Deep Space Bombardment

2010-01-23T11:24:00.000-08:00

Laser intercept

Hat tip Closing Velocity

Coming Soon

2010-01-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

Project Orion Battleship Catalog Page

Human Population of Space

2009-09-20T01:27:00.000-07:00

Here

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For Barry Obama

2008-04-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

"...they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Lyrics: Common People
She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge
She studied sculpture at St Martin's college
That's where I....
Caught her eye

She told me that her Dad was loaded
I said "In that case I'll have rum and coca-cola."
She said "Fine,".....
And then in thirty seconds time she said

"I want to live like common people
I want to do whatever common people do
I want to sleep with common people
I want to sleep with common people like you."

Oh what else could I do?
I said "I'll see what I can do."

I took her to a supermarket
I don't know why, but I had to start it somewhere
So it started .... there
I said "Pretend you've got no money."
But she just laughed an said "Oh you're so funny."
I said "Yeah?
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here

Are you sure you want to live like common people
You want to see whatever common people see
You want to sleep with common people
You want to sleep with common people like me?"

But she didn't ... understand
She just smiled and held my hand

Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
`cos when you're laid in bed at night
Watching roaches climb the wall
If you called your dad he could stop it all yeah

You'll never live like common people
You'll never do what ever common people do
You'll never fail like common people
You'll never watch your life slide out of view

And then dance, and drink, and screw
Because there's nothing else to do

Sing along with the common people
Sing along and it might just get you through
Laugh along with the common people
Laugh along even though they're laughing at you
And the stupid things that you do
Because you think that poor is cool.

Like a dog lying in a corner
They will bite you and never warn you
Look out.

They'll tear your insides out

`cos everybody hates a tourist
Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh
Yeah and the chip stain and grease will come out in the bath

You will never understand
How it feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere left to go
You are amazed that they exist
And they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why.

Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you'll never get it right
`cos when you're laid in bed at night
Watching .... roaches climb the wall
If you called your Dad he could stop it all, Yeah.

Never live like common people
Never do what common people do
Never fail like common people
Never watch your life .... slide out of view

And then dance, and drink, .... and screw
Because there's nothing else to do

I want to live with common people like you.

....

He came from Hawaii he had a thirst for power
He studied Law at Havaaad college
That's where Marx
Caught his eye...

To Mars by A-Bomb

2008-02-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

A BBC clip...

George Dyson: Let's take a nuclear-powered rocket to Saturn

2008-02-14T21:53:00.001-08:00

A Talk at TED

U.S. Plans A- Bomb as a Space Engine; U.S. Plans to Test Atom Space Drive

2008-02-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

John A Osmundsen
August 16, 1959, Sunday
Page 1! New York Times

American scientists plan to use and atomic bomb for the first time to test the feasibility of powering space ships as big as ocean liners with controlled nuclear explosions.

The plans have evolved from pilot studies of so-called "nuclear pulse" rocket propulsion. Specialists familiar with this project have told The New York Times that recent developments in this field have been extremely encouraging."

Whether the first test involving the use of an atomic device will be made as planned rests on the outcome of the nuclear test-ban talks in Geneva.

The Defense Department has already stated that it will be ready to resume nuclear tests after Ot. 31 of no agreement has been reached by that time.

On the basis of new developments...

Continued on page 60, Column 3

QBR: 0* :Aiming for the Stars

2008-02-08T09:07:00.000-08:00

Quick Book Review: Zero Stars
Aiming for the Stars
The Dreamers and Doers of the Space Age
By Tom D Crouch 1999 Smithsonian Institution

Covers Space Exploration
Index Counts:
"Project Orion" : 0
Ulam: 0
Atomic propulsion: 0
Sagan's Nuke the Moon: 0
Dyson: 0
Nelson Rockefeller: 0
Sakharov: 1, no mention of PK-5000
General Atomic: 0

Total : 0 Points No stars earned.

QBR: 0*: Exploring Space:Voyages in the Solar Sytem and Beyond

2008-02-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

Quick Book Review: Zero Stars, non-attentive.
Exploring Space:
Voyages in the Solar Sytem and Beyond
By William Burrows 1990

Covers (low energy fuel based) Space Exploration from Kepler to 1989
Index Counts:
"Project Orion" : 0
Ulam: 0
Atomic propulsion: 0
Sagan's Nuke the Moon: 1 (looses points for attitude) final credit 0
Dyson: 0
Nelson Rockefeller: 0
Sakharov: 0
General Atomic:0

Total : 0 Points No start earned.

Bohr Helps Open an Atom Center

2008-02-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

New York Times June 26, 1959
Pg. 6

San Diego, Calif., June 25 - Dr. Niels Bohr, whose research helped make atomic bombs possible said today that mankind's "common inheritance" of science and technology presented both opportunities and obligations for promoting international understanding.

"Any increase in our knowledge and abilities at the same time implies a greater responsibility due to our increased power of shaping the conditions of human life.", he said.

In one of his rare public appearances the 73-year-old scientist, director of the of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen, was principal speaker at the dedication of the $10,000,000 Johns Jay Hopkins Laboratory for Pure and Applied Science here.

Industrial Project

The laboaratory is an operation of the General Atomic Division of the General Dynsamics Corporation, whose products range from atomic submarines to Atlas intercontenental missiles.
Mr. Hopkins led the corporation when he died in 1957.

Two of its major projects are power generators for groups of utility companies centered in Philadelphia and Texas. Another is the Orion project, a study for the Defense Department of propulsion of 1,00o-ton "space platform by controlled atomic reactions. Another project is for the production of gas-cooled nuclear turbine engine for ships.

The dedication was attended by about 2,000 persons, including an international aggregation of scientists.

Reactor Power Used

Mr. Hopkins' widow pressed two buttons, unveiling a commemorative plaque using combined nuclear fission and fusion power for two of the laboratory's reactors.

Bad operational security

2008-02-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

NASA sends early warning to the unknown potential of the three north stars.

Project Orion Chief Named

2008-01-24T08:51:00.000-08:00

NYT October 22, 1959
Pg. 31

San Diego, Calif., Oct 21 (AP) The company in charge of developing nuclear propulsion for space vehicles said today that John M. Wild, a space engineer, would direct the project, known as Orion. General Atomic Division of the General Dynamics Corporation said. Mr. Wild would come here from Tullahoma, Tenn., where he has been director of engineering for Aro Inc., which operated the Arnold Engineering Development Center for the Air Force.

Huygens' Landing on Titan

2006-12-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

Atomic Weapons Orientation Parts 5 and 6

2006-11-07T17:02:00.000-08:00

Aldebaran parameters

2006-11-03T05:15:00.000-08:00

Pat's ideas

Mass:
Thrust:
Thrust/Drag:
Pulse size:
Frequency:
Pulse Unit mass:
Cruise Duration:

AFSWC-TD-59-39

2006-11-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

Re: Sagan , Project A-119 and the related 400 kg Soviet E-4.

The PDF is available at.

PDF TR-59-39
Abstract
Nuclear detonations in the vicinity of the moon are considered in this report along with scientific information which might be obtained from such explosions. The military aspect is aided by investigation of space envioronment, detection of nuclear
testing, and capability of weapons in space.

A study was conducted of various thories of the moon's structure and origin, and a description of the probable nature of the lunar surface is given. The areas discussed in some detail are optical lunar studies, seismic observations, lunar surface and magnetic fiels, plasma and maganetic field effects, and organic matter on the moon.

AFSWC-TD-59-39
Vol 1
0143705
Headquarters
Air Force Special Weapons Center
Air Research and Devlopment Command
Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexicon
image
A Study of Lunar Research Flights
Vol 1
by
L. Reiffel
Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
19 June 1959
- Cover -

Casaba Howitzer, definitions

2006-10-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

Casaba: A hypervelocity particle NDEW concept developed in the 1960.
Howitzer: An X-Ray laser NDEW concept examined in the 1960's.

Atomic Mambo

2006-10-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

Project Orion focused Space and Political Web Search

2006-10-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

Here

Contemplating Orion

2006-10-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

The Boing-Boing Orion posts were quite popular and well linked, more that NASA's Project Orion this week.

Linkers and thinkers:

prairieprogressive

"Imagine what mankind could do with such a vehicle. Moon, Mars, Pluto, the stars! Too bad it’s a bit on the messy side."

"the Orion story is a reminder of a day not so long ago when the outer planets were considered as viable an option for manned
flight as the Moon."

"The existence and results of Project Orion are one of the big reasons that I don't give much credit to folks who discount
large-scale space exploration as economically or technologically infeasible."

"It should be reconsidered."

hobbyspace

buyitordie
"Aeronautic tech is cool. Classified aeronautic tech is way cooler."

spacetimecurves
"powering a spacecraft with Nuclear Energy so that man can take a quantum leap in his quest to explore the unknown space."

wastetimeonline

sumitsays

founddrama

silas216

science.netscape

naikmichel

spliffrd

lucasthegray

scribeoflight

lstr

storm-fist

Big Explosions

2006-10-24T06:29:00.000-07:00

New Project Orion documents available

2006-10-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Collected by George Dyson

Xeni has posted them to Flickr

Hat tip to Warren Ellis

Early launch plans

2006-10-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

Wigwam test site

The United States Constitution

2006-10-13T04:35:00.000-07:00

Article. IV.

