NEWS
 re: orion drive in vacuum -- how?
in article   EMAILADDR (james p. goltz) writes:
   would this work?  i can't see the em radiation impelling very much
 momentum (especially given the mass of the pusher plate), and it seems
 to me you're going to get more momentum transfer throwing the bombs
 out the back of the ship than you get from detonating them once
 they're there.
the orion concept as actually proposed (as opposed to the way it has been
somewhat misrepresented in some fiction) included wrapping a thick layer
of reaction mass -- probably plastic of some sort -- around each bomb.
the bomb vaporizes the reaction mass, and it's that which transfers
momentum to the pusher plate.
all work is one man's work.             | henry spencer EMAILADDR u of toronto zoology
                    - kipling           |  EMAILADDR  utzoo!henry