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Paul-Lloyd — Earth Orbit Rendezvous
#age #alpha #atom #atomic #beta #clarke #moonlander #prelude #space #prometheus #rocketship #spaceship
Published: 2017-08-30 04:39:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 3290; Favourites: 93; Downloads: 96
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Description
A scene from Arthur C Clarke's "Prelude To Space" (1948) the nuclear ramjet Prometheus Alpha, carrying the moonlander Prometheus Beta, approaches the orbital fuel dump.I based the Alpha on the RAF's Vulcan bomber, so in the end I decided to base the Beta on the Blue Steel stand-off missile. Don't ask me why the Beta has fins. Maybe they're radiators for it's power plant.
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Comments: 18
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Was this the nuclear-powered ship that launched from a ten-mile rail system in the Outback of Australia?
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I read that story when I was in high school and parts of it stayed with me. A beautiful rendition of the craft.
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Nice work Paul,
It's been many years since I read Prelude To Space and I don't recall if Prometheus was intended to do orbital refueling, but you could keep the drogue if you pulled it back so it is shadowed by the nose and retract the nozzle all the way to its stop.
Yeah, the fins on the lander would be useless, but you know that, I suppose you could make them housing for vertical-mode landing gear.
It's doubtful that a radiation trefoil would appear on the exterior of the spacecraft, it might appear only on the casing of the engine itself. The production NTR, the nuclear engine itself, I've seen photographs, would have had the manufacture's name (Aerojet was the major contender for the production contract) the national origin and authorizing authority -- in the case of a U.S. produced engine this would have been a small U.S. flag and the words "United States" and the Atomic Energy Commission logo along with the NASA logo. The point being that the engine pod was designed to be detached at the end of its ten hour lifespan. There were two plans for disposal of the engines, they would either be placed in a 30,000 year distant orbit, or placed in shielded burial vaults beneath the lunar surface.
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Now I want to have another stab at it!
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should there not a be a "danger radiation" trifoil somewhere on the vehicles?
and i see you kept the center fin ..
and what is the "refueling probe" for? .. thats going to be a problem during reentry
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I was thinking about a radiation trefoil. I kept the centre fin out of laziness
At the front, that's an, erm, it's a go-faster spike. 
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also known as a "burn up spike" 8)
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how does the lander...land, virtical I pressume so where are the legs housed and do the fins form part of the hydrolics to the legs?
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Retractable landing legs (I should have added panel lines)
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