"The Original Project Orion - 1950s" Topic

Seems the USAF/NASA had plans to develop a space battleship back in the 1950s, and it was well armed, and capable of exploring our solar system using nuclear charges for propulsion:

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I was unaware of this until I ran across it accidentally on Facebook.

The NASA/USAF space battleship was designed for exploring our solar system, and would be able to do battle too. Armed with nuke tipped missiles (300 – 400 or so, IIRC), plus other weapons too, including conventional 5" guns and CIWS. There was another weapon too, which was similar to an energy beam, but I forget what it was called – some sort of howitzer, but that is really a misnomer, and the tech is apparently still somewhat classified.

The ship would also have 6 x space shuttles, and a crew of 120 (each shuttle could carry 20 men). It's unclear how many of the 120 crew were to be designated as space marines, but a portion of them were those types of troops.

There was even consideration of using anti-matter charges for propulsion, which it was believed could get the vessel up to about 80% of the speed of light for trips to Alpha Centauri.

Kennedy killed the project, which he deemed to be too militaristic and expensive.

Poul Anderson used the concept in his novel "Orion Shall Rise".

I highly recommend the book Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship by George Dyson (son of Freeman Dyson, who at the time was part of the project).

According to the book, the "battleship" idea was merely an idea to impress JFK and get him to sign off on funding the proposal using the military. Instead, it scared the hell out of him, and turned him against the project as too provocative towards the USSR. The sad thing is that in reality, nobody on the project wanted to build a battleship at all; they just wanted to build a ship that could take a crew of explorers to Saturn and back.

Parzival, that is the story, though whether it was entirely true or not, the military possibilities did help stymie the project.

The Atmospheric Nuclear Test Ban and the 1979s Space Treaty did the idea no real favours either. Still, it's a workable project . . . Maybe some day they might launch one from the moon or its orbit for deep space. Or use Lithium Hydride bombs and launch a less ambitious version from Earth itself.

Don't be surprised if Elon Musk decides to pursue the idea.

Building one on the moon, or in orbit would seem to be a more practical idea, especially if we can get the materials from the moon's surface/interior, for 1/6th of the energy cost.

That's a really heavily armed "space battleship". Makes you wonder if there is something out there we haven't been told about… ;-)

Yea, and the nuke warheads were to match those of some of the most powerful on the planet, so they had a lot of throw-weight.

I may be off on the nuke missiles too, by a factor of 10 or so – perhaps 3,000 of them (?). Can't recall for sure.

Another book using this concept is Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I found it very enjoyable.

Don't forget Pournelle's King David's Spaceship!

The Casaba Howitzer is essentially a nuclear shaped charge.
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Thanks for the name reminder.

Yes, but apparently the charge gives off some sort of focused particle beam, if I understood the concept right.

John Ringo resurrects the Orion in Citadel.