For the past several months Syfy has been in a bit of a programming lull. Prestige shows like “The Expanse” have finished their seasons, and we’re many months from new episodes. Modestly entertaining shows like “Dark Matter” and “Killjoys” have only just started new seasons. Shows like “Footfall: The Series” only exist in alternate universes. So Syfy has had to rely on their tertiary shows to fill the schedule. Of of these has been “Hunters,” a generally “meh” show. Production values are good, acting is… meh. Basic idea is that a few decades ago an alien species crashed to Earth (some trouble on their colony ship, stuck in orbit around Saturn) and assumed human identities; sadly, these aliens are generally kinda dickish, what with slaughtering people and all. So there’s the requisite shadowy government organization tasked with capturing/killing the alien “Hunters.” In the last several episodes it has been clear that the aliens were working on a spaceship of some kind, somewhere off screen.
The show, as I said, is “meh” grade entertainment. Not good enough to watch live, entertaining enough to DVR and watch later, distractedly while preparing supper, working on the computer, cleaning out the litter box, whatever. So finding myself burned out a bit from the current projects I’m plugging away at today, I plopped myself before the idiot box and called up yesterdays episode. Imagine my surprise when *this* is how the show started:
This was followed by clips from relatively well-known (among space nuts, anyway) General Atomic films of tests of subscale Project Orion hardware. Static fiberglass models on up to the “Hot Rod.”
As it turns out, the ship the aliens have been building in the northern Mexican desert is an Orion. The characters describe Project Orion specifically, by name; and while the cataclysmic apocalyptic results of a small Orion launch are overblown, they otherwise don’t *totally* screw up the description.
The design of the ship… well, it’s far from perfect, but it’s actually one of the more clearly-Orion nuclear pulse vessels I’ve seen on scree. Whoever designed it clearly had access to some Orion design info. Perhaps little more than a Google image search might pull up, but still, they did a better job than anyone else can think of offhand. The screenshots below were taken via the expedient of pointing a digital camera at the TV screen.
One of the computer interfaces shown on the ship – everything is in English, which is odd given that the ship was built by and for aliens – gives a few diagrams. Shown here is a schematic of a very recognizable pulse unit.
I was of course looking forward to see how well they showed the vehicle in flight. Sadly, that did not occur.
Interesting timing, given my Space Show interview just two days ago. One of the main subjects I was thinking I would cover on the show was the depiction of Orion/NPP on film and TV, but obviously we got nowhere near that subject. Oh well…
Thanks for your clarification on many aspects of the Orion that previously escaped me after reading many of your eAPR issues over the years. With a military and commercial airline(s) flight operations background your aerospace engineering explanation on the “Space Show” is gladly appreciated; as I previously thought than a expended nylon disc between the pulse unit and superstructure (pusher plate) provided part of the propulsive thrust. Additionally, I thought your interview on the show was insightful and entertaining but I certainly DID NOT appreciate the host’s attitude towards you. David Livingston wanted a “here and now” solution – maybe a small probe with a nuclear pulse propulsion system that could be activated in earth orbit to say a destination such as the Neptunian satellite of Neso would provide definitive proof of concept, as this has not yet been done. Many of us appreciate your work including my three little autistic boys who dream about such things. Thanks for your good work!
Thanks for your comments. As to the Show… I went on planning on discussing history and engineering; I specifically wanted to discuss aspects that are often mis0understood or mis-stated about Orion. I had no expectation of discussing “how to make it happen,” so I was thrown for a loop by the sudden shift in direction.
The nylon disk thing was proposed *before* Orion by Ulam in some of the original thinking about nuclear pulse propulsion. It was the same basic idea… a flat circle of matter would intercept the initial blast of radiation, become super-heated and explode into a jet; but the engineering aspects of the separate plastic disk would be nightmarish compared to simply building the propellant directly into the bomb.
I never did see that show past the first episode where I definitely got the same “meh” vibe you did.
I know I’m asking for trouble here, but did they mention at all how such a significant installation could have gone unnoticed while the shadowy government operatives were actively looking for them? A 200ft + 10m Orion isn’t an easy thing to hide, nor are the work orders needed to actually acquire or manufacture the hardware. To say nothing of the several hundred small nukes needed for the propulsion units. It reeks of a plot hole a mile wide.
In real life attempting to build any of that would have thrown up red flags at the relatively few suppliers for this sort of thing even before you got near the tons of bomb-grade fissionables needed.
Paul
Perhaps shockingly, the show did not give a good idea how the ship was built out in the middle of nowhere without being detected. Sure, it was middle-of-nowhere Mexico… but I’m pretty sure there’s no place on Earth that is so remote that such an engineering development would go unseen.