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Friday, July 23, 2021
CONTINUITY: NASA 1965 “Advanced Post-Saturn Earth Launch Vehicle Study”
Even before the 1969 Moon landing, studies were being performed on the possibility of post-Saturn vehicles that would use solid-core, gas-core or pulsed nuclear engines to push gigantic 21.3m wide stages with 450-900 ton payloads to the Moon and beyond. https://t.co/4DL4vSEe7P pic.twitter.com/lMGreNmWRS
— ToughSF (@ToughSf) July 20, 2021
This thirty-four page “Executive Summary Report”, NASA TM X-53200 [PDF, scanned full text], dated February 3, 1965, is wild. From the abstract:
The results indicate that gas core reactor and nuclear pulse engines are both attractive for the advanced Post-Saturn vehicle, and both should be investigated further. If emphasis is on Earth orbit and lunar delivery missions, the gas core reactor shows a slight advantage. The nuclear pulse concept is clearly preferable if emphasis is on lunar and planetary deliveries.
“Nuclear pulse”, of course, refers to Project Orion-type propulsion where a ship is propelled by setting off thermonuclear bombs behind a pusher plate to accelerate it.
Posted at July 23, 2021 14:54