"Hot Rod" - Nuclear Orion spacecraft prototype

[stillustronic]

This is ridiculous, so they tested a bottle rocket with C4 explosives and it went up to the 30th floor of a skyscraper, WOW! You can't 'scale this up' with nuclear bombs for a manned or any spacecraft! Today's school system is in total disarray!

[roidroid]

@stillustronic You were taught about nuclear propulsion concepts in school?

[jetpoweredgriffin]

@vecaisvecis

No problem.

They wouldn't want to leave earth anyway,so then-

that way,they won't have to suffer from radiation poisoning,either!

Problem solved.

[wiseye61]

haha, america is not going to go to space anymore... good luck having to watch TV while the first words from the first human to walk on the another planet is in

Chinese/Japanese :P

[SkyyCaptainn]

Imagine how the launch of full scale ship would look with hundreds of 10 kt nuclear explosions going off with ~1 second interval and the ship ascending on a pillar of nuclear fire with average power output greater 100 Saturn V rockets firing together.

[111imstupid111]

Cool

[AvyScottandFlower]

The sad truth here is without the political difficulties this technology would have already been fully developed @second half of the 20th century. We would be all over our solar system by now!

[ThePingasMightier]

@AvyScottandFlower It's a propulsion system with wonderful potential, but I have concerns about radiation. (Not so much the EMP though.)

And yes, I'm studying this right now so I would really like a cited response if you have any ideas.

[downix]

@ThePingasMightier Nuclear bombs can be clean, there's little incentive to make them so when they're to be used for blowing things up. For Orion, focused energy bombs, with all of the energy focused at the pressure plate, if the plate utilizes a radiation absorbing material (like depleted Uranium or lead) then there would be minimal radiation, as all of it would be absorbed  by the plate.

[AvyScottandFlower]

@ThePingasMightier

So, as you see, nuclear technology is absent in the one place it should have been developed many decades ago..

In space

[TheInternetizen]

@AvyScottandFlower More like we would have poisoned ourselves with radiation sickness before we developed anything meaningful.

[Membrane556]

@TheInternetizen

it really depends on the implementation.

An Orion would release less radiation then a typical surface nuclear test as individual bombs would be sub KT devices.

To equal one Tsar bomba you'd have to launch a lot of them.

Of course the radiation can be mitigated by providing a steel launch pad or putting it on top of a big chemical rocket and not using the Orion until well above the atmosphere.

[pizzalobster]

jellyfish

[jameslaquey]

The one shown in the video was called the "hot rod" because they stripped the aeroshell off the

"putt putt"

In unmodified form it looked more like a bullet

and, beamshipcaptain is joking isnt he?

no-one can be that far around the bend

[roidroid]

This is youtube

we're all retards here

[Beamshipcaptain]

We have entered a new energy paradigm, in century 21, that I have been researching since 1982. Pleas read TAPPING THE ZERO POINT ENERGY, by Moray King, and SECRETS OF ANTIGRAVITY PROPULSION (2008), by LaViolette, available at your local booksellers. Also: SUBQUANTUM KINETICS, by LaViolette.

[roidroid]

You call Nuclear Orion Propulsion an "Impractical Concept", yet recommend people read some Tesla Worshipping Hack's books on Quantum Religion and Antigravity?

You're hilarious.

[Beamshipcaptain]

Its important that people know theare are alternatives to rocket propulsion, because we shall NEVER go far in space as a species depending on rocket propulsion. I assure you our military utilises electrogravitics. GO check it out. I've been flying sheet-metal aluminum-copper and perspex 1-meter diameter TT Brown saucers since the 1990s. I am commander in chief of manned flight division studies for Swallowcommand under professor John RR Searl. We are reaching new goals, as more people build.

[roidroid]

I'm Professor Roidroid, Commander of the bathtub. This rubber ducky is my first mate, but you will refer to him as OFFICER Toodles.

All aboard, we're going to Pluto.

WOOSH!

Serious now:

John Searl is not a professor.

The Searl generator is a fraud, just like all perpetual motion machines.

Ion Wind Lifters are toys, and are no-where near able to fly a human pilot on Earth.

Since you associate yourself with Searle, I assume you're just as big a fraud. Go die in a fire.

