File:NASA-project-orion-artist.jpg

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Original file (3,000 × 2,400 pixels, file size: 950 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Artist's conception of the NASA reference design for the Project Orion spacecraft

Summary

[edit]
Description An artist's conception of Project ORION; from NASA. This picture shows NASA's reduced-size 6,000 ton version of the small-sized Project Orion craft. Three sizes were originally specified, from 10,000 to 8 million tons in Project Orion's initial report. The model shown can take off from Earth, and explore Saturn (shown in the background), refuel (with water for reaction mass) and return with a manned crew using a single-stage in fourteen months. The artist's depiction shows the craft about 4 milliseconds after the explosion of a nuclear propellant charge. The glow around the base of the craft is the ultraviolet-glowing plasma from the explosive recompressing against the pusher plate. The shock absorbers have not yet compressed. There are two shock absorbers: the doughnut near the plate, and the long tubes between the doughnuts and the capsule. The propellant charges and handling machinery are between the shock absorbers and the crew cabin. The two tubes on either side of the crew cabin are companionways. The pusher plate is approximately a meter thick, made of steel, and effectively shields the craft from radiation. Oil is sprayed on it on before each cycle to prevent ablation. The explosives are nuclear shaped charges ejected by a gas gun through the pusher plate. This design has about one one-kiloton explosion per second when under thrust. The specific impulse is (conservatively) 2,000 seconds. The craft can be made from steel, using construction techniques similar to those of submarines. Project ORION craft are not in use because poisonous fallout is created by the known designs for nuclear explosives.
Date
Source http://mix.msfc.nasa.gov/abstracts.php?p=704 (Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20091102051639/http://mix.msfc.nasa.gov/abstracts.php?p=704)
Author NASA
This image or video was catalogued by Marshall Space Flight Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: MSFC-9906378.

This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.
Other languages:

العربية ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ български ∙ Bahaso Jambi ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ English ∙ español ∙ فارسی ∙ français ∙ galego ∙ magyar ∙ հայերեն ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ македонски ∙ മലയാളം ∙ Nederlands ∙ polski ∙ português ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenščina ∙ Türkçe ∙ українська ∙ 简体中文 ∙ 繁體中文 ∙ +/−

Licensing

[edit]
Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
Warnings:

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current09:07, 14 July 2005Thumbnail for version as of 09:07, 14 July 20053,000 × 2,400 (950 KB)Bricktop (talk | contribs)

You cannot overwrite this file.

The following 2 pages use this file:

File usage on other wikis

The following other wikis use this file:

View more global usage of this file.

Metadata

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:NASA-project-orion-artist.jpg&oldid=911180344"