Antispyware” removed. They seemed to have some knowledge of it, and claim that removal will not present a problem and that I should get the computer back tomorrow. Which will be great; even though I now have things set up and backed up in such a way that I can get online and do what I need to do, and data loss would be minimal… it’s still a pain in the ass to re-load all the lost programs. Bah.
2 Responses to “Starships are not small”
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Yikes, what a monster.
[…] As mentioned previously, I’m still plugging away on my Nuclear Pulse Propulsion book I’ve got the Daedalus diagrams mostly done… most of the actual drafting is probably done, but there’s some line formatting and layering to work on yet. Shown below is the full British Interplanetary Society Daedalus starship design in all its two-stages of glory on the left, with the stages separate on the right, the vehicle as a unit. Wedged in between ‘em are the Saturn V and the Space Shuttle, looking small and inoffensive. […]