back in the 50s there was Project Orion, studying how conventional, explosive nuclear bombs could be used to power inter-stellar spacecraft: http://en.wikipedi

back in the 50s there was Project Orion, studying how conventional, explosive nuclear bombs could be used to power inter-stellar spacecraft: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propul...