Project Orion Nuclear Pulse Rocket

Dark Space
Dark Space
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Published 2023-09-06
Using conventional rocket technology, it is estimated that it would take nearly 165,000 years for a spacecraft to reach Alpha Centauri, the closest planetary system to Earth's Solar System. New research into ion-propulsion systems holds the tantalizing possibility of closing that gap, but in the 1950s, an entirely different rocket-system promised to complete the same trip in only 44 years. In a program code-named Project Orion, it was proposed that spaceships could be sent into the outer reaches of space carrying entire cities using the power of nuclear explosions.

At the core of Project Orion was the idea to place atomic bombs at the tail of a spaceship to blast it into space for interplanetary and interstellar travel. Of the project, physicist Freeman Dyson, who worked on the program extensively, wrote for Quanta Magazine: [QUOTE] “So we would launch the ship into space — bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb — going up about four bombs per second...”

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All Comments (21)
  • @davidlundbergjeppesen7840
    this is a fine overview of the project and good cinematography as well. but the thumbnail does not depict the Orion drive, it is a depiction of the Daedalus engine which would use laser induced fission reactions to propel a craft through interstellar space. the Daedalus drive is an interesting concept all on its own.
  • @defaultuserid1559
    "Footfall" by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven contains a great description of building and flying an Orion ship.
  • @JackBWatkins
    I was involved in research similar to these scientists back in the early 1960’s also. We set up our launch pad behind my parents suburban home in the back ally. Our scale was smaller, we used an empty 2 pound coffee can (weight of the coffee, not the can) and black cat firecrackers. We could not achieve a series of pulse explosions so we relied on a single blast to propel our craft (empty coffee can) to hights of 20 to 30 feet. Any higher and our craft would miss the landing zone and go into the neighbors backyard and required a fence climbing expedition. Our blast was reflected off of the bottom of the vessel which was inverted for launch. As we approached higher test flights and faster speeds we noticed the vessels started to deform after just a few explosions and then burst at the seams. We had adequate funding to continue our research through 1960’s and beyond as coffee cans and black cat firecrackers were available at little or no cost. However, as my small suburban community grew they passed a ban on pulse explosion rocketry via out lawing fire works. No fingers were lost in our experiments and no atomic radiation was released. A few dogs did bark.
  • @finroddd
    I have always considered this project one of the craziest.
  • @Jon6429
    The possibility that concealed under the Nevada desert sands North of Las Vegas there could be a seventy year old spaceship big enough to pick a fight with an Imperial Star Destroyer is both terrifying and reassuring. It would also explain a lot of things lol
  • @davidponseigo8811
    My father was US Air Force and attached to the Defense Atomic Support Agency and Special Weapons Project and worked on this project and multiple others that involved nuclear weapons.
  • @oneproudbrowncoat
    It's absolutely criminal (if not blasphemous) that this never got implemented.
  • @oljackie35
    Ulam mentioned in Dark Space, my day is done
  • @eloquentsarcasm
    As a kid I stumbled upon a book series about a young inventor like Tony Stark called Tom Swift. The novels my grandfather had were the Tom Swift jr ones from back in the 1950's. A nuclear rocket was one of the inventions mentioned in the series, and set me on a lifelong love of science and technology. By the time I read them, they were 30+ years in the past, but the concepts and ideas the author presented in them blew my mind. I hope I have enough decades left to me to see the beginning of something like The Expanse novels, with humanity colonizing Mars and people making lives for themselves out in The Belt.
  • @Diskord1982
    I've waited and asked for this video for YEARS from this channel. Thank you
  • @alexandermendeyev35
    I got excited when in the 3 body problem series they mentioned this project to achieve 1% the speed of light. Maybe is not possible, but makes me think, everything is really possible, we only need to work together for a common goal. That's it.
  • @braderickson9996
    A few things. The amount of testing mentioned, must be done in space, full stop. There is no way, you are using a engine like this, going from the surface to orbit, insane to think otherwise. This engine is made to cover vast distances, not to cover rising from a planetary surface. It is sad to think this country had NERVA, a rated nuclear engine, and in 2023, announcing we will be rediscovering said wheel. To what could have been.
  • @barrybarlowe5640
    Imagine the weight of 5-1/2 trillion nuclear bombs. That's how many you'd need for a 44 year journey to accelerate, then decelerate to destination. Mass-wise, I don't think it's an effective method of travel. Dyson was pulling their leg.
  • @noone-zq7my
    So really the 900Kg steel cap plate of the 1957 Pascal-B shot accidentally became the first pusher plate test , it was estimated to have reached 6 times the escape velocity.
  • @taylor1038
    It's so crazy to think we actually have the tech to go 10% of speed of light, it's just a bit impractical.