Project Orion
A US Air Force study of a spaceship pushed by nuclear bombs going off behind it. A model flew on chemical charges in 1959; four years later a treaty banned the blasts everywhere but underground.
A bomb, not a chemical fuel, was to be the energy source for a long journey. From 1958 to 1965 the US Air Force paid General Atomics to work the machine out: charges thrown out of the stern and set off behind the ship, one after another. The reference vehicle came to 4,000 tons, about forty times a Space Shuttle. Then the 1963 test ban outlawed not only weapon tests but any nuclear explosion in outer space, which is where an Orion does its work.
Sources
- Freeman J. Dyson, "Interstellar transport", Physics Today 21(10), 41 (1968)
- Project Orion: A Nuclear Bomb and Rocket All in One — Centauri Dreams
- Looking Back at Orion — Centauri Dreams
- Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water — McGill Institute of Air and Space Law
- Revisiting Project Orion — The Space Review
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