2001 and Beyond

Today on Far Future Horizons we present 2001 and Beyond.

Mission to Mars: Orion Nuclear Propulsion

Project Orion represents one of the grandest and most audacious “might have beens” ever conceived in the fifty year history of space exploration. With the aid of the Orbiter Spaceflight Simulator designed by Dr. Martin Schweiger of UCL and its associated Project Orion add on, today’s video feature illustrates one possible mission profile that would take a crew to the planet Mars.

According to science fiction author Jerry Pournelle, who is acquainted with the project and its ex-team leader Freeman Dyson, a single mission could have provided us with a large permanent moon base. Alternatively, an Orion could reach Pluto and return to Earth in a year.

To Mars and Beyond by A-Bomb

Project Orion represents one of the grandest and most audacious “might have beens” in the fifty year history of space exploration. I have a special interest in this particular project because Project Orion may yet serve as an essential element in a future planetary defence project as George Dyson has hinted in a recent TED talk presentation.

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the BBC documentary To Mars By A-Bomb - The Secret History of Project Orion.

Freeman Dyson – ET In The Solar System

Physicist Freeman Dyson needs no introduction; his name is synonymous with cutting edge science, space exploration and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

Dyson worked on Project Orion from 1957 to 1961, which proposed the possibility of space-flight using nuclear pulse propulsion. A prototype was demonstrated using conventional explosives, but after the signing of the partial nuclear test ban treaty which banned the testing of nuclear weapons other than underground, Project Orion was terminated.


Today on Far Future Horizons I have posted a TED talk filmed in February 2003 and posted in July, 2008 featuring Dyson. In this wonderful video Freeman Dyson suggests that we start looking for life on the moons of Jupiter and out past Neptune, in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. He talks about what such life would be like and how we might find it.