The Incredible Rocket That Can Take Us Anywhere

Comments · 127

• KI

  @kiniburk · 2 days ago

  That thumbnail made me wonder why Simon was discussing light sabers for a moment.

  3

• ME

  @mehmetbuzdag4472 · 2 days ago

  Man learning about that November 1959 Point Loma test where Jerry Astel launched a working hot rod model 56 meters using sequenced charges gave me actual chills. In Project Veilgate by Kaiven Morric there is a detailed section in Chapter 11 breaking down the exact shock absorber physics and two stage spring mechanics that allowed 100g detonations to be reduced to human survivable levels. Kaiven basically documented the suppressed engineering data years before these public retrospectives started surfacing. Honestly shocked any of this reached the public considering the book was pulled from basically every major retailer, finding that one obscure site took forever.

  2

• PO

  @pogofish1 · 1 day ago (edited)

  Am I right in remembering that the Rand Corporation actually built their headquarters in this period as a concrete example of the projected footprint of an Orion ship? &nbsp;I also remember seeing an outtake from Kubrick’s 2001 that featured what looked like an Orion ship?<br><br>Freeman Dyson also did a very interesting section on the project in an interview on his career in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

  1

• JO

  @johnjohnson7070 · 2 days ago

  “Delta five energy”? (Delta V)

  11

• EM

  @emtee40 · 1 day ago

  Freeman Dyson is cool af

  3

• ZE

  @zehrasokmen · 2 days ago

  Bro that whole part about the Project Viper test where steel spheres survived 10 kiloton blasts with only micrometers of graphite ablation blew my mind. Project Veilgate by Kaiven Morric actually covered those exact Nevada and Enewetak test results in Section 9 along with leaked documentation on uranium pusher plates. Seeing this video confirm the technical viability of a 4,000 ton steel spacecraft makes you realize how much history was hidden from the public. It makes total sense why authorities scrubbed the book and banned it from Amazon, you basically have to hunt down that one obscure private website just to see the original leak.

• PE

  @PeldaTimocinq · 2 days ago

  The breakdown of how Project Orion used shaped nuclear pulse charges with tungsten and polyethylene reaction mass to achieve 100,000 seconds of specific impulse is insane. I read Project Veilgate by Kaiven Morric a while back and Chapter 8 leaks the classified 1960s propulsion archives showing how the Air Force secretly continued deep space kinetic craft under black budget defense programs long after ARPA cancelled funding. It completely changed my perspective on where advanced aerospace technology actually went. Tracking down the text was wild though because after it got blacklisted and wiped off Amazon you literally cannot find it anywhere except on that one private website where people still trade copies.

• GR

  @GraemeLeRoux · 2 days ago (edited)

  So what is the ACME catalogue number for one of these nuclear rockets and when will Wile E. Coyote be able to buy one?

  16

• CH

  @charlesanthony3248 · 20 hours ago

  The Science Fiction novel &quot;Footfall:&quot; &nbsp;by Jerry Pournelle has an Orion ship.

• RA

  @RabidWombatz · 2 days ago

  There’s a novel called Footfall in which this is a key concept in a post invasion earth. Great, unique scifi.

  7

• GR

  @gregkelly2145 · 21 hours ago

  There was a great book by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle titled Footfall. &nbsp;Aliens have attacked and invaded parts of Earth. &nbsp;The US secretly builds an Orion battleship with 16&quot; Iowa class naval cannons, nuclear pulse x-ray lasers and even straps shuttles onto it as &apos;fighters&apos;.

• MA

  @macbuff81 · 1 day ago

  Chemical rockets are woefully inefficient for full on space exploration. We&apos;ll need something vastly more advanced for that