[robrec0rd]

To quote a reviewer of one of the books Beamshipcaptain recommends: "Ignorance of a fact does not negate it." - "Anyone who doesn't believe that zero point energy can be tapped, hasn't done his homework."

And to quote Einstein: "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

Chill, dude. Maybe the research is worth something, maybe it's not - how can you possibly know? - but I know a great many people are excited about this and making progress.

[roidroid]

Research is all good and well.

But outright fraudulent behaviour is another matter entirely - and does nothing but slow science and good honest research down. I have little tolerance for such... parasites, as Searle and all those like him who make fraudulent claims.

[Beamshipcaptain]

Impractical concept. Far mor effective was the NERVA nuclear-rocket, tested in the late 1960s and early 70s. But rocketry itself has been made obsolete by non-ballistic electrogravitic propulsion.

[roidroid]

what is this "non-ballistic electrogravitic propulsion"?

[Beamshipcaptain]

Google: TT Brown, ELECTROKINETIC APPARATUS, JLNLABS, SWALLOWCOMMAND.

[roidroid]

you mean "lifters" ? Those high voltage Ion Wind devices?

When i google for "JLNLABS" it just comes up with Overunity trash - is this what you're talking about? Perpetual Motion?

[MilesB1975]

This would would work perfectly if you started from orbit, you wouldn't need to make huge successive bangs that would destroy the cosmonauts. You could shoot a water pistol out the back of the spacecraft and keep accelerating slowly. Some people on here need to re-read Newton's laws.

[roidroid]

What will be the "Specific Impulse" of your water powered spaceship?

.

[MilesB1975]

Haha,Not a lot! It's just proof of concept.

As you know I'm sure.

[roidroid]

i think the need to make "huge successive bangs" is that thermonuclear weapons/engines must have a certain minimum explosive yield to remain optimally efficient - so that the bombs will completely burn/use their nuclear fuel.

The cosmonauts are kept safe by a huge blast plate connected to the vehicle by an immense shock absorption system. This converts the explosive jerking blasts into a safe, comfortable and constant acceleration.

[MilesB1975]

It's a pretty messy idea, unless there was a way to carry enough fissionable material and throttle the explosions sufficiently. But, like you said, if you throttle the explosions down to a manageable size, you're left with something that looks a lot like a traditional rocket motor.

[roidroid]

Nuclear Rockets are another topic again.

An awesome topic though, highly recommended.

(interesting tidbit: the most powerful nuclear reactor ever built was to be part of a nuclear rocket design, and due to weight constraints it was almost entirely unshielded! It was so radioactive that even while travelling at it's theoretical cruise speed of Mach 3 - it would still theoretically kill anyone it flew over)

[bgarrigus]

They've actually got something like this in place already. Its called an "ion drive", and shoots a veritable water pistol of ions out the back for slow, steady acceleration. It was used on the "Deep Space 1" probe.

[NvgtrWiggles]

The concept of the Orion Project started out with the idea that they would use small masses until they figured out it would be much more feasible to increases the mass to the point where we're looking at something along the scale of a space-ark.

[TheMG2]

MilesB1975: You are assuming that because there is practically no matter in space, there would be no resistance and you would continue easily. However the propulsion given from the water pistol only propels you in the opposite direction because of the reactionary force arising from the collisions between the water molecules and any matter behind you.

Thus, both concepts cannot be true at the same time. If it is possible to propel yourself, you will also have resistance.

[roidroid]

uh no that's not true TheMG2

The reactionary force propelling MilesB1975's water-rocket is purely between the water and the spaceship, the water goes one way and the ship goes the other way. In empty space there is nothing to "push against" but what you bring with you, and this works just fine

Generally this is rocket fuel (well "exhaust" really) A normal rocket effectively "squirt"s it's fuel out the back, the only purpose of burning the fuel is just to make it "squirt out" more powerfully.

[MilesB1975]

Egg-zakerly!

TheMG2 has flunked Newton's laws I'm afraid.

If that were true, rockets would have no affect in a vacuum.

[aluisious]

@TheMG2 Congratulations, you just proved that rockets don't work in space.

Genius.

[MarsMoonEuropa]

@TheMG2 Have you ever heard of Newton's Third Law of Motion?

