This is the NASA equivalent of the old school GTA trick of turning your tank barrel around and firing it continuously, accelerating yourself and becoming the fastest object in the game.
Ever since I first learned of its existence, the Orion project has been my absolute favorite non-military “what if”. The idea of being able to travel further into space than any human-made object has ever gone, based on science that wasn’t far from workable over 50 years ago if politics hadn’t been a factor...it just boggles the mind. I mean, the International Space Station is a monument to what we can achieve by working together towards a common goal, but just imagine if we could all stop bickering long enough to see a modernized version of Orion or Daedalus through to fruition. I know it’s hopelessly naive to think it would ever happen...but it was also once considered hopelessly naive to think we could one day live in a world without smallpox.
Agreed. Of all the crazy out there moonshot type ideas it really did have the best chance of success. Alpha Centauri in 44 years is insanely impressive. The first Starshot with at least an on paper a chance of success is something we should have jumped on. Even a reconnaissance probe sent via Orion would have netted us pictures in a few years after arrival. If we'd launched in the 60s we could have had our first pictures from another star system by now. We really are a staggeringly self defeating species... Luv and Peace.
Your calmness, your voice, your music and your presentation of the content works like magic. I hope your channel grows bigger and bigger, you are one of the best on TH-cam 👍🏼
And don't forget how deep into the topic he goes. Like I've known and read about majority of these technologies and the history surrounding it, but I always hear many many more new stuff. It's very well researched.
Yes, it is very well researched. I already knew about this project but the addition of the schematic diagrams and description of the yield and frequency of the explosions in this video was very much appreciated. Plus, he doesn't have one of those whiny American accents ;)
@@d.celestio1574 Sorry but you're wrong, and it's funny that you're trying to act like 'humanity can't figure out everything' when in fact you're just making a silly assertion which proves you aren't very intelligent. There have been plenty of useless inventions over the years, but we don't pay attention to them because they're USELESS. At the very least, the number of inventions which took so long in development that a competitor made it to market first is enough to prove you wrong, in addition to truly pointless crap which came from fever dreams by motivated people.
@@jamescarter3196 sorry, "i didn't mean humanity can't figure out anything". the point was-- even the worst of inventions can be put to a good use. and yeah, i guess i was making an useless assertion
James Carter Dude. Why be so harsh on the guy. He's not in some pissing contest with you! Mellow out, bro! Even I don't get so put out unless some one is yanking my chain and I'm drunk!
Yep, and send the uranium to space in small quantities and than put it together without any danger for the earth, even if a rocket explode during a launch.
You'll be dead when that time come, fucking politics.. If they have allowed Orion project maybe today a ship would be on his way to alpha centauri and maybe nearly his destination..
@@slowedmood7440 it just proved to be to impractical 800 nukes just to get it off of earth ...think about that then how many more for travel totally unpheasable
@@mikeysgametime8914 If you're stuck with the idea of using nukes to leave earth yeah it is but use your brain the ship would be assembled in space and everything would be launch on orbit with classic propulsion. Nuclear propulsion make sense in space not on the ground, like Ion propulsion it can be efficient only in space for example.
@@slowedmood7440 no not stuck on using it to leave earth it would have to be built in space .its to big but then how do u slow down ? Throw nukes out the front too? Think about u never be able to use enough conventional propellant to slow down .u would need millions of tons of oxidizer and catalyst just to match the energy of a coke can size nuke.... Like i said not feasible
I was scrolling the comments to see if anyone mentioned "Footfall" before I posted a comment about it. The Orion ship Michael was awesome, even though the launch was a little hard on Bellingham, WA. The authors writing themselves into the story... not so awesome. Not nearly as vomit-inducing as when Clive Cussler does it but still a bit hard to take. There's nothing quite like "The Stan Lee Effect" when it comes to instantly destroying suspension of disbelief. Of course, the hardest thing to believe wasn't the aliens or the ship, it was the VW Rabbit that drove 2000 miles on one tank of gas decades before hybrids were available. Based on EPA estimates, it would have needed (at least) a 50 gallon tank to pull that off. Still, "Footfall" is QUITE entertaining and, arguably, one of the best and most believable alien invasion stories around.
Eventually you're going to have to make your soundtracks available. They are an absolutely essential part of these videos, giving them a late 80s to mid 90s flair that I consider to be the signature of this channel.
