Still More Inspiration and Meta Sites, Because They're Out There

[Ace Dreamer]

There's a nice page here with a good summary and many links for the infamous/audacious Project Orion nuclear pulse rocket.
Including this modern re-imagining, which has allegedly been completely engineered inside and out by the fellow who made this video:

Sorry, Bob, but that page looked pretty sparse when I went there - maybe a browser issue?  I've always found the WikiPedia page pretty good for this subject:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...%28nuclear_propulsion%29
Must come close to the least subtle space tech ever, I think Orion was used in Niven & Pournelle's "Footfall":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footfall
with a recent IRL suggestion of using Woomera (or somewhere in Australia British nuclear tests already left radioactive) for a true (under?) ground launch, rather than that video's host of ex-Shuttle solid fuel boosters.  But, I still have a liking for what must be the most dirty nuclear drive ever:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...uclear_salt-water_rocket
which you don't want to point at a planet which you plan on using, any time soon.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind