Book details of 'Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship'

Title	Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship
Author(s)	George Dyson
ISBN	0805059857
Language	English
Published	April 2002
Publisher	Henry Holt & Company, Inc.

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Amazon.com info for Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship

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virtualbookcase.com score: 4.0   Vote for this book

The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship':

Reviewer Koos van den Hout wrote:
A great book about one of the most interesting projects to be thought of in space-travel. What may sound like total 1950's era science-fiction to us nowadays, propelling a space ship using nuclear explosions was once a serious research project. George Dyson takes us on a tour of where the idea came from and how research budgets became available for theory and some very limited practical testing. The book is an entertaining read and not too technical. For those who do want the "how was that supposed to work" bit, there are original diagrams and explanations in the book.
Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
Like cheap, shiny space suits and bug-eyed rubber monsters, nuclear-powered spaceships today seem like little more than laughably naïve 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.
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Book description:

The improbable story of the wildest idea-a space craft powered by hydrogen bombs-to come out of the space race. It was the late 1950s. The Cold War was raging. Sputnik had made its voyage and the space race was on. In America, it was the age of tail fins and "duck and cover," but it was also a time of big ideas and dreams. On his way to school one day, George Dyson learned of a truly fantastical idea: massive space vehicles that would be powered by explosions of multiple hydrogen bombs. Among the brilliant minds behind this project was George's father, the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson. Project Orion chronicles this fascinating episode in U.S. scientific research, while capturing a unique time in American history and culture. The project brought together a cadre of brilliant physicists, the first such assemblage since the Manhattan Project of fifteen years earlier. In an idyllic seaside community in southern California-the very picture of 1950s suburban prosperity-a handful of scientists, tackled a massive project that required the ingenuity of an engineer and the vision of a great theoretician. Their work-ambitious but ultimately futile-took place against the political and cultural backdrop of the Cold War, when nuclear technology spelled both promise and terror. Dyson's prodigious historical and scientific research, combined with his personal reminiscences and connections, make for a lively, richly detailed narrative.