Apex Tyrannis It's over sixty years old, actually, with the original idea being seventy years old. Other interesting nuclear propulsion systems include: gas-core and plasma-core, nuclear-thermal rocket; fission-fragment nuclear rocket; nuclear saltwater rocket; fusion micro-bomb rocket; gas dynamic mirror nuclear fusion rocket; VASIMIR; MPD; antimatter proton-anti-proton rocket; etc.
The nuclear saltwater rocket may honestly be one of the most extreme propulsion systems devised. It's like the scientists saw the Orion drive and said "what if we made the atomic explosions *continuous* ?".
"We really need to make it a reality" for what? What's so important about this that it's worth all the poison in the atmosphere? Oh yeah, there ISN'T anything that important, so it's a bad idea and only a moron would advocate it unless it's going to save the planet.
Great video about a great subject, with a great fitting soundtrack and a shirt that looks fittingly like thousands of little nuclear explosions. Right on!
I am always stunned by the amount of work, the documentation and the accuracy of these videos. I also love the effort put into finding the visuals, with as much archive documents as possible. Although I am fairly familiar with the some of the topics of your videos, you always dig up footage or images I didn't know about. And talking about crazy '60s tech, have you ever considered doing a video on Project Pluto or Project A119? Thanks again for all of this hard work!
At around 9:30, I couldn't contain a smile, when the asteroid approached. If instead of 'Curious Droid' it was the 'Because of Science' channel, the dude would either dodge or duck to avoid being hit !
Not 50 (the likely-unmanned Momentum Limited Orion has a travel time of 133 years to Alpha Centauri without slow down, the definitely-manned Energy Limited Orion - 1330 years), but the Solar System would've been industrialised by now. We could've already had space colonies and cities on Moon and Mars.
If Paul Shillito's hard work, quality animation, deep research, and amazing interviews aren't enough to make you give to his patreon page....his over the top eye blasting shirt deserves the donation at least.
Most of my thoughts and comments were previously mentioned and as usual, my complete enjoyment of all your videos are now pretty much standard. What I would like to know is how an earth anyone could ever give a thumbs down to any of them! Well as my dad used to say, to each his own. Thanks for uploading incredible as always.
A few years ago, when researching information on conventional shaped charges, I started wondering if something similar could be done to focus the blast of nuclear devices for diverting asteroids and found that a recent limited release of this previously top secret information showed concepts of directional shaped nuclear devices. Very interesting reading. I am glad you mentioned Barnard's star since it would be a good candidate for colonizing as it is moving closer to our sun. If I am not mistaken it will be closer than the Centauri star system in 10,000 years. It will outlive Sol by billions of years.
The thing to remember is that only one ground launch would be needed to put enough infrastructure and people into space to build habitats and more spaceships in orbit from materials from the Moon, asteroids and or comets. Those 800 sub kiloton bombs needed to get into orbit would've still been less radiation released into the atmosphere than the many atomic tests in Nevada. Of course, if we did it today, the EMP's would destroy cell phones over a third of the planet.
+caav56 Well, the EMP's aren't actually from the nukes directly but by the Compton effect as gamma radiation strips electrons from the upper atmosphere over a wide area, it is the flow of these induced currents that create the EMP and at higher altitudes, the EMP is further enhanced by the direction of travel they would take due to theagnetic fields. The US high altitude tests were 1.4 megaton and the Soviet high altitude tests were 300 kiloton. The Project Orion proposed propulsion units began at sub kiloton and worked their way up to 20 megaton, plus it takes thousands of the smaller bombs to just get out of the atmosphere plus thousands more to leave orbit for another planet. There's no reason to surmise they would not cause an EMP simply due to the initial bomblets being "small". Of course, most equipment have some shielding, iPhones even have a Faraday cage plus products that are turned off are less vulnerable as lightly loaded power lines hence the extent of damage an EMP may cause is unclear, all we know is that streetlights were blown and communications disrupted during historic high altitude testing and we're more vulnerable to EMP's today.
+Bad Beard Bill A barge launch was one of the options they discussed though they were concerned with the Van Allen radiation belt at the time and were thinking of a launch from within the Arctic circle. However, it was the Partial Weapons Test Ban treaty and subsequent anti-missile treaties that forbade the development of Project Orion and the deployment of a vessel with what amounts to nuclear weapons into space. They did transfer the project from the Airforce to NASA which developed an 8 man and 20 man stripped down version for a Mars and Jupiter mission so they could argue for a civilian exemption to the treaties but the Soviets would have none of it.