Section. 3.

Clause 1: New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

Clause 2: The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

(See Note 1)

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Article. I.
Section 1.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section. 2.

Clause 1: The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

Clause 2: No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

Clause 3: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. (See Note 2) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

Clause 4: When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

Clause 5: The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
Section. 3.

Clause 1: The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, (See Note 3) for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Clause 2: Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. (See Note 4)

Clause 3: No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

Clause 4: The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

Clause 5: The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

Clause 6: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Clause 7: Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.
Section. 4.

Clause 1: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

Clause 2: The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, (See Note 5) unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.
Section. 5.

Clause 1: Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Clause 2: Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Clause 3: Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Clause 4: Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.
Section. 6.

Clause 1: The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. (See Note 6) They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, beprivileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

Clause 2: No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.
Section. 7.

Clause 1: All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Clause 2: Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

Clause 3: Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill.
Section. 8.

Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

Clause 9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

Clause 10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

Clause 11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

Clause 12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

Clause 13: To provide and maintain a Navy;

Clause 14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

Clause 15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

Clause 16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

Clause 17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And

Clause 18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Section. 9.

Clause 1: The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

Clause 2: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

Clause 3: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

Clause 4: No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. (See Note 7)

Clause 5: No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.

Clause 6: No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

Clause 7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.

Clause 8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
Section. 10.

Clause 1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

Clause 2: No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

Clause 3: No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.
Article. II.
Section. 1.

Clause 1: The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows

Clause 2: Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.

Clause 3: The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President. (See Note 8)

Clause 4: The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

Clause 5: No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Clause 6: In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, (See Note 9) the Same shall devolve on the VicePresident, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

Clause 7: The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Clause 8: Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Section. 2.

Clause 1: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Clause 2: He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.

Clause 3: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
Section. 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
Section. 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Article. III.
Section. 1.

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.
Section. 2.

Clause 1: The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;--between a State and Citizens of another State; (See Note 10)--between Citizens of different States, --between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.

Clause 2: In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

Clause 3: The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed.
Section. 3.

Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

Clause 2: The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
Article. IV.
Section. 1.

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
Section. 2.

Clause 1: The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

Clause 2: A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

Clause 3: No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. (See Note 11)
Section. 3.

Clause 1: New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

Clause 2: The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.
Section. 4.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
Article. V.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
Article. VI.

Clause 1: All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.

Clause 2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Clause 3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Article. VII.
The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names,

GO WASHINGTON--Presidt. and deputy from Virginia

[Signed also by the deputies of twelve States.]

Delaware

Geo: Read
Gunning Bedford jun
John Dickinson
Richard Bassett
Jaco: Broom

Maryland

James MCHenry
Dan of ST ThoS. Jenifer
DanL Carroll.

Virginia

John Blair--
James Madison Jr.

North Carolina

WM Blount
RichD. Dobbs Spaight.
Hu Williamson

South Carolina

J. Rutledge
Charles 1ACotesworth Pinckney
Charles Pinckney
Pierce Butler.

Georgia

William Few
Abr Baldwin

New Hampshire

John Langdon
Nicholas Gilman

Massachusetts

Nathaniel Gorham
Rufus King

Connecticut
WM. SamL. Johnson
Roger Sherman

New York

Alexander Hamilton

New Jersey

Wil: Livingston
David Brearley.
WM. Paterson.
Jona: Dayton

Pennsylvania

B Franklin
Thomas Mifflin
RobT Morris
Geo. Clymer
ThoS. FitzSimons
Jared Ingersoll
James Wilson.
Gouv Morris

Attest William Jackson Secretary

NOTES

Note 1: This text of the Constitution follows the engrossed copy signed by Gen. Washington and the deputies from 12 States. The small superior figures preceding the paragraphs designate Clauses, and were not in the original and have no reference to footnotes.

The Constitution was adopted by a convention of the States on September 17, 1787, and was subsequently ratified by the several States, on the following dates: Delaware, December 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787; New Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 1788; Connecticut, January 9, 1788; Massachusetts, February 6, 1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788.

Ratification was completed on June 21, 1788.

The Constitution was subsequently ratified by Virginia, June 25, 1788; New York, July 26, 1788; North Carolina, November 21, 1789; Rhode Island, May 29, 1790; and Vermont, January 10, 1791.

In May 1785, a committee of Congress made a report recommending an alteration in the Articles of Confederation, but no action was taken on it, and it was left to the State Legislatures to proceed in the matter. In January 1786, the Legislature of Virginia passed a resolution providing for the appointment of five commissioners, who, or any three of them, should meet such commissioners as might be appointed in the other States of the Union, at a time and place to be agreed upon, to take into consideration the trade of the United States; to consider how far a uniform system in their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest and their permanent harmony; and to report to the several States such an act, relative to this great object, as, when ratified by them, will enable the United States in Congress effectually to provide for the same. The Virginia commissioners, after some correspondence, fixed the first Monday in September as the time, and the city of Annapolis as the place for the meeting, but only four other States were represented, viz: Delaware, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; the commissioners appointed by Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Rhode Island failed to attend. Under the circumstances of so partial a representation, the commissioners present agreed upon a report, (drawn by Mr. Hamilton, of New York,) expressing their unanimous conviction that it might essentially tend to advance the interests of the Union if the States by which they were respectively delegated would concur, and use their endeavors to procure the concurrence of the other States, in the appointment of commissioners to meet at Philadelphia on the Second Monday of May following, to take into consideration the situation of the United States; to devise such further provisions as should appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union; and to report such an act for that purpose to the United States in Congress assembled as, when agreed to by them and afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State, would effectually provide for the same.

Congress, on the 21st of February, 1787, adopted a resolution in favor of a convention, and the Legislatures of those States which had not already done so (with the exception of Rhode Island) promptly appointed delegates. On the 25th of May, seven States having convened, George Washington, of Virginia, was unanimously elected President, and the consideration of the proposed constitution was commenced. On the 17th of September, 1787, the Constitution as engrossed and agreed upon was signed by all the members present, except Mr. Gerry of Massachusetts, and Messrs. Mason and Randolph, of Virginia. The president of the convention transmitted it to Congress, with a resolution stating how the proposed Federal Government should be put in operation, and an explanatory letter. Congress, on the 28th of September, 1787, directed the Constitution so framed, with the resolutions and letter concerning the same, to "be transmitted to the several Legislatures in order to be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in each State by the people thereof, in conformity to the resolves of the convention."

On the 4th of March, 1789, the day which had been fixed for commencing the operations of Government under the new Constitution, it had been ratified by the conventions chosen in each State to consider it, as follows: Delaware, December 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787; New Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 1788; Connecticut, January 9, 1788; Massachusetts, February 6, 1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788; Virginia, June 25, 1788; and New York, July 26, 1788.

The President informed Congress, on the 28th of January, 1790, that North Carolina had ratified the Constitution November 21, 1789; and he informed Congress on the 1st of June, 1790, that Rhode Island had ratified the Constitution May 29, 1790. Vermont, in convention, ratified the Constitution January 10, 1791, and was, by an act of Congress approved February 18, 1791, "received and admitted into this Union as a new and entire member of the United States."

Note 2: The part of this Clause relating to the mode of apportionment of representatives among the several States has been affected by Section 2 of amendment XIV, and as to taxes on incomes without apportionment by amendment XVI.

Note 3: This Clause has been affected by Clause 1 of amendment XVII.

Note 4: This Clause has been affected by Clause 2 of amendment XVIII.

Note 5: This Clause has been affected by amendment XX.

Note 6: This Clause has been affected by amendment XXVII.

Note 7: This Clause has been affected by amendment XVI.

Note 8: This Clause has been superseded by amendment XII.

Note 9: This Clause has been affected by amendment XXV.

Note 10: This Clause has been affected by amendment XI.

Note 11: This Clause has been affected by amendment XIII.

As of September 20, 2004

Land!

2006-10-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

"If there was a single unyielding American national characteristic, it was land hunger. Slave or free, Indian or not, land hunger drove a westward push so fast, so intensely, so relentlessly, that by the time of Thomas Jefferson's death (and John Adam's on that same Fourth of July, 1826), the Louisiana Territory was already becoming a plowed and cultivated land."

Nuclear Boom

2006-10-10T18:32:00.000-07:00

Thermonuclear age...

A post about Project Orion from China

2006-10-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

"Faint!

