Bob the Unbeliever
Well-Known Member
Back in the day, when the US and the USSR were in a serious space race, in the early days, scientists seriously put forth a type of rocket that used small atom bombs as propulsion. Roughly 5 Kton each, these were to be ejected beneath (behind) the space craft, and the detonation would push against a very heavy, reinforced plate, driving the craft onward.
As crazy as it sounds? It would work, and indeed, test models using ordinary chemical explosives worked exactly as calculated.
President Kennedy was eventually presented the results of these early experiments and calculations, including a proposed "atomic space battleship" using the Orion engine to boost into orbit, a "battleship" sized space craft armed with nuclear missiles and bombs. This horrified Kennedy, and eventually the entire project was canceled. As much because of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that Kennedy signed as anything else-- the treaty banned detonation of atmospheric atomic bombs, which pretty much ended the fundamental process of Orion.
Several novels of Note, returned to this technological idea, two of my favorites are Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson, and Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
What inspired this post? Was a quite well done YouTube video:
As crazy as it sounds? It would work, and indeed, test models using ordinary chemical explosives worked exactly as calculated.
President Kennedy was eventually presented the results of these early experiments and calculations, including a proposed "atomic space battleship" using the Orion engine to boost into orbit, a "battleship" sized space craft armed with nuclear missiles and bombs. This horrified Kennedy, and eventually the entire project was canceled. As much because of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that Kennedy signed as anything else-- the treaty banned detonation of atmospheric atomic bombs, which pretty much ended the fundamental process of Orion.
Several novels of Note, returned to this technological idea, two of my favorites are Orion Shall Rise by Poul Anderson, and Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
What inspired this post? Was a quite well done YouTube video: