Orion Drive

An Orion Drive is a kind of Nuclear-Pulse Maneuver Drive used on some interplanetary or interstellar vessels. They are a type of Relativistic Drive or Reaction Drive or Impulse Drive.

Description

Orion Drives are a type of Nuclear Pulse Drive (NPD) that eject a stream of detonators which explode, producing a blast wave that presses against a pressure plate at the rear of the ship moving the ship forward in reaction. The pulsed pressure of the propelling explosions are smoothed out by Massive shock-absorbers. Orion Drives are specified by the type of detonation used for propulsion.

Orion Drive Variations

The Orion-1 or "Fission Orion" utilizes fission or multistage fission-fusion detonators reacting against a massive pressure plate comprising approximately 10% of the ship's volume. A Fission Orion Drive produces significant radiation contamination as a byproduct of its operation. It is a TL–8-standard propulsion system.

The Orion-2 or "Fusion Orion" utilizes a combination of nuclear dampers, induced fusion, and inertial compensators with a much smaller pressure plate to produce survivable thrust, with low to negligible radioactive contamination byproduct. It is a TL–12-standard propulsion system.

The Orion-3 or "AM Orion" is a conjectural technology that is proposed to be the most advanced incarnation of the Orion Drive concept. It theoretically utilizes antimatter detonators, inertial compensators, and "ON-OFF" stasis fields in place of a pressure plate to produce survivable thrust, while producing no radiation or environmental damage. It is estimated to be approximately a TL–21 propulsion system.

The Hybrid Orion-2bis is a prototype device, utilizing antimatter detonators or antimatter-catalyzed nuclear detonators, inertial compensators, and a small pressure plate (instead of the more advanced and hypothetical stasis field) to produce survivable thrust, while producing no radiation or environmental damage. It is estimated to be a TL–18-standard propulsion system.

History & Background

No information yet available.

See also

Please refer to the following AAB Library Data for more information:
Starship:

• Speed of Travel
• Speed of Travel
  • Light Speed (c)
  • FTL
  • NAFAL (STL)
  • Astronomical Unit (AU)
  • Light-second (ls)
  • Light-minute (lm)
  • Light-hour (lh)
  • Light-day (ld)
  • Light-week (lw)
  • Light-year (ly)
  • Parsec (pc)

• Spacecraft Drives (Interplanetary Drives or Impulse Drives)
  • G-Drive (Gravity Drive)
  • M-Drive (Maneuver Drive or Thruster Plate)
  • N-Drive (NAFAL Drive)
  • Reaction Rocket
    • HEPlaR Drive (High Efficiency Plasma Recombustion)
    • O-Drive (Orion Drive)
    • R-Drive (Rocket Drive)
  • T-Drive (Reactionless Thruster or Dean Drive)
  • Z-Drive (Lifter)

• Starship Drives (Interstellar Drives)
  • N-Drive (NAFAL Drive)
  • J-Drive (Jump Drive)
  • Alternative FTL Drives

References

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Loren Wiseman. "Sublight Drives." Challenge 72 (1994): .
• Charles E. Gannon. Hard Times (Game Designers Workshop, 1991), 84.
• Frank Chadwick, Dave Nilsen. Fire, Fusion, & Steel (Game Designers Workshop, 1994), 72-73.
• Don Perrin. Starships (Imperium Games, 1996), 71.
• David Golden, Guy Garnett. Fire, Fusion & Steel (Imperium Games, 1997), 65.
• Marc Miller. T5 Core Rules (Far Future Enterprises, 2013), 328-331.