Another question:Theodore Taylor was the leader of project Orion. Information
in the passage:Project

Orion was driven by Theodore,and ***heavily involved.
The answer is that the information is not mentioned in the passage. "

...
crossrainbow's freedom -

Index of Time

2006-10-09T08:25:00.000-07:00

Project Orion timeline

November 3, 1957 - Project Orion started

-13 Billion years - Big bang, 9.5 x 10**53 Megatons

Lowther on the USAF Orion Space Battleship

2006-10-09T06:33:00.000-07:00

"the USAF designs, at least what is available
on them, indicate even LARGER craft were under study, from 87 to 130
feet 26.5 to 39.6 meter) in diameter, which would have had even greater
performance. From what I can tell, these larger craft were the ones that
Ted Taylor referred to as a "space battelship." "

Spot the Orion
« Thread Started on Sept 8, 2005, 5:51am »
Theres a 12-meter Orion (strategic weapon version) on this page...

Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #1 on Sept 8, 2005, 8:44am »
Got it.

Earth First
We'll strip mine the other planets later!
makikomi
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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #2 on Sept 8, 2005, 4:06pm »
I got it too. Interesting. Also--what does "strategic weapon version" mean? Does this have anything to do with the Air Force's attempt to save the project by using it as a weapons delivery system, etc.? A long answer would be preferred over a short one.

The secret of victory: "Get there fustest with the mostest" Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA
-----------------
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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #3 on Sept 8, 2005, 6:00pm »

Sept 8, 2005, 4:06pm, makikomi wrote:
what does "strategic weapon version" mean? .... A long answer would be preferred over a short one.

The long answer.... will be given in the book (possibly sooner if'n I decide to seel the "Space Bombers" section separately).

The short answer: seven 156" solid rockets loft a 12-meter Orion, which boosts itself to LEO, and then to a LEO/100,000 n.m transfer orbit, and then to a 100,000 n.m. circular orbit, where it sits until the Soviets get uppity. At which point it either launches weapons from that distance and serves as an unreachable launch platform, or boosts itself to hyperbolic flyby past the Russkies and drops several boomers worth or ordnance, zips back to cislunar space, and then turns around and does it again if needed. Crew of something like 20, bored off their asses for months on end. :P

Also considered: an 8-meter Orion that would sit in a silo until WWIII breaks out, at which point it would be lofted to space where it would serve as a command and control platform.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #4 on Sept 8, 2005, 6:34pm »
Anyone manage to find this one?

Spot the Orion

When are you going to finish that Project Orion book Scott? Is it nearly done?

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #5 on Sept 8, 2005, 7:32pm »

Sept 8, 2005, 6:34pm, Good Guy wrote:
Anyone manage to find this one?

Spot the Orion

#3.

Quote:
When are you going to finish that Project Orion book Scott? Is it nearly done?

Quite some time. I started on it before hearing about Dyson's book; but when he and I started comparing notes and whatnot, it was clear that his was going to be the true historically valuable book, so I put it off. Same damned thing happened with my Dyna Soar book... Godwin beat me to the punch on it.

The "bomber" Orion is a small part at a stab at a slow restart. My Orion book, will, if ever completed, be somewhat like the Bomber book, with lots of reconstructions. Lots of 2-D drawings, probably a few 3-D. It'd be nice to get some 3-D animatiosn for a CD (showing stuff like how the breech of the pulse unit gun works... really quite clever and fool-resistant, once I figured it out), but it's far too far away to really consider.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #6 on Sept 8, 2005, 7:33pm »
# 3 and #9, actually.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #7 on Sept 8, 2005, 11:38pm »
Spot the not quite Orion:

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #8 on Sept 9, 2005, 10:57am »
norden,

There are eight (8) of them. And they're not "not quite." :)
They're taken from the "10M" thread in this forum. Or do you mean one of the others?
« Last Edit: Sept 9, 2005, 10:59am by selden » IP: Logged
Selden

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #9 on Sept 9, 2005, 12:08pm »
Just to the left of your row of Orion drawings.

makikomi
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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #10 on Sept 9, 2005, 3:22pm »
OBB:

Very, very interesting info. How does this relate to the legendary $50K Orion battleship model that Kennedy saw and rejected?

The secret of victory: "Get there fustest with the mostest" Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #11 on Sept 9, 2005, 4:38pm »
Here's a peek at the sights from 100,000 n.m. orbit.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #12 on Sept 9, 2005, 7:25pm »

Sept 9, 2005, 3:22pm, makikomi wrote:
How does this relate to the legendary $50K Orion battleship model that Kennedy saw and rejected?

Very indirectly. I just wrote a bit about that last night in the bomber Orion writeup. The bomber Orion was meant to blow the bejeebers out of ground targets; the battleship was both substantially larger and meant for a different role (blowing the bejeebers out of space-based targets). Sadly, there is less available on the battleship design than on the bomber. I'd give someone else's left nut to get a look at that model, but since it's packed in an unmarked crate right next to the Ark of the Covenant, I doubt I'll get the chance.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #13 on Sept 9, 2005, 8:18pm »
There's a book cover with a publicity style photo of JFK in front of Rover hardware. So we can hope for a similar shot with the Orion model.
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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #14 on Sept 9, 2005, 9:00pm »

Sept 9, 2005, 8:18pm, norden wrote:
There's a book cover with a publicity style photo of JFK in front of Rover hardware. So we can hope for a similar shot with the Orion model.

Rover wasn't classified like Orion. You might as well hope for a photo of JFK doing the horizontal bop with Marilyn Monroe.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #15 on Sept 9, 2005, 10:05pm »
"JD: I'm a firm advocate of public involvement. If you look back at the Rover/NERVA period it was classified for eighteen years of its existence." - Dr. James Dewar

http://www.nuclearspace.com/A_viewithdewarFINpub02.htm
---
Another angle worth checking is the KGB archives, they dug up a lot of detail about some of our programs.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #16 on Sept 9, 2005, 10:20pm »

Sept 9, 2005, 10:05pm, norden wrote:
If you look back at the Rover/NERVA period it was classified for eighteen years of its existence.

Rover got lots of press, including journal articles and open papers with lots of technical content. Orion, in particular militart Orion, was virtually restricted to mission delta V studies, extremely crude art and slight comment.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #17 on Sept 9, 2005, 10:25pm »
I'm wondering about the Rover-JFK 'publicity' photo's history, they must have been at least potentially classified. It would be interesting to know what year they became public.

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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #18 on Sept 10, 2005, 5:28am »
Have you got any idea how many segments the solids used to loft the 12 m warship would have had or what would have been used to loft the 8 m one?
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Re: Spot the Orion
« Reply #19 on Sept 10, 2005, 8:40am »

Sept 10, 2005, 5:28am, best-on-net wrote:
Have you got any idea how many segments the solids used to loft the 12 m warship would have had

Offhand, no. The text does not describe, and the sketch included is pretty simplistic. However, total Orion *and* total liftoff weights are given, so individual SRB weight can be determiend. I ahve some stuff on Untied Tech and Thiokol 156" studies; workign out the number of segments woudl be possible.

Quote:
or what would have been used to loft the 8 m one?

"An 8-m nuclear-pulse-propulsion module with a thrust of 530,000 lb and a specific impulse of 2,750 sec could be employed for this mission. By boosting the system with a cluster of seven 120-in. solid propellant motors, a payload of 200,000 lb could be delivered to a 200-n mi circular orbit witha velocity reserve of 60,000 ft/sec."

United Tech studied may configurations of 120-inch solid clusters (the motors from the Titan III).

