Pfft comments on Crazy Ideas Thread - Less Wrong

22 Post author: Gunnar_Zarncke 07 July 2015 09:40PM

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Comment author: Pfft 15 July 2015 04:44:38AM 0 points [-]

As I understood it, the reaction mass for Orion comes from the chemical explosives used to implode the bomb. (The bomb design would be quite unusual, with several tons of explosives acting on a very small amount of plutonium).

Comment author: Izeinwinter 15 July 2015 06:21:06AM 0 points [-]

There are better options if you want to go nuclear for propulsion. http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/718391main_Werka_2011_PhI_FFRE.pdf

It's not an unreasonable amount of mass to get into LEO, and so very elegant as a drive.