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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
Project Orion has been discussed in many books about the history of the atomic bomb, bios of famous physicists involved in the Manhattan Project, space travel, etc. If you'll search old posts in DU you'll find references to the AF's mockup nuclear-powered bomber and nuclear-H2 engines (mostly about the history of these discontinued projects).
One of the odder ideas was to coat a pusher plate with Cf-254, which decomposes mostly by spontaneous fission. The ejected nuclei would be the reaction mass, and since they travel at marginally-relativistic velocities, the potential terminal velocity would be tremendous. The problem, of course, would be in handling such a huge amount of Cf-254.
Project Orion has been discussed in many books about the history of the atomic bomb, bios of famous physicists involved in the Manhattan Project, space travel, etc. If you'll search old posts in DU you'll find references to the AF's mockup nuclear-powered bomber and nuclear-H2 engines (mostly about the history of these discontinued projects).
One of the odder ideas was to coat a pusher plate with Cf-254, which decomposes mostly by spontaneous fission. The ejected nuclei would be the reaction mass, and since they travel at marginally-relativistic velocities, the potential terminal velocity would be tremendous. The problem, of course, would be in handling such a huge amount of Cf-254.
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