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We had the technology to do it in 44 years 60 years ago: An atomic (fission) Orion can achieve perhaps 9–11% of the speed of light. [...] At 0.1 c, Orion therm
by WithinReason 1y ago
We had the technology to do it in 44 years 60 years ago:
An atomic (fission) Orion can achieve perhaps 9–11% of the speed of light. [...] At 0.1 c, Orion thermonuclear starships would require a flight time of at least 44 years to reach Alpha Centauri, not counting time needed to reach that speed (about 36 days at constant acceleration of 1 g or 9.8 m/s2).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...
- notahacker 1y agoTbf we had nuclear [fission] pulsed propulsion technology in the 1960s in roughly the same way we had nuclear fusion in the 1960s: we had an understanding of some basic principles of physics and some calculations that looked broadly plausible The problem with using thermonuclear explosions to produce that level of thrust are more "but can we actually do it safely" than "but can we do it in a way that generates more that it takes to produce", but that's a not inconsiderable problem even without all the international agreements about where we shouldn't be exploding nuclear bombs...
- slightwinder 1y ago> We had the technology to do it in 44 years 60 years ago: No, we had not. That was only theoretical work, no real technology, not even a prototype.
- m4rtink 1y agoIIRC there were sub-scale test done with chemical explosives. Also Feynman said it should work. :)