These images are copyrighted by Dr. David G. Nordley and C. Sanford Lowe.
and I have requested permission to post them with credit, but at this moment
do not yet have said permission. This page is under construction.
The Nordley Starship is a concept that could be built with current technology, and could be
given "shakedown cruises" on missions within our own solar system. I will attempt to link this page
to the official pages describing the concept, but attach these graphics (provided and copyrighted
by Dr. Nordley) which should give you an idea of the general arrangement and operation of this system.
I am also attaching a couple of images that use this concept: one on the opening page to my website,
also found on my "Gallery One" page here (which is not the final illustration for "VERTEX",
the fifth of five installments in the BHP -Black Hole Project- Series, but is based upon events
in that story, which is supposed to appear in ANALOG in the September, 2007 issue)
and the other, "Loki's Realm", which is currently in print in the July/August issue.
Copyright Gerald D. Nordley, 2006, all rights reserved. Permission pending for this to appear on my website.
This is the Nordley / Lowe starship in its simplest configuration, a three-lobed starship (or
local-neighborhood spacecraft) that doesn't require "magical" or unobtainable materials to build or operate.
Copyright Gerald D. Nordley, 2000, all rights reserved. Permission pending for this to appear on my website.
This is how it works. It requires a pretty considerable infrastructure, but it's not fantasy or "warp drive",
it's something within reach of current technology. It's also not a "magic bullet" -- while achieving speeds
that could significantly approach relativistic values, it would require dedication and attention (and, of course,
funding) to create the culture to support this type of transportation system. It really isn't a matter of lack of
technology that will be the biggest challenge for this concept to work: it's a lack of courage and commitment
on the part of those who currently hold the purse-strings on space exploration who provide the impediment.
Fortunately, as privatization of space exploration becomes more prevalent, entrepreneurial ventures into
this field will make experimental studies of this type of concept more feasible to try out.
Unfortunately, I predict that politics and power-games will make such experimentation nigh-on impossible to accomplish.
Nordley and Lowe use these tools to great advantage in their "Black Hole Project" series, but don't address the political intrigues
that must have occurred in the creation of the infrastructure necessary to support this type of transportation system: they assume
that such problems were overcome somehow. (And it blends into the series without question: The problems were overcome. Period.)
Still, political intrigue and human nature intervene: practical stardrive does not answer answer all of Humanity's
fears, problems, ideological and political and greedy differences, and if it's true once we have accomplished a workable
interstellar drive, how much do we still have to overcome on the way to accomplishing that goal?
Still, the Nordley/Lowe starship concept offers as much promise as (or more than) the Enzemann deuterium snowball (which
could not offer relativistic speeds, but did provide a practical multi-generational starship design that could refuel at the destination
from a local "gas giant" to either return to Earth or press on to a new target if no "Class M" planet were found in that system.)
In the "ANALOG" story, "LOKI'S REALM", which appeared in the July/August 2007 ANALOG, I was able to create the image
of a 6-lobed Nordley Starship, the "Admiral Byrd", based upon the 3-lobed starship design I had become familiar with in the
development of the series. This is undoubtedly, at the point in future history that the image I depict was/will-be created, the most
powerful and largest starship to ever slide down the ways (yeah, yeah, don't start picking nits ... technophiles! Ya gotta love 'em!)
The rough sketch for "Loki's Realm" can be viewed below -- reprinted by contractual arrangement with ANALOG.
Note that it has an error which I have not yet fixed: the aft ring should intersect the rounded caps at the ends of the spire
structures, not globes at the end of these structures. When I met Dr. Nordley at RadCon4C in February, 2007, he
explained this structure to me in better detail and I could see my error -- but I haven't yet corrected the illustration. (I will.)
The Starship 'Admiral Byrd', designed by Dr. David G. Nordley and C. Sanford Lowe.