by George Dyson
First published 2002
Nuclear powered spacecraft appear to belong only in campy 1950s science fiction alongside rubber monsters and cheap spacesuits. George Dyson demonstrates this assumption is wrong. His father Freeman Dyson participated in Project Orion, a classified government program that designed a massive 40 person vessel propelled by hundreds of small atomic explosions. The project emerged after Sputnik shocked America and represented genuine 1950s ambition to reach Saturn by 1970. Political conflicts between NASA, military officials, and Congress killed the program despite its technical promise. Dyson obtained his insider access through family connections and gathered hundreds of previously secret documents. He interviewed the surviving researchers and engineers who worked on this extraordinary concept. The atomic spaceship offered far superior lift capacity and efficiency compared to chemical rockets. By the century's end, technology had advanced enough to make Orion feasible again. The design now ranks among the most promising options for long distance space travel, though political obstacles remain formidable.
Genres: science, 20th-century, adventure, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic, history-of-science, american-history
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-access
Setting: America, Saturn
Period: 1950s, 1970, 21st-century
320 pages · Hardcover · ALLEN LANE