Top Ten Causes of death

2006-10-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Interesting data


Year Heart Cancer vasc resp Diab flu liver Acc  Suic.Hom.
1960 559   193.9 177.9 12.5 22.5 53.7 13.3 63.1 12.5 5.2
1961 545.3 193.4 173.1 12.6 22.1 43.4 13.3 60.6 12.2 5.2
1962 556.9 193.3 174   14.2 22.6 47.1 13.8 62.9 12.8 5.4
1963 563.4 194.7 173.9 16.5 23.1 55.6 14   64   13   5.4
1964 543.3 193.6 167   16.3 22.5 45.4 14.2 64.1 12.7 5.7
1965 542.5 195.6 166.4 18.3 22.9 46.8 14.9 65.8 13   6.1
1966 541.2 196.5 165.8 19.2 23.6 47.9 15.9 67.6 12.7 6.5
1967 524.7 197.3 159.3 19.2 23.4 42.2 16.3 66.2 12.5 7.5
1968 531   198.8 162.5 20.7 25.3 52.8 16.9 65.6 12.4 8.1
1969 516.8 198.5 155.4 20.9 25.1 47.9 17.1 64.9 12.7 8.3
1970 492.7 198.6 147.7 21.3 24.3 41.7 17.8 62.2 13.1 9
1971 492.9 199.3 147.6 21.8 23.9 38.4 17.8 60.3 13.1 9.8
1972 490.2 200.3 147.3 22.8 23.7 41.3 18   60.2 13.3 10
1973 482   200   145.2 23.6 23   41.2 18.1 59.3 13.1 10.2
1974 458.8 201.5 136.8 23.2 22.1 35.5 17.9 52.7 13.2 10.5
1975 431.2 200.1 123.5 23.7 20.3 34.9 16.7 50.8 13.6 10.2
1976 426.9 202.5 117.4 24.9 19.5 36.8 16.4 48.7 13.2 9.2
1977 413.7 203.5 110.4 24.7 18.2 31   15.8 48.8 13.7 9.2
1978 409.9 204.9 103.7 26.3 18.3 34.5 15.2 48.9 12.9 9.2
1979 401.6 204   97.1  25.5 17.5 26.1 14.8 46.5 12.6 9.9
1980 412.1 207.9 96.4  28.3 18.1 31.4 15.1 46.4 12.2 10.5
1981 397   206.4 89.5  29   17.6 30   14.2 43.4 12.3 10.1
1982 389   208.3 84.2  21   17.2 26.5 13.2 40.1 12.5 9.4
1983 388.9 209.1 81.2  31.6 17.6 29.8 12.8 39.1 12.4 8.4
1984 378.8 210.8 78.7  32.4 17.2 30.6 12.7 39.8 12.6 8.1
1985 375   211.3 76.6  34.5 17.4 34.5 12.3 38.5 12.5 8
1986 365.1 211.5 73.1  34.8 17.2 34.8 11.8 38.6 13 8.6
1987 355.9 211.7 71.6  35   17.4 33.8 11.7 38.2 12.8 8.3
1988 352.5 212.5 70.6  36.5 18   37.3 11.6 38.9 12.5 8.5
1989 332   214.2 66.9  36.6 20.5 35.9 11.6 37.7 12.3 8.8
1990 321.8 216   65.5  37.2 20.7 36.8 11.1 36.3 12.5 9.5
1991 313.8 215.8 63.2  38   20.7 34.9 10.7 34.9 12.3 10.1
1992 306.1 214.3 62    37.9 20.8 33.1 10.5 33.4 12.1 9.6
1993 309.9 214.6 63.1  40.9 22   35.2 10.3 34.5 12.2 9.8
1994 299.7 213.1 63.1  40.6 22.7 33.9 10.2 34.6 12.1 9.4
1995 296.3 211.7 63.9  40.5 23.4 33.8 10   34.9 12   8.6
1996 288.3 208.7 63.2  41   24   33.2 9.8  34.9 11.7 7.8
1997 280.4 205.7 61.8  41.5 24   33.6 9.6  34.8 11.4 7.3
1998 272.4 202.4 59.6  42   24.2 34.6 9.5  35   11.3 6.7
1999 267.8 202.7 61.8  45.8 25.2 23.6 9.7  35.9 10.7 6.2
2000 257.6 199.6 60.9  44.2 25   23.7 9.5  34.9 10.4 5.9
2001 247.8 196   57.9  43.7 25.3 22 9.5    35.7 10.7 7.1
2002 240.4 194   56.3  43.7 25.4 22.7 9.3  35.3 10.6 5.9
2003 232.3 190.1 53.5  43.3 25.3 22 9.3    37.3 10.8 6
2004 217.5 184.6 50    41.8 24.4 20.4 8.8  36.6 10.7 5.6
2032 0     184.6 50    41.8 24.4 20.4 8.8  36.6 10.7 5.6

Icarus 1968

2006-10-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

MIT professor Paul Sandorff gave his class of graduate students a task: suppose...Icarus was instead going to hit the Earth... the

force of 500,000 megatons... pulverizing a rock the

size of Icarus would require a 1,000 megaton bomb...There was no way it could be done in the short time available....
What the group decided to do was to take six Saturn V rockets then in production, and with only minimal modifications ... The first launch would have to take place by April 1968, only a

year away, and five more launches would have to follow at two-week increments...

Early Orion Posts

2006-10-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

Thrust Into Space

Date: 16 Dec 1981 21:50:29-PST
From: decvax!utzoo!henry at Berkeley
Subject: Project Orion and relatives

If anyone is interested in the details of nuclear pulse propulsion,
possibly the best place to start is the lead paper in the August 1979 issue
of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society: "Nuclear Pulse
Propulsion: A historical review of an advanced propulsion concept". It
discusses everything from the original concepts to the recent schemes
based on beam-ignited microexplosions. About 1/3 of the 25-page paper
is the best technical (as opposed to project-history) discussion of Orion
I have seen, including an attempt at an analysis of the rather vague vehicle
descriptions in "The Curve of Binding Energy". The 97-item bibliography
might also be of interest.

Subject: Re: Reactors banned in NEO?
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 14:50:55 -0800
From: gwh@lurnix.COM
...
Nuclear bombs are banned, in any form, in space.
The test ban treaty saw to that. Which theoretically
nails down any "Orion" vehicles... 8-) As if anyone
would build one unless they were desperate enough to
violate a treaty anyway. Which is likely scienci fiction
not space-tech 8-)

-george

Date: 05 Dec 1981 2140-PST
From: Ted Anderson
Subject: Request for references on Project Orion
To: space at MIT-MC

MSG: ORION1 1
LEVIN@MIT-MC 12/05/81 16:25:45 Re: Project Orion
A recent rerun of Cosmos extolled the virtues of Project Orion.
I am interested in finding more information about its performance, design
and failings. I would appreciate any pointers to review articles or government
reports. Replies to Levin@MC

Date: Sun, 1 Mar 92 18:34:44 EST
From: dietz@cs.rochester.edu
To: UC369801@UMCVMB.missouri.edu, jfc@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: dumb really dumb big booster idea
Cc: space-tech@cs.cmu.edu

Propellant costs are low, but there are structure costs proportional
to propellant mass and volume and structure is not cheap. However,
fuel tanks cost less than engines and it takes probably takes less
tank mass to support explosives than liquid fuel.

I think chemical explosives have less energy than H+O.

TNT is about 4.2 MJ/kg. H2 + O2 (stoichiometric) is 13.4 MJ/kg.
Even LOX + hydrocarbon is much better than high explosives.

An Orion-style rocket with chemical explosives sounds quite
impractical. The mass overhead for the shock absorbers would be
large, and the launcher for the explosive packages would have to be
much larger than for the nuclear version.

http://www.geocities.com/jim_bowery/bowery.txt

Reply-To: mordor!rutgers!trout.nosc.mil!pnet01!jim
Date: Sat, 9 Jul 88 12:55:47 PDT
From: mordor!rutgers!pnet01.cts.com!jim (Jim Bowery)
To: crash!space@angband.s1.gov
Subject: Ron Paul's Libertarian Party Space Policy

Dale Amon presented me with a copy of Ron Paul's space policy and I felt
it appropriate to post on the net, especially since Dale claims to have
contributed to this policy and is available for discussion of it on
the network. Here it is:

======================================================================

Ron Paul's Space Policy
Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate

Time after time NASA has developed capabilities at great expense then
discarded them: a space station larger than the Soviet MIR, a heavy
lift vehicle competitive with the new Soviet Energia, a nuclear engine
twice as efficient as the space shuttle main engine, and a well-tested
Earth-Moon transport system.
...
We must also demand a revision or understanding to the 1967 Outer
Space Treaty so individual property rights are recognized. If
there are no implementing protocols for property rights within a
specified time limit we should withdraw from the treaty entirely.
In any case, we should immediately open a land office and accept
claims of Americans to specific pieces of land, subject to occupancy
within fifteen years.

Back in the late 1950's a project called Orion seriously considered using
small nuclear explosions to power a spacecraft. The lifting capacity
would have been vast, measured in thousands of tons instead of
the miniscule abilities of today's mightiest rockets. This brute-
force approach was simple enough to be considered feasible 30 years ago.
Unfortunately, the idea was shelved by the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.history.what-if/browse_frm/thread/3088fa8293ce95d3/b03194979d6ea722?lnk=st&q=utzoo!henry+orion&rnum=4&hl=en#b03194979d6ea722
No, Orion was not "available" in 1951. In his book *Adventures of a
Mathematician* Stanislaw Ulam says he and C. Everett cooked up the
idea around 1955.

2. Henry Spencer Jun 8 1994
Herbert F. York's "Building
Weapons, Talking Peace" (I think that's the title). He was the unnamed
man mentioned in Dyson's account, the one making the funding decisions.
He basically thought Orion was a *very* long shot, with a lot of major
unsolved problems.

How efficient is Orion?

2006-10-01T04:34:00.000-07:00

The question comes up. Also on the web. And blogs.

The are four types of efficiency to consider.

