3 ms·
Assemble an Orion ie nuclear pulse propulsion ship in orbit. These can theoretically acheive .1c, Proxima Centari in 40 years (give or take).
by le-mark 10y ago
Assemble an Orion ie nuclear pulse propulsion ship in orbit. These can theoretically acheive .1c, Proxima Centari in 40 years (give or take).
- jerf 10y agoI'm not sure there's any time in the near future where we're going to be allowed to loft that much fissile material into orbit, due to the risks of the takeoff exploding and spreading it everywhere. Personally I think the risks are overstated, but that doesn't affect the reality that we're not going to be able to do that any time soon. We're not going to have Orion drives until we can get the fissile material from space. Also it's not clear to me that an Orion taking off from a very-near-Earth orbit is a good idea, either. I'm not sure how to reconcile apocalyptic-sounding fears about EM pulses from nuclear explosions with an Orion departing from LEO.