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freeman dyson

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alternate history

NASA's Secret Mission to Saturn in Nuke-Powered Ships

Back in the mid-twentieth century, a bunch of NASA engineers had a dream — a highly-classified dream — about taking a nuclear-powered rocked to Saturn. They even went so far as to plan the entire device, create design specs and concept art (some of it pictured here), and name it "Project Orion." Now science historian George Dyson has unearthed a bunch of the recently re-classified papers related to Project Orion, which his father Freeman Dyson was involved in, and put them together into a short, entertaining presentation. Essentially he's unearthed an alternate history of the space program that might have been if NASA hadn't canceled it. Check out his entertaining story below. More »

7:40 AM on Wed Feb 27 2008
By Annalee Newitz
2,850 views, 44 comments

Latest by Annalee Newitz: @noncornbatant: Really? Totally missed that. I wonder why they "reclassified" it? more »

Freeman Dyson Goes Wild Forever-young physicist Freeman Dyson, now 83, has long been beloved by scifi writers for his extremely fucking cool ideas. He invented the Dyson Sphere, featured in a Star Trek: TNG episode, where the crew visits a sun wrapped entirely in an artificial sphere that captures every bit of solar energy available (you can see a Dyson Ring in Halo). Now Dyson is battling it out with neo-Luddite Wendell Berry in the NY Times Book Review. Read the old crank getting crankier! [NYBOB]

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