1- Most simply; payload fraction, the part of the launched mission that is useful.


    a) Orion - 40+% is common for easy missions.
      i)  880 Ton test vehicle 34%: 300 tons to 300 mi orbit
      ii) 4000 Ton Interplanetary
          one)   40% 1600 tons to orbit
          two)   30% 1200 tons to Lunar landing
          three) 20% 800 tons to lunar surface and back
          four)  20% 800 tons to mars orbit and back
          five)   5% 200 tons to Venus orbit then Mars orbit then Earth orbit.

      iii) Advanced Interplanetary 10,000 tons
          one)   61% 6100 tons to orbit
          two)   57% 5700 tons to Lunar landing
          three) 53% 5300 tons to lunar surface and back
          four)  53% 5300 tons to mars orbit and back
          five)  45% 4500 tons to Venus orbit then Mars orbit then Earth orbit.
          six)   13% 1300 tons to Enceladus and back

     iv) 10m 1963 Orion Design from Ga-5009
        300 day Mars mission from earth orbit and back 103,300 ft/sec
        6.4%: 1145 mt gross 72.8 mt payload

      v) 10m 1963 Orion Design from Ga-5009
         450 day Mars mission  97,355 ft/sec
         8.3%: 73 mt payload 880 mt gross

     vi) 20m 1963 Orion Design from Ga-5009
         450 day Mars mission  72,850 ft/sec
         26%: 300 mt payload 1141 gross


    b) Shuttle - Cargo 1.6% (LEO) to 0.8% (ISS) , non cargo missions do a  
      little better.

    c) Apollo can be broken down into fundamental tasks, that contribute to the
       total payload. Oversimplifed the payload fraction is 25/3000 = .83 %, this
       combination is invalid, but the breakdown
       will be useful when looking at energy.

         i) Place the 15 metric ton Lunar Module on Luna
         2) Move the 5 metric ton Ascent Stage to Lunar orbit.
         3) Return the 5 metric ton Command Module to earth.

    d) Viking -  632,970 Gross mass
         i) 2328 kg Orbiter in LMO  : 0.36 %
        ii) 572 kg Lander on Mars      : 0.09 %

    e) Voyager 1 -  0.114 % 721.9 kg /  632,970 Gross mass

2- ISP - A measure of efficiency developed early in rocket research.

Project Orion - Compared to other high performance options .

3- Energy efficiency - Especially apealing to children of the seventies.


    a) Project Orion - A detailed analysis of the 880 ton Orbital Orion Test Vehicle. 
       450 KT  yields 4.87 kt. of orbital energy. 1.66 KT of cargo energy. 
       Efficiency is therefore .37% percent.

    b) Shuttle - The external tank starts with 1.2 Kt of , the SRB's with 3 for  
       a total of 4.2 Kt. The ISS cargo energy is .11 Kt, for an efficiency of 2.5%.

    c) Viking - The 572 kg Lander on Mars has .007 Kt more potential energy than
       before launch. The 2 metric ton orbiter has 0.03 Kiltons of extra energy.
       Launch fuel:  530 Tons mixed, energy to be calculated.

    d) Voyager 1 - Solar Altitude 14,919,000,000 km, v 17,147 m / sec
       mass 721.9 kg, total potential and kinetic energy added by mission: .19 KT
       Launch fuel:  530 Tons mixed, energy to be calculated.

4- Cost efficiency - Most complicated, but most important.
Dyson 8 million ton Super Orion was as efficient as 5 cents per pound.

Relationships and examples to be calculated...

----------------
Constants


From:               To:                [m/s]             MegaJoules/KG

Earth surface       Low Earth Orbit     9300             43
Low Earth Orbit     GTO                 2500
GTO                 GEO                 1500
GTO                 Earth escape         700
Earth escape        Low Lunar Orbit      700
Earth escape        Mars Transfer Orbit  600
LEO                 Mars surface        4800
LEO                 Solar escape        8700
Lunar Lunar         Lunar surface       1600
Mars surface        Low Mars Orbit      4100
Mars capture orbit  Mars low-energy      900
Low Mars Orbit      Phobos Transfer      900

Index of Indexes

2006-09-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

Series Indexes

* Problems with POS
* Thomas S. Power posts
* Scaled fireball images
* Thrust into Space excerpts
* Ga-5009 excerpts
* Project Orion excerpts

World's largest nuke exposion (Tsar Bomba)

2006-09-26T01:37:00.000-07:00

Video of the big one, Kruschev ordered this test at the meeting where Sakharov presented the Pk-5000 Soviet Orion

Index

2006-09-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

S

Sagan

Enceladus in the ring

2006-09-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

As seen at Centauri Dreams

also seen there Orion revisited
Although I think Dyson's concerns are tied to out _current_ lifespan.

With a link to the new article at
Damn Intersting
with mentions of footfall and Bellingham, they migh enjoy this map...

Rhysy is working on a new combat Orion video

2006-09-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile here's his previous Project Orion / NASA / ESA Mars Mission
embededed at YouTube.

Metallica's Orion

2006-09-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

on YouTube

Additional Orion supporters

2006-09-12T04:03:00.000-07:00

On Usenet

and with repespect to the latest NASA naming blunder

1 - Astro Prof

Problems with Problems With The Orion Spacecraft #10: Fission Free Bombs

2006-09-06T05:07:00.000-07:00

based on fission free bombs - POS

-------
A common misconception, based on poorly sourced Usenet articles.

The most detailed official document available, from NASA and General Atomic explains in detail how to reduce fallout from fission triggered devices.

-------
GA-5009 pg 82/94 - "products could be reduced by factors of 100 to 1,000. Such
improvements would be obtained by reducing the fraction of total yield due
to fission by two to three orders of magnitude, the remaining yield being
contributed by fusion. A further advantage from this approach is the
improvement in fuel economics.
It is also possible to consider the focusing of fission products
upward from the point of explosion, at some sacrifice in ISP . This could
reduce those fission products likely to be trapped in the atmosphere to
approximately 1percent or less of that estimated in the hemispherical expansion
condition.

It is believed that some combination of these suggested techniques
could conceivably result in a reduction of the trappage to only 1/1,000,000th of
current estimates. Considering the longer-term possibilities, if and when
pure fusion devices become a reality, fission products, by definition, will
not be present."

GA-5009 pg 29/41 "With pulse-unit redesign, orders-of-magnitude improvements
in fission-product release (near-fusion or total-fusion energy source)"

GA-5009 pg 81/93 "characteristic of the current pulse-unit design is that most
of the fission products and the unburned fuel tend to leave the point of
explosion within a 2 Pi r solid angle and hemispherically away from the
vehicle. Assuming that all of the fission products are ejected in this
manner provides an upper limit to the trapped fission yield per explosion
for any particular vehicle."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion

- An early example of the error-

From: Henry Spencer
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech,sci.space.policy,sci.space.history
Subject: Re: Revive Orion?
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 00:00:38 GMT

In article <33f23d90.22448895@Demonews.mindspring.com>,
John Bicketts wrote:
>The Orion project of the 50's and 60's designed a workable spacecraft
>powered by small atom bomb explosions. The ships could be big...
> Anyway, does anyone think they could be revived today?

There are a number of problems, and overall it is not a good idea.

For one thing, it is illegal. The treaty is still in effect. Admittedly,
it would be easier to negotiate changes to it now, with the Cold War gone.

For another, Orion always had a problem that was never satisfactorily
solved: its fuel was horribly expensive. Fission bombs are costly. Most
of the enthusiasm for Orion (and most of the optimistic commentary about
how little environmental impact ground-launched Orions would have) was
based on the assumption that "fission-free" nuclear bombs -- pure-fusion
bombs triggered by some non-fission means -- would soon be available.
=============

More noise on the wire

2006-09-03T20:49:00.000-07:00

Because of NASA recent project ; Orion spacecraft is a very popular search term these days.

The worst thing is that the abandoned Canuk-Com-Bastard essay POS is the number one result.

Alpha Centauri Branch: Volume 1

2006-08-31T17:48:00.000-07:00

Issac Asimov's Foundation and Earth:

Including a stop on planet of Alpha's,
and a deserted planet farther out.

Pink 2001

2006-07-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

In memorium: Syd Barrett

Rocket-boom

2006-07-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

Rocketboom,
rocket,
rocket-boom,
Boom,
Amanda.

Better.

Micromegas by Voltaire

2006-06-30T04:08:00.000-07:00

For the Sirius branch:

On a planet revolving around the star Sirius there lived a young man of great intelligence, whose acquaintence I had the honor of making during his recent visit to our little anthill. He was called Micromegas, an appropriate name for great people. He had a stature of eight leagues, or 24,000 geometrical paces of five feet each, or 120,000 statute feet.

We earthmen have an average stature hardly more than five feet--one pace--so Mr. Micromegas' world must in turn have a circumference 24,000 times greater than our little Earth. Nothing in nature is simpler, more a matter of course. The dominions of certain potentates in Germany or Italy, around which you can walk in half an hour, compared with the empires of Turkey, Russia, or China can give but a faint idea of the vast disparity Nature has set between different orders of being throughout the universe.

Given his Excellency's height, any sculptor or painter would agree his waist should, proportionally, be about 50,000 feet around. His nose being one third the length of his handsome face, and his handsome face being one seventh the height of his handsome body, it follows that the Sirian's nose is some 5,714 statute feet long.

