Shipbucket

After a few weeks or so of procrastination I've finally gone back and put a bit of polish onto some things I started alongside my "One Small Step" challenge Entry. From "Nuclear Pulse Space Vehicle Study Vol II -- Conceptual Vehicle Designs and Operational Systems" The full report discusses a number of designs/configurations/sizes for missions to anywhere from Mars to Jupiter however I focused solely on a trio of vehicles designed to support lunar exploration.

The first design for a lunar logistics vehicle, was for a pure orbit to orbit vehicle
This design was intended to ferry 4 hundred ton cargo modules, a 3 person command module and two 10 person passenger modules from earth to lunar orbit. In lunar orbit reusable landers would be used to ferry the crew and cargo modules to the lunar surface.


The next design is the "earth-orbit-to-lunar-surface ferry vehicle"
This concept was a reusable craft capable of ferrying a a crew of 3 and three hundred-ton cargo modules from earth orbit to the lunar surface. The Orion drive used be used for earth departure and for the initial descent to the lunar surface. Final descent would be using pop out Hydro-Lox rocket motors.


The last lunar logistics Orion was a single use craft. Like the second design, it would use the Orion drive to get from earth to near lunar surface, however unlike the second design instead of pop out motors, the Orion propulsion module would be jettisoned. This would allow for the use of a single engine and lighter landing gear at the cost of reuse. This version was shown as being able to deliver four of the hundred ton cargo modules.