Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Anyone unfamiliar with Project Orion, a unique effort to create an interplanetary -- or interstellar -- spacecraft using pulsed nuclear detonations (shelved, of course), could do worse than watch this quick video.
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4 comments:

Kyle said...

Mac -

The moment I saw all those solid rocket boosters...a la Morton Thiokol...the persistent image that kept assaulting me was the Challenger accident, with its boosters going all wonky as the main tank exploded. Paranoid perhaps, and certainly accidents happen in the course of pioneering efforts. I'm just not sure the public...or those in charge of public money...are ready to see pulsed-nuclear propulsion craft lifting off from US soil.

As we seem unable to re-embrace even relatively safe nuclear power on terra firma, the concept of airborne nukes in any configuration would seem to evoke sweaty palms in even the most pro-space pundits.

It's an oddly elegant form of propulsion though, and should definitely be studied further.

Kyle

1:45 AM
platts42 said...

You should read "Footfall" by Niven and Pournelle.

10:05 AM
Mac said...

Cap'n,

I have. Been a while. The alien ship is an Orion, right?

4:00 PM
platts42 said...

Nope.

The goverment sequesters the SF writers and together they put an a bomb shitting spaceship together to take the fight to the aliens.

8:35 PM

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