List of stories featuring nuclear pulse propulsion

Nuclear pulse propulsion is a common feature of hard science fiction stories, as the idea offers high thrust and/or high specific impulse drives without requiring new physics.

=Bomb-based Orion-style propulsion=

Books

*An early appearance of an Orion-style nuclear pulse propelled rocket in science fiction was in the science fiction novel "Empire of the Atom" written by A. E. van Vogt in 1956. In this novel there is a post-atomic-war interplanetary empire called the Empire of Lyn that uses Orion-type nuclear rockets for interplanetary spaceflight. In the story the past atomic war was an interstellar war fought between humans and hostile aliens from another star somewhere between 800 and 8000 years before.

*A manned mission to Venus on a ship using Orion-like photon engine is a core of 1960 science fiction novel "The Land of Crimson Clouds", written by the Strugatsky brothers.

*Early versions of had a ship 'Discovery 1' using this drive. The final vehicle did not use this idea since Stanley Kubrick was fed up with nuclear bombs after making .

*An Orion spaceship features prominently in the science fiction novel "Footfall" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. In the face of an alien siege/invasion of Earth, the humans must resort to drastic measures to get a fighting ship into orbit to face the alien fleet.

*In the novel "King David's Spaceship" by Jerry Pournelle inhabitants of a planet that is to be re-admitted to the Empire plot to build the spaceship based on an Orion project concept in order to qualify their planet as a higher-developed, Class One Imperial world.

*Poul Anderson's novel "Orion Shall Rise" features a post-collapse confederation gathering forbidden nuclear materials for some unknown end -- although the title gives away the true nature of their mysterious project.

*In "The Stone Dogs" by S. M. Stirling, Orion spacecraft are created during an arms race between the Domination of the Draka and the Alliance for Democracy, and used by both sides in their explorations of the solar system and as warships. The drive itself features as an improvised weapon in the book, being used to keep other ships at a distance.

*In the book "The Shiva Option" by David Weber and Steve White, an arachnid homeworld is destroyed by converting several asteroids into Orion-drive starships and launching them at it.

*Orion was used by Michael P. Kube-McDowell in "Emprise", the first book of the Trigon Disunity series.

*Dan Simmons' novel "Olympos" describes an Orion-style spaceship, designed by the Moravec machine race to emulate 21st century human technology.

*The 1977 short story and Hugo-award winner 'Tricentennial' by Joe Haldeman featured the Daedelus (or John F. Kennedy, or Leonid Brezjnev - apparently spaceships are also prone to renaming), which was powered by nuclear bombs.

*In Vernor Vinge's novel "Marooned in Realtime", bobble technology makes this method of travel safe.

*In his 1981 anthology "Cepheïde", Dutch SF/Fantasy author Tais Teng describes a ship with Orion propulsion as one of the most primitive and wasteful methods of interstellar flight, still only achieved by a tiny minority of all intelligent races in the universe. The ship is said to be the last relic of an unknown race exterminated by the dominant YiYiki (descendants of the humpback whales).

*In the John Varley novel The Golden Globe, the wreck of an Orion spaceship is converted to an interstellar starship.

Other media

*The episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" features a generation ship, constructed out of a hollowed-out iron asteroid, propelled using "Orion class nuclear pulse engines" in which fission bombs were detonated in shafts. It appeared to have been traveling for about 10,000 years, and had travelled about 30 light years on its own power.

*In the backstory for the video game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the sleeper ship is propelled by an Orion-type drive, the shield of which fails (almost certainly due to sabotage) when the ship is almost at its destination, causing the passengers on the colony ship to splinter into factions.

Other forms of nuclear pulse propulsion

Books

Other media