List of stories featuring nuclear pulse propulsion
Encyclopedia
Nuclear pulse propulsion
is a common feature of hard science fiction
stories, as the idea offers high thrust and/or high specific impulse
drives
without requiring new physics.
Nuclear pulse propulsion
Nuclear pulse propulsion is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion that uses nuclear explosions for thrust. It was first developed as Project Orion by DARPA, after a suggestion by Stanislaw Ulam in 1947...
is a common feature of hard science fiction
Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...
stories, as the idea offers high thrust and/or high specific impulse
Specific impulse
Specific impulse is a way to describe the efficiency of rocket and jet engines. It represents the derivative of the impulse with respect to amount of propellant used, i.e., the thrust divided by the amount of propellant used per unit time. If the "amount" of propellant is given in terms of mass ,...
drives
Spacecraft propulsion
Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. There are many different methods. Each method has drawbacks and advantages, and spacecraft propulsion is an active area of research. However, most spacecraft today are propelled by forcing a gas from the...
without requiring new physics.
Books
- An early appearance of an Orion-style nuclear pulse propelled rocket in science fiction was in the science fiction novel Empire of the AtomEmpire of the AtomEmpire of the Atom is a science fiction novel by A. E. van Vogt. It was first published in 1957 by Shasta Publishers in an edition of 2,000 copies. The novel is a fix-up of the first five of van Vogt's Gods stories which originally appeared in the magazine Astounding. The remaining Gods stories...
written by A. E. van VogtA. E. van VogtAlfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the "Golden Age" of the genre....
in 1956. In this novel there is a post-atomic-war interplanetary empire called the Empire of Lyn that uses Orion-type nuclear rockets for interplanetary spaceflight. In the story the past atomic war was an interstellar war fought between humans and hostile aliens from another star somewhere between 800 and 8000 years before.
- A manned mission to VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
on a ship using Orion-like photon engine is a core of 1960 science fiction novel The Land of Crimson CloudsThe Land of Crimson CloudsThe Land of Crimson Clouds is a 1959 science fiction novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, most likely, set in the Noon Universe.-Plot summary:...
, written by the Strugatsky brothersArkady and Boris StrugatskyThe brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are Soviet Jewish-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated on their fiction.-Life and work:...
.
- Early versions of 2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)2001: A Space Odyssey is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version and published after the release of the film...
had a ship 'Discovery 1' using this drive. The final vehicle did not use this idea since Stanley KubrickStanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
was fed up with nuclear bombs after making Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, commonly known as Dr. Strangelove, is a 1964 black comedy film which satirizes the nuclear scare. It was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and featuring Sterling...
. The novel by Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. ClarkeSir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
has references to the Orion drive.
- An Orion spaceship features prominently in the science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel FootfallFootfallFootfall is a 1985 science fiction novel written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It was nominated for the both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1986, and was a No...
by Larry NivenLarry NivenLaurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
and Jerry PournelleJerry PournelleJerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
. In the face of an alien siege/invasion of Earth, the humans must resort to drastic measures to get a fighting ship into orbit to face the alien fleet.
- In the novel King David's SpaceshipKing David's SpaceshipKing David's Spaceship is a novel by science fiction author Jerry Pournelle. It was originally published in 1980. Another version appeared as 3-part serial in Analog as "A Spaceship for the King" December 1971 through February 1972....
by Jerry PournelleJerry PournelleJerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
inhabitants of a planet that is to be re-admitted to the EmpireCoDominium-The CoDominium series:*A Spaceship for the King *He Fell into a Dark Hole *The Mote in God's Eye...
plot to build the spaceship based on an Orion project concept in order to qualify their planet as a higher-developed, Class One Imperial world. However, this craft uses non-nuclear explosives.
- Poul AndersonPoul AndersonPoul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories...
's novel Orion Shall RiseOrion Shall RiseOrion Shall Rise is a science fiction novel by Poul Anderson as part of his Maurai series, published in 1983.The novel is set several hundred years after a devastating nuclear war which has pushed back the level of technology....
features a post-collapse confederation gathering forbidden nuclear materials for some unknown end—although the title gives away the true nature of their mysterious project.
- In The Stone DogsThe Stone DogsThe Stone Dogs by S. M. Stirling is the third book in the alternate history series, The Domination. The Stone Dogs details the life of Eric von Shrakenberg's niece, Yolande Ingolfsson, and Chantal Lefarge's children, Frederick and Marya...
by S. M. StirlingS. M. StirlingStephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.-Personal:Stirling was born on...