His mind rivals the most cultivated among us; he knows many things, some of which are his own inventions. He had not yet reached his 250th year, and was studying, as was customary at his age, at the most famous school on the planet, when he solved 50 propositions of Euclid--18 more than Blaise Pascal, who, after having, according to his sister's account, solved 32 for his own amusement, became a pretty fair geometer, and a very poor metaphysician. When Micromegas was about 450 years old, and already passing out of childhood, he dissected, with the aid of powerful microscopes, many little insects less than 100 feet in diameter; he wrote an interesting book about them, which got him into trouble.

The mufti of that country, much given to hair-splitting and very ignorant, found in his work statements they deemed suspicious, offensive, rash, and heretical, and they prosecuted him with bitter animosity. The question in dispute was whether the substantial form of which the fleas of Sirius consisted was of the same nature as that of the snails. Micromegas defended himself spiritedly, and had all the ladies on his side; the trial lasted 220 years. At last the mufti had the book condemned by judges who had never read it, and the author was forbidden to appear at court for 800 years.

He was only moderately afflicted at being banished from a court full of trickery and meanness. He composed a very funny song ridiculing the mufti, which in turn failed to give the latter much annoyance; and he himself set forth on his travels from planet to planet, with a view to improving his mind and soul, as the saying goes.

Those who travel only in coaches will doubtless be astonished at the sort of conveyance adopted up there; for we, on our little mound of mud, can imagine nothing beyond our own experience. Our traveler had such a marvelous acquaintance with the laws of gravitation, and all the forces of attraction and repulsion, and made such good use of his knowledge, that, sometimes by means of a sunbeam, and sometimes with the help of a comet, he went from one world to another as a bird hops from bough to bough. He traversed the Milky Way in a short time; and I am obliged to confess that he never saw, beyond the stars with which it is thickly sown, that beautiful celestial empyrean which the illustrious parson, Derham, boasts of having discovered at the end of his telescope. Not that I would for a moment suggest Mr. Derham mistook what he saw; Heaven forbid! But Micromegas was on the spot, he is an accurate observer, and I have no wish to contradict anybody.

Micromegas, after plenty of turns and twists, arrived at the planet Saturn. Accustomed though he was to the sight of novelties, when he saw the insignificant size of the globe and its inhabitants, he could not at first refrain from that smile of superiority which sometimes escapes even the wisest; for in truth Saturn is scarcely 900 times greater than Earth, and the citizens of that country are mere dwarfs, only a thousand fathoms high, or thereabout. He laughed a little at first at these people, in much the same way an Italian musician, when he comes to France, derides Lulli's performances. But, being a sensible fellow, the Sirian was soon convinced that a thinking being need not be altogether ridiculous because he is only 6,000 feet high. He was soon on familiar terms with the Saturnians after their astonishment had somewhat subsided. He formed a close friendship with the secretary of the Academy of Saturn, a man of great intelligence, who had not indeed invented anything himself, but excelled at describing the inventions of others, and who could turn a little verse neatly enough or perform an elaborate calculation.

One day, after the Sirian had laid down and the secretary had approached his face to facilitate conversation, Micromegas said, "I must confess that nature is full of variety."

"Yes," said the Saturnian; "nature is like a flower-bed, the blossoms of which--"

"Oh," said the other, "have done with your flower-bed!"

"She is," resumed the secretary, "like an assembly of blondes and brunettes, whose attire--"

"No, no," said the traveler. "Nature is like nature. Why do you search for comparisons?"

"To please you," answered the secretary.

"I do not want to be pleased," rejoined the traveler; "I want to be instructed; begin by telling me how many senses the men in your world possess."

"We have 72," said the academician; "and we are always complaining that they are so few. Our imagination soars beyond our needs; we find that with our 72 senses, our ring, and our five moons, that our range is too restricted, and, in spite of all our curiosity and the tolerably large number of passions which spring out of our 72 senses, we often feel bored."

"I can well believe it," said Micromegas; "for on our globe, though we have nearly a thousand senses, there lingers even in us a certain vague desire, an unaccountable restlessness, which warns us that we are of little account in the universe, and that there are beings much more perfect than ourselves. I have traveled; I have seen mortals far below us, and others greatly superior; but I have seen none who have not more desires than real wants, and more wants than they can satisfy. I shall someday, perhaps, reach the country where there is lack of nothing, but hitherto no one has been able to give me any positive information about it." The Saturnian and the Sirian thereupon exhausted themselves with ingenius yet futile conjectures on the subject, but were eventually obliged to return to facts.

"How long do you people live?" asked the Sirian.

"Ah! a very short time," replied the little man of Saturn.

"So too with us," said the Sirian. "We are always complaining of the shortness of life. This must be a universal law of nature."

"Alas!" quoth the Saturnian, "none of us live more than 500 annual revolutions of the Sun." (That amounts to about 15,000 years, according to our manner of counting.) "You see how it is our fate to die almost as soon as we are born; our existence is a point, our duration an instant, our globe an atom. Scarcely have we begun to acquire a little information when death arrives before we can put it to use. I myself do not venture to lay any schemes; I feel like a drop of water in a boundless ocean. I am ashamed, especially before you, of the absurd figure I make in this universe."

Micromegas answered: "Were you not a philosopher, I should fear to distress you by telling you our lives are 700 times as long as yours; but you know too well that when the time comes to give back one's body to the elements, and reanimate nature under another form--the process called death--when that moment of metamorphosis comes, it is precisely the same whether we have lived an eternity or only a day. I have been in countries where life is a thousand times longer than with us, and yet have heard murmurs of its brevity even there. But people of good sense exist everywhere, who know how to make the most of what they have, and to thank the Author of nature. He has spread over this universe abundant variety, together with a kind of admirable uniformity. For example, all thinking beings are different, yet resemble each other in the common endowment of thought and will. Matter is infinitely extended, but has different properties in different worlds. How many of these various properties do you reckon in the matter with which you are acquainted?"

"If you speak," replied the Saturnian, "of those properites without which we believe this globe could not subsist as it is, we count 300 of them, such as extension, impenetrability, mobility, gravitation, divisibility, etc."

"Apparently," rejoined the traveler, "this small number is sufficient for the Creator's purpose in constructing this little habitation. I admire His wisdom throughout; I see differences everywhere, but everywhere also a due proportion. Your globe is small; you who inhabit it are small likewise; you have few senses; the matter comprising your world has few properties; all this is the work of Providence. What color is your sun when carefully examined?"

"White deeply tinged with yellow," said the Saturnian; "and when we split up one of its rays, it consists of seven colors."

"Our sun has a reddish light," said the Sirian, "and we have 39 primary colors. There is not a single sun, among all those I have approached, which resembles any other, just as among yourselves there is not a single face which is not different from all the rest."

After several other questions of this kind, he inquired how many modes of existence essentially different were enumerated on Saturn. He was told that not more than 30 were distinguished, as God, space, matter, beings occupying space which feel and think, thinking beings which do not occupy space, those which possess penetrability, others which do not, etc. The Sirian, in whose world they count 300 of them, and who had discovered 3,000 more in the course of his travels, astonished the philosopher of Saturn. At length, after having communicated to each other a little of what they knew, and a great deal of that about which they knew nothing, and after having exercised their reasoning powers during a complete revolution of the Sun, they resolved to make a little exploratory tour together.

Our two philosophers were ready to embark upon the atmosphere of Saturn, with a fine collection of scientific instruments, when the Saturnian's mistress, who had heard what he was up to, came in tears to remonstrate with him. She was a pretty little brunette, barely 660 fathoms high, but her agreeable manners amply atoned for that deficiency.

"Oh, cruel one!" she exclaimed, "after having resisted you for 1,500 years, and when I was at last beginning to surrender, and have passed scarcely a hundred years in your arms, to leave me thus, and start on a long journey with a giant of another world! Go, you have no taste for anything but novelty, you have never felt true love; were you a real Saturnian, you would be constant. Whither away so fast? What would you have? Our five moons are less fickle than you, our ring less changeable. So much for the past! I will never love again."

The philosopher embraced her, and, in spite of all his philosophy, joined his tears with hers. As to the lady, after having fainted away, she consoled herself with a certain beau who lived in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile our two inquirers commenced their travels; they first jumped onto Saturn's ring, which they found pretty flat, as an illustrious inhabitant of our little globe has cleverly conjectured; thence they easily made their way from moon to moon. A comet passed near the last one, so they sprang upon it, along with their instruments. When they had gone about 150,000,000 leagues, they came across the satellites of Jupiter. They landed on Jupiter itself, and remained there a year, during which they learned some very remarkable secrets which would now be appearing in the press, were it not for certain censors who find them too hard to swallow.

Leaving Jupiter, our explorers crossed a space of about 100,000,000 leagues, and, coasting along the planet Mars, which, as is well known, is five times smaller than our own little globe, they saw two moons. These have escaped the observation of our astronomers. I am well aware that Father Castel will write, and pleasantly enough too, against the existence of these two moons, but I believe those who reason from analogy. Those excellent philosophers know how difficult it would be for Mars, which is so distant from the Sun, to get by with less than two moons. Be that as it may, our friends found the planet so small they were afraid of finding no room there to put up for the night, so they proceeded on their way, like a pair of travelers who disdain a humble village inn, and push on to the nearest town. But the Sirian and his companion soon repented this decision, for they went a long time without finding anything at all.

