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Project Orion: The Atomic Spaceship 1957-1965 (Penguin Press Science)
 
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Project Orion: The Atomic Spaceship 1957-1965 (Penguin Press Science) (Paperback)

by George Dyson (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (28 Oct 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140277323
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140277326
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 644,236 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Like cheap, shiny space suits and bug-eyed rubber monsters, nuclear-powered spaceships such as described in Project Orion today seem like little more than laughably naive 1950s science fiction tropes. It might have been otherwise--and still could be. George Dyson, son of supergenius physicist Freeman Dyson, wrote Project Orion to share some of his father's amazing research with the world. Much had been kept secret for years, but Dyson's unique insider status permits great depth and breadth on this important tale.

Conceived in the wake of Sputnik, Project Orion was a true vision of 50s engineering: a huge 40-person ship powered by hundreds of tiny atomic bombs, capable of much greater lift and efficiency than chemically driven rockets. Struggles between NASA, the military, Congress, and other parties doomed Orion, but Dyson has gathered hundreds of documents and interviewed most of the researchers and engineers who worked together, trying to reach "Saturn by 1970". His knack for storytelling makes the book a quick, delightful read; even the staunchest anti-nuke activist has to admit that lighting a cigarette off a parabolic mirror facing a bomb test is pretty cool. By the end of the 20th century, technology had caught up with the vision of Orion--it's considered one of our best bets for long-distance space transit. Whether or not that could ever happen politically, Project Orion is a compelling exploration of scientific imagination. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
The race to the moon dominated space flight during the the 1960s yet, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the US Government sponsored a project that could possibly have sent 150 people on expeditions to Mars or Saturn. The project was code-named "Orion" and centred upon the effort to develop a fast, manoeuvrable, nuclear-powered space vehicle for long-range voyages in space. The proposed 4000-ton spaceship would be propelled by nuclear bombs but, strictly classified, the project was never given a chance to succeed or fail - due partly to its apparent absurdity - but its mix of sublime physics, madcap engineering, and a cast of Cold War warriors and would-be inter-galactic engineers made the mission a tantalising "what if" story. In this book George Dyson, son of physicist Freeman Dyson, one of the original project team, pieces together the story his father could only tell him in fragments at the time.

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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Project Orion, 1 Jul 2003
By D. P. Briggs (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The life of this US military research program on nuclear propulsion rockets is well documented in this book. The author is the son of the physicist Freeman Dyson, one of the main guys involed in the project. The book has clearly been a labour of love for the author, containing many interviews with his father's former colleagues and carefully referencing many of the their research papers.

My criticism of the book lies with the editing. The structure of the book is not very logical for the reader. As a historical account, it is certainly not chronological. It jumps around, following the topics as brought up by the interviewed scientists. So there's a lot of repitition of the core material and the book could have been shorter. Also, the 'techie' language remains in the book in all its glory. Some of it is eloquent, some quite crude.

But I forgive the book for all this. It's not a text book on the subject, nor yet another diluted popular science book. Instead it's scientists reminiscing about their lost work on an ambitious space exploration project which was terminated before its dreams could be realised.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, but flawed, 22 Jul 2002
By Mr. M. Richards "iCowboy" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship (Allen Lane Science) (Hardcover)
Project Orion sounds like something from science fiction - after all, how could a spaceship be propelled by nuclear explosions? The Orion concept was proposed by reputable scientists and every single one of their experiments showed that it was a perfectly feasible method of exploring the solar system.

Orion is one of the great 'might-have-beens' of the Cold War, had it gone ahead, Man could have landed on Mars in the early 1970s and we would have lived in a World more like that of '2001' than that of 'Full Metal Jacket'. In the end, the project died a death; unloved by the government it was finally condemned by the nuclear test ban treaty.

The book is concisely written, but it fails to convey the excitement of such a huge and ambitious project. There is very little sense of the awe it must have invoked, which can make it somewhat dry reading.

I also knock a point off for the lamentable illustrations. There are no glossy plates which means that none of the pictures are terribly sharp, and some pictures are very poor indeed. There are a number of declassified diagrams from the 1950s with little or no explanation, whilst others lack any context whatsoever. This type of book would really have benefited from high quality graphics.

I recommend this wholeheartedly if you are interested in space travel; you probably will never have a better history of the Orion project. Casual readers might find it a little hard going.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A jaw dropping account of what could've been, 23 Jul 2005
As the Russians sent sputnik up orbit Earth, US scientists worked on a project to send a several thousand tonne 'ship' to the farthest corners of our solar system. This is an account of how some of the worlds leading scientists worked towards designing a giant space rocket be powered by nuclear explosions, and how politics, with science, led to the projects demise. All in all, this is a book in two halves. The book starts off at a breathtaking pace, describing where the concepts arrived from and the history of the scientists working on the project. Towards the end, the tempo drops dramatically as the realisation of the environmental effects are discovered, and corporate/global politics gradually take centre stage. All in all, even if the description is only raises a slight interest, this book is something you should consider investing in.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Saturn V would have looked like a firework...
A compelling look at a smallish team working on an enormous idea...an idea we may need one day if the doom merchants are to be believed. Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming, eccentric book about a wild project
Dyson writes entertainingly and with real insight about the Orion project his father was involved in. Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2002 by Peter Fenelon

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