, Orion spacecraft are created during an arms race between the Domination of the DrakaDrakaDraka may be:*Draka, Bulgaria, village in Sredets, Burgas Province*Draka Holding N.V., Dutch cable manufacturer*Fictional empire in The Domination series...
and the Alliance for Democracy, and used by both sides in their explorations of the solar system and as warships. The drive itself features as an improvised weapon in the book, being used to keep other ships at a distance.
- In the book The Shiva OptionThe Shiva OptionThe Shiva Option, published by Baen Books, is the sequel to David Weber and Steve White's military science fiction novel In Death Ground.-Plot summary:...
by David WeberDavid WeberDavid Mark Weber is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Weber and his wife Sharon live in Greenville, South Carolina with their three children and "a passel of dogs"....
and Steve WhiteSteve White (science fiction)Steve White is an American science fiction author best known as the co-author of the Starfire-series alongside David Weber.He is married with 3 daughters and currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. He also works for a legal publishing company...
, an arachnid homeworld is destroyed by converting several asteroids into Orion-drive starships and launching them at it.
- Orion was used by Michael P. Kube-McDowellMichael P. Kube-McDowellMichael Paul Kube-McDowell is a science fiction novelist. He has also dabbled in music, written for television, been a stringer for a daily newspaper, and published short fiction, reviews, assorted nonfiction and erotica. He was honored for teaching excellence by the 1985 White House Commission on...
in Emprise, the first book of the Trigon Disunity series.
- The speculative fiction novel AnathemAnathemAnathem is a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2008. Major themes include the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the philosophical debate between Platonic realism and formalism.-Plot summary:...
by Neal StephensonNeal StephensonNeal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction.Difficult to categorize, his novels have been variously referred to as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk...
features a spacecraft that travels between different dimensions and uses an Orion-style propulsion system. This ship, the Daban Urnud, is discovered by observing the nuclear explosions used to modify its orbit.
- Dan SimmonsDan SimmonsDan Simmons is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
' novel Olympos describes an Orion-style spaceship, designed by the Moravec machine race to emulate 21st century human technology.
- The 1977 short story and Hugo-awardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
winner 'Tricentennial' by Joe HaldemanJoe HaldemanJoe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author.-Life :Haldeman was born June 9, 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His family traveled and he lived in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Maryland and Anchorage, Alaska as a child. Haldeman married Mary Gay Potter, known...
featured the Daedelus (or John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, or Leonid BrezhnevLeonid BrezhnevLeonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
- apparently spaceships are also prone to renaming), which was powered by nuclear bombs.
- In Vernor VingeVernor VingeVernor Steffen Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels and novellas A Fire Upon the Deep , A Deepness in the Sky , Rainbows End , Fast Times at Fairmont High ...
's novel Marooned in RealtimeMarooned in RealtimeMarooned in Realtime is a 1986 murder mystery and time-travel science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, about a small, time-displaced group of people who may be the only survivors of a technological singularity or alien invasion. It is the sequel to The Peace War and "The Ungoverned"...
, bobble technology makes this method of travel safe.
- In his 1981 anthology "Cepheïde", Dutch SF/Fantasy author Tais TengTais TengTais Teng is a pseudonymous Dutch fantasy fiction and science fiction writer, illustrator and sculptor.His real name is Thijs van Ebbenhorst Tengbergen and he was born in 1952 in The Hague....
describes a ship with Orion propulsion as one of the most primitive and wasteful methods of interstellar flight, still only achieved by a tiny minority of all intelligent races in the universe. The ship is said to be the last relic of an unknown race exterminated by the dominant YiYiki (descendants of the humpback whales).
- In the John Varley novel The Golden Globe, the wreck of an Orion spaceship is converted to an interstellar starship.
- John Varley's Steel BeachSteel BeachSteel Beach is a novel by John Varley, a science fiction writer who has won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards multiple times. Steel Beach is set in the same continuity as The Golden Globe, but takes place much earlier, and was published in 1993....
sets several scenes near or within the bulk of the "Robert A. Heinlein," an Orion-style ship which was built and then abandoned when humanity lapsed into apathy for stellar exploration.
- Chris Berman's novel, The Hive, involves the use of a ground launched Orion spacecraft by the People's Republic of China in a gamble to reach an alien artifact in orbit between Jupiter and Saturn before the crew of a spacecraft built by the United States and Russia can reach it first. The novel has been banned in China until "these references are removed" which shows how sensitive the whole subject of nuclear bomb propulsion still is.
- In Stephen BaxterStephen BaxterStephen Baxter is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.- Writing style :...