At last they perceived a faint glimmer; it came from our Earth, and created compassion in the minds of those who had so lately left Jupiter. However, for fear of repenting a second time, they decided to disembark. They passed over the tail of the comet, and with the aid with an aurora borealis close at hand, alighted on Earth by the northern shore of the Baltic Sea, July 5, 1737.

After resting, they consumed for breakfast a couple of mountains. Then wishing to inspect the countryside, they first went from north to south. Each of the Sirian's ordinary steps was about 30,000 statute feet; the Saturnian dwarf, whose height was only a thousand fathoms, followed panting far behind, for he had to take 20 steps when the other made a single stride. Picture to yourself a tiny little toy spaniel pursuing a captain of the King of Prussia's grenadiers!

The strangers proceeded quickly, circling the globe in 36 hours; the Sun, indeed, or rather the Earth, makes the same journey in a day; but it is much easier to turn on one's axis than to walk on one's feet. Behold our travelers, then, returned to the same spot from which they had started, after having set eyes upon that sea, to them almost imperceptible, called the Mediterranean, and that other little pond which, under the name of the great Ocean, surrounds this molehill. Therein the dwarf had never sunk much above the knee, while the other had scarcely wetted his ankle. They did all they could, searching here and there, to ascertain whether Earth was inhabited. They stooped, lay down, and groped about in all directions; but their eyes and hands being out of all proportion to the tiny beings who crawl up and down here, they felt not the slightest sensation which could lead them to suspect that we and our fellow creatures have the honor to exist.

The dwarf hastily declared there was not a single creature on this planet. His first reason was that he had not seen one. But Micromegas politely explained that that was not a good argument:

"For," said he, "you, with your little eyes, cannot see certain stars of the 50th magnitude which I distinctly discern; do you conclude that those stars have no existence?"

"But," argued the dwarf, "this globe is so ill-constructed, so irregular, and so ridiculously shaped! All here appears chaotic; look at these little brooks, not one of which goes in a straight line, and these ponds, which are neither round, square, oval, nor of any regular form; and all these little bristles which have rubbed the skin off my feet!"--he alluded to the trees--"Observe too the shape of the globe as a whole, how it is flat at the poles, how it turns around the Sun in a clumsily slanting manner, so that the polar climes are mere wastes. In truth, what chiefly makes me think there is nobody here, is that I cannot suppose any sensible people should wish to occupy such a dwelling."

"Well," said Micromegas, "perhaps the people who inhabit it are not sensible. But there are in fact signs of its not having been made for nothing. Everything here seems irregular, you say; but you judge by the standards of Saturn and Jupiter. Have I not told you that in the course of my travels I have always found variety?"

The Saturnian had answers to these arguments, and the dispute might never have ended, had not he suddenly spied what seemed to him a small tadpole moving half underwater in the Baltic sea. Actually, it was a whale. He caught it cleverly with his little finger, and placing it on his thumbnail, showed it to the Sirian, who burst out laughing a second time at the extreme minuteness of the inhabitants of our system.

The Saturnian, now convinced our world was inhabited, immediately concluded that whales were the only creatures to be found here, and, as speculation was his strong point, made conjectures about the origin of so insignificant an atom, the source of its movement, and whether it had ideas and free will. Micromegas drew a magnifying glass from his bundle of instruments, examined the creature patiently, and found no evidence that it had a soul lodged in its body. The two travelers then suspected there were no intelligent beings in this habitation of ours, when at last they noticed something as big as a whale, floating on the Baltic sea.

We know that at that very time, a flock of philosophers was returning from the polar circle, where they had gone to make observations no one had attempted before. The newspapers say their vessel ran aground in the gulf of Bothnia, and that they had great difficulty saving their lives; but we never know in this world the real truth about anything. I will relate honestly what occurred, without adding anything of my own invention--a task which demands no small effort on the part of a historian.

The Saturnian stretched out his hand, seized with great dexterity the ship which carried those gentlemen, and placed it in the hollow of his hand without squeezing it too much, for fear of crushing it. "Here is an animal quite different from the first," he observed.

The passengers and crew, who thought a tempest had whirled them aloft, and supposed they had struck upon some kind of rock, began to stir; the sailors seized casks of wine, threw them overboard on the Saturnian's hand, then jumped down themselves, while the geometers seized their quadrants, their sectors, and a pair of Lapland girls, and descended on the Saturnian's fingers. They made such a commotion that at last he felt a tickle--a pole with an iron point being driven a foot deep into his forefinger. He surmised that this prick proceeded somehow from the little animal he was holding; but at first he perceived nothing more than minute specks, which he guessed to be turds, spilling away from the creature.

I have no wish to shock anyone's vanity, but I must beg those who are sensitive about their own importance to consider what I have to say on this subject. Taking the average stature of mankind at five feet, we make no greater figure on Earth than an insect not quite one 200,000th of an inch in height on a bowl 10 feet around. Imagine a being who could hold Earth in his hands and who had organs of sense proportionate to our own--there are in fact many such beings--and consider what they would think of those battles which give the conqueror possession of some village, to be lost again soon after.

No doubt some captain of tall grenadiers will read this work and raise the caps of his company a couple of feet; but I warn him, it will be all in vain; he and his men will never be anything but the merest mites.

It was not until both Sirian and Saturnian examined the "turds" with microscopes that they realized the amazing truth. When Leeuwenhoek and Hartsoeker first saw, or thought they saw, the minute speck out of which we are formed, they did not make nearly so surprising a discovery. What pleasure Micromegas and the dwarf felt in watching the movements of those little machines, in examining their feats, in following their operations! How they shouted with joy!

"I see them!" they exclaimed both at once. "Do you not observe how they are carrying burdens, how they stoop down and rise up?"

As they spoke, their hands trembled with delight at beholding objects so unusual, and with fear lest they lose them. The Saturnian, passing from extreme skepticism to utter credulity, fancied he saw them engaged in the work of propagation.

"Ah!" said he, "I have surprised nature in the very act."

But he was deceived by appearances, an accident to which we are only too liable, whether using microscopes or not.

Micromegas, a much better observer, perceived clearly that the atoms were speaking to each other, and corrected his companion; but the dwarf, ashamed of having erred on this delicate subject, refused to believe that such creatures could have any means of communicating ideas. He had the gift of tongues as did the Sirian; he did not hear the atoms speak, so he concluded that they did not; besides, how could those imperceptible beings have vocal organs, and what could they have to say? To be able to speak, one must think, or at least make some approach to thought; but if those creatures could think, they must have something equivalent of a soul; and to attribute the equivalent of a soul to these little animals seemed absurd.

"But," said the Sirian, "you fancied just now they were making love; can they make love without being able to think or utter a word, or even to make themselves understood? Moreover, do you suppose it is more difficult to produce arguments than offspring? Both appear to me equally mysterious operations."

"I no longer venture either to believe or deny," said the dwarf; "We must try to examine these insects, then form our conclusions afterward."

"Well said!" replied Micromegas. Using the equipment he had brought with him, he fabricated a pair of monster speaking-trumpets, like huge funnels, the narrow ends of which he and the Saturnian placed in their ears. As the wide part of the trumpets covered the ship and her crew, the faintest voice was conveyed in such a manner that the philosophers high above them clearly heard the buzzing of our insects down below. In a few hours they succeeded in distinguishing the words, and at last in understanding the French language. The travelers' astonishment increased every instant. They heard mere mites speaking tolerably good sense; such a freak of nature seemed inexplicable.

You may imagine how impatiently the Sirian and his dwarf longed to converse with the atoms; but the dwarf feared that his voice of thunder, and still more that of Micromegas, might deafen the mites without conveying any meaning. To diminish its strength, they placed in their mouths little toothpicks, the tapering ends of which were brought near the ship. Then the Sirian, holding the dwarf on his knee (who in turn held the vessel with her crew upon his palm), bent his head down and spoke in a low voice, thus at last addressing them:

"Invisible insects, whom the hand of the Creator has been pleased to produce in the abyss of the infinitely little, I thank Him for having deigned to reveal to me secrets which seemed inscrutable. It may be the courtiers of my country would not condescend to look upon you, but I despise no one, and offer you my protection."

If ever anyone was astonished, it was the people who heard these words, nor could they guess whence they came. The ship's chaplain recited the prayers used in exorcism, the sailors swore, and the philosophers constructed theories; but whatever theories they constructed, they could not divine who was speaking to them. The dwarf of Saturn, who had a softer voice than Micromegas, then told them briefly with what kind of beings they were dealing. He gave an account of their journey from Saturn, and acquainted them with the parts and powers of Mr. Micromegas; and, after having commiserated them for being so small, he asked if they had always been in that pitiful condition little better than annihilation, what they found to do on a globe that appeared to belong to whales, if they were happy, if they increased and multiplied, whether they had souls, and a hundred other questions.