Hey now, "why animals don't have wheels" is a perfectly sensible investigation into the circular - ambulatory potential of organisms that has real world applications. [citation needed]
Your channel reminds me of that show long ago in the 80's or so, with the host that talked about space and called his audience 'stargazers' and at the end always said "And as always... keep - looking - up."
There was a gigantic reusable booster design called the Convair Nexus that was specifically designed to launch large nuclear interplanetary vehicles into orbit. Maybe the Nexus could have been used to launch an Orion.
@@ianmathwiz7 Musk is already planning on building an 18m wide generation 2 super starship. Whilst it may not be the 45+ diameter behemoth that the Nexus was designed to be its quick turnaround capability should more than make up for the size discrepancy.
I think the assembly orbit idea was the best way to do this project from the start. I don’t know why they even thought about launching such a thing from the earth’s surface. I think the idea should still be looked at but without the nuclear battleship angle. Project Daedalus sort of thing.
Lots of mentions here of the novel Footfall, but Stephen Baxter also explored the Orion concept in his novel Flood. The earth is, well, flooding, and the last-ditch, decades long effort is made to launch a large starship with FTL drive before the last land disappears. To life something so massive, only Orion works to get it out of orbit until the warp drive kicks in. Let’s just say it’s not a good day for the people in Colorado who try to crash the launch site.
You're amazing man. stay the course, keep presenting badass scifi/military/space topics, and keep churning out videos, and you'll have multiple millions of followers in no time. You're at 224k subs as of this comment
nuclear power can be used for many things, but if possible we want to avoid nuclear explosions. Specially nowadays were we have literally more electronic sensitive devices than humans on this planet. Would be bad if the majority suddenly fails.
well using interstellar ship, which fry all modern cameras(except military one) on launch, is very spectacular way to escape paparazzi for VERY long time (at least while they did not catch up ship near other star :)
Vacuum only use of course. Nuclear salt water seems way safer than having nukes though, plus make for a smoother ride and doesn't violate nuclear test treaties. No bombs, just riding on a Chernobyl steam explosion.
That's why it's for vacuum use only. Luckily for the crew they're sitting on the other side of the ship with a large tank and supplies between and the engine. The radioactive exhaust would be 66,000m/s so it's definitely leaving the solar system. The exhaust would probably be a plasma at those temperatures, not steam :P . It's about as efficient as an ion engine while pulling a few G's like in The Expanse.
I like Shillito's channel really very much. The shirts are so horrible that they are cute. On point: this type of nuclear propulsion is only acceptable in space, not for lift-off. Even so, there is the issue of how to safely lift the fissile to orbit.
Great vid as usual mate. Question, did you ever read Larry Niven's Sci Fi novel Footfall? Some of the best bits of the book are where they built an old school atomic bomb powered Orion and rode it into near earth orbit for a space battle :)
Awesome content. Please also do a video about Project NERVA as a companion to this video, showing a nuclear thermal rocket engine. This project made it into real testing of actual test engines.
I remember " Footfall " by Niven & Purnelle. In that SF , alien race defeated human using " Rods from God " - like weapon. Human race strikes back by nuclear pulse propulsion spaceship and fire away nuclear X-ray laser munitions. It's an amazing and exciting novel 💖, but I hope it won`t become reality 😅.
The best thing? Human lasers are powered by the drive of the "Michael" (human Orion warship) itself! Just drop several self-aiming bundles of whatever gain medium is used and let the next drive bomb explosion pump them! Another package of gamma-fried elephants from space is ready!
Arthur Pournelle helped invent "Rods from God" when he worked as an aerospace engineer in the 1960's. His friend Dr. Edward Teller invented the nuclear pumped X-ray laser but Pournelle had the idea of using Michael's pulse bombs to pump them. And he really was a consultant to the Pentagon along with other hard SF authors.
This is the NASA equivalent of the old school GTA trick of turning your tank barrel around and firing it continuously, accelerating yourself and becoming the fastest object in the game.
Lmao
I remember doing this in GTA 3 😂
Yeah but the steering became inverted. Took a bit of skill. Lmao 🤣
Or the rocket jump in quake and team fortress
That's how I would cross over to Staunton island. Just type the moon gravity cheat and turn the turret around.
I approve of this method.