's novel ArkArk (Baxter novel)Ark is a hard science fiction novel by UK author Stephen Baxter. It comes as the sequel to Baxter's acclaimed 2008 novel Flood. Ark deals with the journey of Ark One, which Baxter has revealed to be a long-range spaceship, and the continuing human struggle for survival on Earth after the...
a starship Ark One is built to save a small group of people as Earth drowns under a global flood. It launches and performs the first phase of its mission using a version of Orion. This version is ground launched though owing to the situation (the entire planet is about to drown anyway) environmental concerns are set aside.
- In the books IliumIlium (novel)Ilium is a science fiction novel by Dan Simmons, the first part of the Ilium/Olympos cycle, concerning the re-creation of the events in the Iliad on an alternate earth and Mars. These events are set in motion by beings who have taken on the roles of the Greek gods...
and OlymposOlympos (novel)Olympos, Dan Simmons' novel published in 2005, is the sequel to Ilium and final part of Ilium/Olympos duology. Like its predecessor it is a work of science fiction, and contains many literary references: it blends together Homer's epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and has...
by Dan SimmonsDan SimmonsDan Simmons is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
a space ship with Orion thrust is used to travel through the Solar System over the course of a week. - In the book "Citadel" by John Ringo, an Orion Drive is used to upgrade the 9 km diameter Battlestation Troy into a mobile spaceship.
Other media
- The Star Trek:TOSStar Trek: The Original SeriesStar Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" features a generation shipGeneration shipA generation ship is a hypothetical type of interstellar ark starship that travels across great distances between stars at a speed much slower than the speed of light...
, constructed out of a hollowed-out iron asteroid, propelled using "Orion class nuclear pulse engines" in which fission bombs were detonated in shafts. It appeared to have been traveling for about 10,000 years, and had travelled about 30 light yearsLight YearsLight Years is the seventh studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue. It was released on 25 September 2000 by Parlophone and Mushroom Records. The album's style was indicative of her return to "mainstream pop dance tunes"....
on its own power.
- In the FOX television series VirtualityVirtuality (TV series)Virtuality is a television pilot co-written by Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor and directed by Peter Berg that aired on the Fox network. Since the show was never picked up as a television series, the two-hour pilot episode aired as a movie on June 26, 2009.- Plot :The story is set aboard the...
, Phaeton (Earth's first starship) is propelled by an Orion drive.
- In the backstory for the video game Sid Meier's Alpha CentauriSid Meier's Alpha CentauriSid Meier's Alpha Centauri is the critically acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly...
, the sleeper shipSleeper shipA sleeper ship is a hypothetical type of manned spaceship in which most or all of the crew spends the journey in some form of hibernation or suspended animation. There is currently no known technology that allows for long-term suspended animation of humans....
is propelled by an Orion-type drive, the shield of which fails (almost certainly due to sabotageSabotageSabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
) when the ship is almost at its destination, causing the passengers on the colony ship to splinter into factions.
- The 1998 film Deep ImpactDeep Impact (film)Deep Impact is a 1998 science-fiction disaster-drama film released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks in the United States on May 8, 1998. The film was directed by Mimi Leder and stars Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Téa Leoni, and Morgan Freeman...
featured a spacecraft named Messiah, which utilized the "Orion drive" and appears to be a variant of nuclear detonation propulsion. In the film, the drive is credited to the Russians.
- The 2006 movie "Earthstorm" with Steven Baldwin and Dirk Benedict. The crew sent to the moon used nuclear pulse to get to there faster than conventional means.
- The Orion concept is used in the series premiere of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien for Earth's first interstellar spaceship.
- In Mobile Suit Zeta GundamMobile Suit Zeta Gundamis a television anime, part of the Gundam series and a sequel to the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The show was created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, with character designs by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, while the series' mechanical designs is split amongst Kunio Okawara, Mamoru Nagano, and Kazumi Fujita...
, the Axis warships and the GRYPS-2 laser cannon use Orion-type drives.
- While it never comes up in the actual show, in the DVD extras for FireflyFirefly (TV series)Firefly is an American space western television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon, under his Mutant Enemy Productions label. Whedon served as executive producer, along with Tim Minear....
, Joss WhedonJoss WhedonJoseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, executive producer, director, comic book writer, occasional composer and actor, founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-creator of Bellwether Pictures...
mentions that his idea for the "full burn" propulsion in the title spacecraft class was a directed nuclear detonation.
- The 2011 movie "Attack of the Moon Zombies" features an "Orion Atomic Pulse Rocket" that transports people and supplies to a lunar base. The model was based on the lunar ferry design described in a Project Orion report.