/sci/ - Science & Math

Someone made a KSP mod with the ship using the 1960's parameters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwrLR2kv5KA

>>8817017
Project orion is one of many projects that I'm sad never happened but that I also would have a hard time supporting if it were proposed today. However, I do think that in some future where humanity


you should read The High Frontier OP, its a pretty in depth look at how a current (in the 1970's) technology space colonization effort would go, written by a respected physicist who got a NASA grant to research the same issue. If you liked this it'd be right up you're alley.

>>8817039
I'll pick it up next time I'm at a library, thanks for the tip

>>8817047
No problem. it paints a very compelling, if optimistic, picture. The writer (Gerrard K. O'Neil, for whom the O'Neil cylinder space colony design is named) mixes a good amount of research, theory, and vision.

Also I realized since I made this>>8817039 post in two goes I forgot to finish my sentence. I was saying, I do think that in some future where humanity is a space faring race nuclear propulsion will be used, and for accelerating large masses nuclear pulse will probably be a necessity unless other efficient propulsion methods improve or can be scaled up.

We are stuck on the Earth where nuclear devices are weapons instead of tools to unlock the stars. I wish I had a sad frog saved.

>>8817099
http://www.strawpoll.me/12716886

aren't ships like this the only feasible way to do interstellar travel with known technology? (at least for the arrival portion of the journey)

These are 60's designs, something modern would be way larger
It's the same amount of fissile material either way, you have to deliberately scale down the blasts to keep them survivable

>>8817122
They are the quickest and simplest we could use with existing science and technology. I'd like more research into solar sails for solar system travel. Perhaps there's a way to use such devices for interstellar wind.

>>8817117
Who is Adobe Reader?

>>8817493
Have you not heard of gamma ray thrusters? How much have you even read into the subject lol

>>8818088
But, those are shit.

>>8818112
Thanks for adding some useful insight.

Outer space and partial nuclear test ban treaties forbid it.

So unless North Korea* really steps up their nuke game and decides to build orion it's not going to happen.

*they are a party to the outer space treaty, but given that they ass blasted partial, they probably wouldn't give a fuck about violating it

>>8818247
You can withdraw from or change treaties
They don't prevent anything

>>8817039

It was a very inefficient way of propulsion, it needed a lot of infrastructure and mass to carry all these mini-nukes, not counting the radiation shielding and the inefficiency related with the low mass-temperature energy transference...the whole program was bullshit.

The best way of propulsion, at least for interstellar-interplanetary journeys is some that can transfer a lot of energy to a small mass, in a controlled and directed way (not the chaotic way of a nuclear explosion).

This left us with some kind of cyclotrons accelerating heavy ionized particles.

>>8818262
Yeah and there is a snowball's chance in hell that any nuclear power is going to withdraw from the Outer Space Treaty any time soon.

If one withdraws there are consequences, IE one loses UN influence

>>8818282
A: Can't launch from the Earth using Ion drives
B: Ion drives need a supply of electricity to function, Nuclear bombs directly produce their needed power
C: External pulse means they don't have to limit temperatures, meaning higher Isp

It is the most efficient drive we can currently make

>>8818295
>A: Can't launch from the Earth using Ion drives
Who cares...

>B: Ion drives need a supply of electricity to function, Nuclear bombs directly produce their needed power

So what?

>C: External pulse means they don't have to limit temperatures, meaning higher Isp

Here you are horribly wrong, temperatures are limited with shielding and structural limits of the space ship frame, while a cyclotron can actually achieve higher Isp due it control over plasma with magnetic fields.

>>8818312
>So what?
? So it's kinda a critical fking limitation ?
What sort of thrust you gonna get with your cyclotron? lol

>>8817122
there are other forms of nuclear propulsion. You just need a much larger ship carrying a lot more gas reaction mass.

>>8818295

Also...

Nuclear power generation is way more efficient in a nuclear reactor rather on a nuclear explosion, so for the same pound of U-Pu you will get more energy for the cyclotron.

But the most important problem here is the energy transference from the nuke explosion to the ship itself, which, in absence of a medium mass (since we are in the space) is very, very low, and most of the ship shield will get blasted with photons, and the small high temperature particles will get turned most of them into heating and shield deformation.

This is the main issue, the bomb itself doesn't have enough mass to do a efficient energy transference to actually move the damn ship.

Is probably one of these "most" stupid ideas ever that sounded good, but actually were complete garbage, just like the X-ray laser induced by nukes for the SDI system.

>>8818332
It's not a question of efficiency, its a question of cost & practicality
High thrust has its own advantages

I've never read that the nuclear pulse unit concept WOULDN'T WORK, merely a question of how efficient it is, which would require testing/optimization.

>tfw we almost had the stars

>>8818088
>gamma ray thrusters
Just say "antimatter rocket". Nobody calls them "gamma-ray thrusters".

>>8818054
Dear Leader>Dear Reader>Adobe Reader

>>8818282
>>8818312
>>8818332
I want to personally thank you for this. I have seen this project Orion bullshit passed around way too much for a board that claims to be about science. This was an absolute joke of an idea and I am glad we never wasted any money on research and instead focused on better and more feasible space propulsion.

Pic related, significantly better than 'muh-nuke drive'

>>8819630
Ah I see, thanks

>>8819260
Thanks for adding some useful insight..

>>8819739
>Decades of R&D by the greatest minds in the US government
>Some undergrad comes along and declares it all bullshit
We bow down to your superior intellect.

>>8819739
Vasimr is a joke
>Former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz created the VASIMR concept and has been developing it since 1977.
Some half chink half beaner has been pocketing money for the joke concept for 40 years