How the Theory Grew

Before hearing of Project Orion existence (1957-65), I spent a few years writing independently on the subject of nuclear pulse. I called it RNE for Rapid Nuclear Explosion, although finally I withdrew my use rate to 1 a day. Not so rapid after all! Never having heard of Orion, and limited to discussion amongst close friends on simple matters of logic. Those earlier theories were constructed upon a cannon design despite knowing accurately how big the minimum explosion is.

Being an economist I decided to set myself the challenge to invent a space drive capable of reaching resources available outside of our solar system. It is my advanced standard of knowledge regarding economic and social development over the centuries that made it possible to engage with the basic proposal of the cannon in space. It would merely be an extension of a well trodden path from cannon, to musket, to rifle, to machine gun. All of it is about physical containment. That is why I do think that Orion misses the mark by introducing a pusher plate. I spent several days contemplating the word "cannon". I was looking for another word with a less military sound. I thought tube, cylinder, canister etc. but nothing is really available in our language that I could find. Imagine my amazement and laughter when I came across Orion and found this term "the pusher plate"! Immediately I chose to re-define a "cannon" as a hollow tube with a pusher plate attached at one end.

After a couple of years and still before hearing of Orion I made the basic theoretical jumps that convince me to this day that nuclear space propulsion is economically attainable with our existing technologies. The big jump in theory was when I realized that a "sky hook" supported by altitude balloons could pull into space from an orbiting pulse platform. Maybe 10,000 tones at a time! Forever changing the way we launch payloads. That was a bit naïve but the evolution of the idea into an atomic space elevator and ACCTOPE followed.

How the Theory Grew continued

Of course we may still have to build the first cannon in space out of many pieces (like in mediaeval times) and that would be painstakingly slow. However once done it could pull up many times its own weight, many times.

If you read my writing and don't like the "travel to the stars" stuff, I say this. America was only discovered because Columbus was allowed to travel in 1492. In 1349 a Black Death plague in Europe cut the population in half. Without this massive population cut, the theology of the church enforcing a flat earth theory with Jerusalem at the centre would never have been relaxed. Unfortunately it took the Black Death to weaken the theological certainties and social control. This allowed Columbus to sail on his adventure (of course ship building took many decades to recover) without being arrested for heresy at the docks and executed. In modern times the equivalent would be the intervention of psychiatry to identify thought disorders.

However in itself the objectives of Orion to reach Saturn are enough because speed tests would inevitably come about from space pilots pushing into the unknown. However the economic investment required may never be raised if the potential economic benefits of lucrative, fertile properties around other stars are not considered to be within possible reach. So let the pilots fly to Saturn and then let them see how fast they can go.