I doubt it, you should look it up and you will see why rockets still work in space and why they can reach such great speeds.

[youtert]

This is like the bomb trick in Metroid.

[ZemplinTemplar]

Wow, that would get us frickin' far... :-P And contaminate the atmosphere for millenia (if nukes were really used)... ;-)

[sicarius100]

yes it pollutes the air but it's not as much as you'd think.

It was calculated that a 4.000 ton Orion Spacecraft would require 800 small bombs, each at 0.15KT, to reach orbit. Thats equivalent of what ... 120KT nuke.

I dont know the exact payload capacities of the proposed deisgn but I bet it's alot more than current systems.

[jetpoweredgriffin]

@sicarius100

That;s a whole lot less explosive energy than all that useless high-altitude nuclear testing they just threw away.

They should have done some Orion testing then.

[ArmageddonAfterparty]

I'm only just learning about this project and I must say it's very interesting. Like my fellow laymen back in the days , who thought that travelling on trains could not be survived by human physique, I now wonder if the amount of g-force produced in this kind of vehicle, wouldn't kill the passengers. I did not see any calculations on it, so I'll just surf around more, just thought it funny that this was the first thing that came to my mind. Thank you for posting this.

[boxa888]

hahaha i was thinking the same thing. probably people would get disintergrated by the first blast pulse lol, unless they slowly bring it up to speed. lol

[nochjemand]

it didnt fly very high...

[ReximFavor]

That's because it's a fucking MODEL and a PROOF OF CONCEPT you stupid fucking asshole.

Holy shit I am being completely 100% honest here: I've been using YouTube since its inception and this is the stupidest comment I have ever read. I sincerely hope you drown in a river you fucking worthless cretin. You don't understand anything. It's people like you that make life shitty, you incredibly stupid piece of dogshit. I hope you drown in a river.

[nochjemand]

no...im alive i think.

i just wanted to say that this idea never passed (and will never pass) the development stage...

take my previous comment as a little metaphor and dont be so rude :D

[Vodd9]

Someone needs some anger management.

[SteelArmadillo]

lol u mad?

[ReximFavor]

Yeah. As a matter of fact, I am mad.

I find about this video, and it's a cool proof of the concept that a vehicle can propel itself using explosions just behind it, rather than a reaction occurring inside its engine or whatnot.

And I think, cool, this video is a cool visual simulation that a vehicle can propel itself using explosions that exist outside.

And then this sub-animal piece of shit says "it didn't go very far"

THAT'S NOT THE POINT

[ZeeKat]

That looks like very...violent kind of propulsion. Hard to imagine it with actual nuclear explosions.

[damianpoirier]

picture them under a mountain(actually)

[syngyne]

Well, there would be a pretty substantial shock absorber system between the pusher plate and the crew section.

[Arcmate]

Wasn't this prototype nicknamed "Putt-Putt"?

[openandskeptic]

The fallout from nuclear pulse propulsion should be minimal. NASA doesn't have the proper leadership to propose such a project.

[wargammer4000]

antimatter or fusion will work for this

built it in orbit.

[loperspest]

the troouble is we don't a] know how to make nearly enough antimatter. and b]a fission less fusion explosive. for an even more wonderful idea, look up the first 'practiacl' starship, look up Project Daedalus. A less complex version could be even better then Orion for insystem exploitaition

[Membrane556]

This is the Orion nasa should be building.

[rwboa22]

Eventually. Right now NASA is concerned on even getting the Ares I powerful enough to propel the Orion crew vehicle into orbit.

[Membrane556]

I know I been writing my representatives about the mistake Ares I is calling for Nasa to switch to Direct launcher which would have more then enough power to perform the mission yet does not need a five segment SRB.

Just google direct launcher and you'll know the story.

[hcm1955se]

Good description of the project islandone_org_propulsion

Cheers Bert

[toddlertree]

Have bomb, will travel! :)

[r1c47]

hopefully someday atomic explosions wont make radioactive fallout.

[Buckethead4400]

hopefully some day the orion concept will be used for fast interplanetary travel

[rwboa22]

Mars in three days...Jupiter in six. Ports of call includes Phobos, Io, and the rings of Saturn.