A philosopher of the party, bolder than the rest, and shocked that the existence of his soul should be questioned, took observations of the speaker with a quadrant from two different stations, and, at the third, spoke: "Do you then suppose sir, because a thousand fathoms extend between your head and feet, that you are--"

"A thousand fathoms!" cried the dwarf. "Good heavens! How can he know my height? A thousand fathoms! He is not an inch out of his reckoning. What! Has that atom actually measured me? He is a geometer, he knows my size; while I, who can barely see him except through a microscope, am still ignorant of his!"

"Yes, I have taken your measure," said the man of science; "and, based on your relative proportions, I further deduce that your big companion is approximately 120,000 statute feet tall."

Thereupon Micromegas uttered, "I see more clearly than ever that we should judge nothing by its apparent importance. O God, Who hast bestowed intelligence upon things which seemed so despicable, the infinitely little is as much Thy concern as the infinitely great; and, if it is possible that there should be living things smaller than these, they may be endowed with minds superior even to those of the magnificent creatures I have seen in the sky, who with one foot could cover this globe upon which I have alighted."

One of the philosophers agreed he might with perfect confidence believe there actually were intelligent beings much smaller than man. He related, not the fables Virgil told on the subject of bees, but the results of Swammerdam's discoveries, and Reamur's dissections. Finally, he informed him that there are animals which bear the same proportion to bees that bees bear to men, or that the Sirian himself bore to those huge creatures of which he spoke, or that those great creatures themselves bore to others before whom they seemed mere atoms.

The conversation grew more and more interesting, and Micromegas spoke as follows:

"O intelligent atoms, in whom the Eternal Being has been pleased to manifest His skill and power, you must doubtless taste joys of perfect purity on your globe; for, being encumbered with so little matter, and seeming to be all spirit, you must pass your lives in love and meditation--the true life of spiritual beings. I have nowhere beheld genuine happiness, but here it is to be found, without a doubt."

On hearing these words, all the philosophers shook their heads, and one, more frank than the others, candidly confessed that, with the exception of a small number held in mean estimation among them, all the rest of mankind were a multitude of fools, knaves, and miserable wretches.

"We have more matter than we need," said he, "the cause of much evil, if evil proceeds from matter; and we have too much mind, if evil proceeds from mind. For instance, at this very moment there are 100,000 fools of our species who wear hats, slaying 100,000 fellow creatures who wear turbans, or being massacred by them, and over almost all of Earth such practices have been going on from time immemorial."

The Sirian shuddered, and asked what could cause such horrible quarrels between those miserable little creatures.

"The dispute concerns a lump of clay," said the philosopher, "no bigger than your heel. Not that a single one of those millions of men who get their throats cut has the slightest interest in this clod of earth. The only point in question is whether it shall belong to a certain man who is called Sultan, or another who, I know not why, is called Caesar. Neither has seen, or is ever likely to see, the little corner of ground which is the bone of contention; and hardly one of those animals, who are cutting each other's throats has ever seen the animal for whom they fight so desperately."

"Ah! wretched creatures!" exclaimed the Sirian with indignation; "Can anyone imagine such frantic ferocity! I should like to take two or three steps, and stamp upon the whole swarm of these ridiculous assassins."

"No need," answered the philosopher; "they are working hard enough to destroy themselves. I assure you, at the end of 10 years, not a hundredth part of those wretches will be left; even if they had never drawn the sword, famine, fatigue, or intemperance will sweep them almost all away. Besides, it is not they who deserve punishment, but rather those armchair barbarians, who from the privacy of their cabinets, and during the process of digestion, command the massacre of a million men, and afterward ordain a solemn thanksgiving to God."

The traveler, moved with compassion for the tiny human race, among whom he found such astonishing contrasts, said to the gentlemen:

"Since you belong to the small number of wise men, and apparently do not kill anyone for money, tell me, pray, how you occupy yourselves."

"We dissect flies," said the same philosopher, "measure distances, calculate numbers, agree upon two or three points we understand, and dispute two or three thousand points of which we know nothing."

The visitors from Sirius and Saturn immediately desired to question these intelligent atoms about the subjects on which they agreed.

"How far do you reckon it," said the latter, "from the Dog Star to the great star in Gemini?"

They all answered together: "32 degrees and a half."

"How far do you make it from here to the Moon?"

"60 half-diameters of the Earth, in round numbers."

"What is the weight of your air?"

He thought to trick them, but they all answered that air weighs about 900 times less than an equal volume of distilled water, and 19,000 times less than pure gold.

The little dwarf from Saturn, astonished at their replies, was now inclined to take for sorcerers the same people he had disbelieved, just a quarter hour ago, could possess souls.

Then Micromegas said: "Since you know so well what is outside yourselves, doubtless you know still better what is within you. Tell me what is the nature of your soul, and how you form ideas."

The philosophers spoke all at once as before, but this time all their opinons differed. The oldest quoted Aristotle, another pronounced the name of Descartes, this spoke of Malebranche, that of Leibnitz, and another again of Locke. The old Peripatetic said loudly and confidently: "The soul is an actuality and a rationality, in virtue of which it has the power to be what it is; as Aristotle expressly declares on page 633 of the Louvre edition of his works"; and he quoted the passage.

"I don't understand Greek very well," said the giant.

"Neither do I," said the mite of a philosopher.

"Why, then," inquired the Sirian, "do you quote the man you call Aristotle in that language?"

"Because," replied the sage, "it is right and proper to quote what we do not comprehend in a language we least understand."

The Cartesian interposed and said: "The soul is pure spirit, which receives in its mother's womb all metaphysical ideas, and which, on issuing thence, is obliged to go to school as it were, and learn afresh all it knew so well, and will never know again."

"It was hardly worthwhile, then," answered the eight-leagued giant, "for your soul to have been so learned in your mother's womb, if you were to become so ignorant by the time you have a beard on your chin. But what do you mean by spirit?"

"Why do you ask?" said the philosopher; "I have no idea of its meaning, except that it is said to be independent of matter."

"You know, at least, what matter is, I presume?"

"Perfectly well," replied the man. "For instance, this stone is gray, is of such and such a form, has three dimensions, has weight and divisibility."

"Very well," said the Sirian, "Now tell me, please, what this thing actually is which appears to you to be divisible, heavy, and of a gray color. You observe certain qualities; but are you acquainted with the intrinsic nature of the thing itself?"

"No," said the other.

"Then you do not know what matter is."

Thereupon Mr. Micromegas, addressing his question to another sage, whom the Saturnian held on his thumb, asked him what the soul was, and what it did.

"Nothing at all," said the disciple of Malebranche; "it is God who does everything for me; I see and do everything through Him; He it is who does all without my interference."

"Then you might just as well not exist," replied the sage of Sirius.

"And you, my friend," he said to a follower of Leibnitz, who was there, "what is your soul?"

"It is," answered he, "a hand which points to the hour while my body chimes, or, if you like, it is the soul which chimes, while my body points to the hour; or to put it another way, my soul is the mirror of the universe, and my body is its frame: that is all clear enough."

A little student of Locke was standing near; and when his opinion was at last asked: "I know nothing," said he, "of how I think, but I know I have never thought except on the suggestion of my senses. That there are immaterial and intelligent substances is not what I doubt; but that it is impossible for God to communicate the faculty of thought to matter is what I doubt very strongly. I adore the eternal Power, nor is it my part to limit its exercise; I assert nothing, I content myself with believing that more is possible than people think."

The creature of Sirius smiled; he did not deem the last speaker the least sagacious of the company; and, were it possible, the dwarf of Saturn would have clasped Locke's disciple in his arms.

But unluckily a little animalcule was there in a square cap, who silenced all the other philosophical mites, saying that he knew the whole secret, that it was all to be found in the "Summa" of St. Thomas Aquinas; he scanned the pair of celestial visitors from top to toe, and maintained that they and all their kind, their suns and stars, were made solely for man's benefit.

At this speech our two travelers tumbled over each other, choking with that inextinguishable laughter which, according to Homer, is the special privilege of the gods; their shoulders shook, and their bodies heaved up and down, till in those merry convulsions, the ship the Saturnian held on his palm fell into his breeches pocket. These two good people, after a long search, recovered it at last, and duly set to rights all that had been displaced. The Saturnian once more took up the little mites, and Micromegas addressed them again with great kindness, though he was a little disgusted in the bottom of his heart at seeing such infinitely insignificant atoms so puffed up with pride. He promised to give them a rare book of philosophy, written in minute characters, for their special use, telling all that can be known of the ultimate essence of things, and he actually gave them the volume ere his departure. It was carried to Paris and laid before the Academy of Sciences; but when the old secretary came to open it, the pages were blank.

"Ah!" said he. "Just as I expected."