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From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Nuclear powered rocket
Summary: A couple of popularized references on Project Orion
Message-ID: <1991Apr22.072231.26041@amd.com>
Date: 19 Apr 91 15:56:34 GMT
References: <1991Apr19.070810.13753@amd.com>
Sender: military@amd.com
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
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Approved: military@amd.com


From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov


In article <1991Apr19.070810.13753@amd.com>, henry@zoo.toronto.edu writes...

>Project Orion was a (large!) rocket propelled by nuclear bombs.  Fallout
>from an Orion launch would have been comparable to a single atmospheric
>hydrogen bomb test, and it would have launched several thousand tons of
>payload into orbit.  Despite some attempts to get funding out of the
>military, Orion was basically a civilian space project.

Freeman Dyson, "Disturbing the Universe," and John McPhee, "The Curve
of Binding Energy" are two readable and readily available books that
discuss (among other things) Project Orion.  The basics are pretty much
as Mr. Spencer describes.  Yes, nuclear _bombs_ for propulsion.  The
bottom of the ship would have been a massive parabolic "pusher plate."
The idea was tested on a very small scale with chemical explosives.

The USAF was quite interested, and envisioned, says McPhee, a space 
battleship with maneuvering systems and weapons.  (He described the
basic postulated defensive tactic of a nuclear-bomb-powered spaceship
as turning the pusher plate toward the enemy -- "Go ahead, hit me.")

Science fiction writers Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven co-opted the
idea for their novel "Footfall."  

--Joe