From: Wayne Smith (cosmic_disturbance_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Feb 08 2004 - 18:10:00 PST
Hi all,
Orion is one of the great "what if's" of the twentieth
century. Today, nuclear powered spaceships seem like
little more than laughably naive 1950's science
fiction, but it might have been otherwise...and still
could be. Orion was the code name of a project
designed to discover the feasibility of spaceships
driven by nuclear bombs.
The initial plan called for manned missions to Mars by
1965 and Saturn by 1970. After seven years of work,
the project's technical challenges seemed
surmountable, but political obstacles brought the
effort to a halt.
One launch is all we need to conquer Space. One
vehicle could carry all the necessary industrial
infrastructure to build further Orions from space
based resources. Fallout can be minimised by
commonsense precautions. Virtually all of it comes
from the groundburst which sucks dirt up through the
fireball and irradiates it. A thick steel launchpad
coated with a graphite based oil prevents thousands of
tons of dirt being turned into fallout by acting as a
shield. The same way as the pusher plate protects the
ship. Airbursts have almost nothing to irradiate
except traces of atmospheric dust and water vapour.
Even a whole series of 60's style launches straight
off the Nevada Desert floor would only have
contributed around 1% of the fallout known to have
been generated by weapons testing. One launch with
specially designed pulse units and numerous other
fallout reduction methods employed would have a
negligible effect on the environment.
We should build an Orion now. Without pulse units for
now. Just to promote the concept and have the vehicle
ready. It could stand as a tourist attraction until
the general public canb be persuaded a launch is safe.
I'm starting up a fund. Will be selling Orion
merchandise at http://www.projectorion.com and all
profits will go to the fund. It's a start. Somewhat
similar to the Daedalus fund raising initiative by the
BIS except that Orion actually works.
http://www.projectorion.com
Wayne Smith.
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