A nuclear-bomb propelled ship the size of a skyscraper, because why not? 🤓 engineering
The 1950s were a wild time for nuclear technology. In the decade and a half after the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, scientists and engineers explored the different ways this technology could be used for less horrific means.
When most people see an image of an atomic mushroom cloud, it understandably elicits an almost primal fear. As the most visible demonstration of nuclear power, watching entire cities being obliterated in a flash is a legitimately terrifying thing, but for some, this wasn't the only thing they saw. While there were always going to be military applications for atomic energy, scientists like Dyson saw that the energy released from atomic fission wasn't any different from the energy released from chemical processes, at least in a practical sense. The amount of energy might be orders of magnitude larger than that produced in chemical combustion, but energy was energy.
Taylor and Dyson were instrumental in developing the plan to launch humanity not just into orbit, but to the outer reaches of the solar system itself.The idea behind Project Orion was pretty simple, at least conceptually: Use atomic bombs to generate thrust that could lift a ship into space. This was the original challenge that General Atomics hoped to overcome.
While this seems like overkill, the chemical rockets we're accustomed to seeing ferrying people and cargo into orbit are actually far less efficient from a practical standpoint.of the project, in order to accomplish what Project Orion would have been capable of using a conventional chemical rocket, would have required a rocket the size of the Empire State Building.
Specifically, the USAF was interested in developing an atomic bomb platform over the North Pole that could drop a bomb at any point on Earth while remaining out of the reach of an enemy. The military's involvement, however, meant that much of the research was then classified going forward, keeping its details secret for decades.
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