Interstellar Space Drive using Rapid Nuclear Explosion

Tentatively also a Mars project since the very costly apparatus needed for manned atomic testing in space would have a dual application capability. The number of tests proposed is at least 10 to ensure that containment within the canister is durable and space worthy enough to warrant a 25 crew 6 month journey to another, as yet unspecified sun in the search for an inhabited planet. Of course the assumption is that speeds far greater than light will be reached, based in a classical approach to Newton's Law that Force equals Mass multiplied by acceleration (F=MA). The apparatus to test such a rocket engine to 200 must expend more thrust than 200,000 tons of TNT which is the equivalent energy release of the critical mass explosion. It is perhaps difficult to comprehend conventional engines of such size but such an investment even if failing to arrive at a satisfactory result for containment, would have the post-application of enabling a high-speed trip to Mars.

RNE (Rapid Nuclear Explosion) propels the craft. Developing it requires assembling a test cannon and the problem is cannon breach. While interstellar space flight would require hundreds of explosions, one explosion at a time requires testing inside a titanium and ceramic tube, sealed at one end. F=MA. Hence the nuclear explosion drives the mass off at a constant and undiminishing acceleration. Since the device has to be returned for an assessment to an orbit around earth, large liquid gas propellant boosters are attached to the cannon. They will slow it down and eventually return it to the starting point. They will of course need re-fuelling for each test and the maximum number of test explosions allowed is 100. The construction materials of the cannon must withstand RNE (rapid nuclear explosion). What mass must the craft eventually be for the acceleration to be damped enough for the pilots to stay conscious bearing in mind the nuclear explosion will be of a minimum or critical mass and cannot get any smaller than say the first prototype from Los Alamos? So what is it in the laws of physics that prevents a nuclear explosion contained within a cylinder with one opening end, propelling that cylinder with great speed in the opposite direction to the opening?

Interstellar Space Drive using Rapid Nuclear Explosion continued

Interstellar space travel (or even a high-speed trip to Mars) has parallels to the exercise of jogging. Namely the fastest speeds are reached in the middle of the journey. This is for the simple reason that with no gravity and no forms of resistance or friction, each acceleration adds to itself cumulatively. If the source of energy is not a limiting factor (which is why the enormous power of the nuclear explosion is so promising invention when applied to the massive distances between stars) then the quickest form of travel is to apply power continually until the half way point is reached. A 180 degree rotation manoeuvre is then applied and thrust is now spent to slow down the vehicle for the entire second half of the journey. Calculated exactly this would bring the craft to dead rest at the previously plotted co-ordinates.

However before the hull or other components of an interstellar craft are built, the engine must be shown to be reliable. A minimum of 10 tests is probably necessary. While the astronaut can be protected with a shield during testing, and indeed the crew during travel, if the engine canister containing the RNE disintegrates the vehicle will be very difficult to manage. If disintegration happened during the acceleration period, the craft would hurtle past the target star and further into the unknown. All hope for survival would depend on capturing sufficient gravitational pull of another star and that star would have to contain a habitable planet for without rescue there would be no way back. If RNE is developed and successfully applied over a period of considerable time to interstellar exploration, there may unintentionally as a result of engine failures, result in two bands of colonies. As the width between would be considerable, there could be no contact between the two rings of colonisation for hundreds of years. This could lead to a long term conflict between those ex-solar planets deliberately colonised by earth and those pioneers whom having survived a casing disintegration settle well the desired range of adventure.