Space Fact of the Day #103:
Project Orion was a study conducted in the 1950s and 1960s by the Air Force, DARPA, and NASA into how effective nuclear pulse propulsion was. NPP is a method of spacecraft propulsion that basically involves repeatedly detonating nuclear bombs and using their explosive power to provide thrust. This could potentially bring spacecraft to up to sizable fractions of the speed of light.
Project Orion was a study conducted in the 1950s and 1960s by the Air Force, DARPA, and NASA into how effective nuclear pulse propulsion was. NPP is a method of spacecraft propulsion that basically involves repeatedly detonating nuclear bombs and using their explosive power to provide thrust. This could potentially bring spacecraft to up to sizable fractions of the speed of light.