Due to the vast distance between stellar systems, a spacecraft traveling beyond our Solar System and into a different star system must reach speeds close to the speed of the light. Project Orion was a theoretical design from the late 1950s and early 1960s that proposed using nuclear explosions for propulsion. The basic idea was to detonate a series of atomic bombs behind a spacecraft that had a massive, shock-absorbing “pusher plate” to absorb the blasts and propel the spacecraft forward.
Project Orion began in 1958 by Ted Tayllor and Freeman Dyson under the company General Atomics. A main engineering challenge of this project was the design of the pusher plate which was required to withstand many nuclear explosions. From initial calculations, an Orion spacecraft could reach speeds up to 9-11% of the speed of light. Although this is faster than any human-made object has ever reached, it pales in comparison to matter-antimatter annihilation rockets which could be capable of obtaining a velocity between 50% to 80% of the speed of light.
At the speeds Orion would travel at, it would require a flight time of at least 44 years to reach Alpha Centauri, the closest star to our Sun. Although this is still a long time, it is a significant improvement compared to our current capabilities. Also, this project could provide a great practical use for the world’s large stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
Jack Abrams Blog 
One response to “Project Orion”
Hi Jack. The thought of using nuclear blasts to propel a spacecraft seems crazy. I just feel like there is so much that could go wrong I begin to question the validity of this method. Just from a financial and practical standpoint I wouldn’t want my billion-dollar rocket to get destroyed because the calculations were slightly off. What do you think of this?
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