As a "Kerbal Space Program" player I don't understand those strange concerns about massive radioactive fallout and deadly radiation exposure! :D
What is this 'radiation' you speak of, and can i add boosters to it?
Brent Smith it's a mod by nertea under development. It is :) I'd plug my Orion mod, but it doesn't work any more.
And food/water supplies for crew are overrated, obviously. People can survive tens of years space missions in tiny command chair!
And why do we even need a return trip? Its not me trapped in some desolate rock.
@@lazarus2691 Yes!
Ever since I first learned of its existence, the Orion project has been my absolute favorite non-military “what if”. The idea of being able to travel further into space than any human-made object has ever gone, based on science that wasn’t far from workable over 50 years ago if politics hadn’t been a factor...it just boggles the mind. I mean, the International Space Station is a monument to what we can achieve by working together towards a common goal, but just imagine if we could all stop bickering long enough to see a modernized version of Orion or Daedalus through to fruition. I know it’s hopelessly naive to think it would ever happen...but it was also once considered hopelessly naive to think we could one day live in a world without smallpox.
Agreed. Of all the crazy out there moonshot type ideas it really did have the best chance of success.
Alpha Centauri in 44 years is insanely impressive. The first Starshot with at least an on paper a chance of success is something we should have jumped on. Even a reconnaissance probe sent via Orion would have netted us pictures in a few years after arrival.
If we'd launched in the 60s we could have had our first pictures from another star system by now.
We really are a staggeringly self defeating species...
Luv and Peace.
Your calmness, your voice, your music and your presentation of the content works like magic. I hope your channel grows bigger and bigger, you are one of the best on TH-cam 👍🏼
And don't forget how deep into the topic he goes.
Like I've known and read about majority of these technologies and the history surrounding it, but I always hear many many more new stuff. It's very well researched.
Daniel Hruška true! I love his calmness
...the music? Arrrggggg!!!!
Yes, it is very well researched. I already knew about this project but the addition of the schematic diagrams and description of the yield and frequency of the explosions in this video was very much appreciated. Plus, he doesn't have one of those whiny American accents ;)
I think the lava lamp music is too loud and interferes with the narration.
His shirt is made of 800 tiny nuclear explosions
Looks more like a “basket case”.
His head looks like the dome.
Stbl asci ssyc ,. ♎ ? How's another dimension liki
I am like 400
Looks more like a peacock's tail to me.
5:58
I'm pretty sure the quote actually goes "Whoever controls the spice controls the universe"
The spice must flow.
Bless the maker...
YUP!
Spice? Where can I get some?
john underwood Arrakis!
"The Orion starship is the best use of nuclear weapons I can think of." Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980.
Out of context it's impossible to tell if it's a comment in favour of Orion though.
@JRGJRG no invention is actually useless. the current human civilization is just incapable of properly putting it to use.
@@d.celestio1574 Sorry but you're wrong, and it's funny that you're trying to act like 'humanity can't figure out everything' when in fact you're just making a silly assertion which proves you aren't very intelligent. There have been plenty of useless inventions over the years, but we don't pay attention to them because they're USELESS. At the very least, the number of inventions which took so long in development that a competitor made it to market first is enough to prove you wrong, in addition to truly pointless crap which came from fever dreams by motivated people.
@@jamescarter3196 sorry, "i didn't mean humanity can't figure out anything". the point was-- even the worst of inventions can be put to a good use. and yeah, i guess i was making an useless assertion
James Carter Dude. Why be so harsh on the guy. He's not in some pissing contest with you! Mellow out, bro!
Even I don't get so put out unless some one is yanking my chain and I'm drunk!
This is easily one of the best youtube channels
Cedric C hey I am Cedric C !
Used in space, rather than as a means of launch from Earth, it's actually a good idea.
I thought the same thing, using the moon as the launch site.
Yep, and send the uranium to space in small quantities and than put it together without any danger for the earth, even if a rocket explode during a launch.
Mine and build it entirely off planet for 0 risk
Yup. It'll take time and be expensive.. All we need to get that off the ground (small pun intended) is a cheap reliable GTO system. So.. Go Elon!!
we should really find a way to neutralize radiation it would be very useful
44 years to get to Alpha Centauri?!? Let's fundraise for Orion Project in Kickstarter.
You'll be dead when that time come, fucking politics.. If they have allowed Orion project maybe today a ship would be on his way to alpha centauri and maybe nearly his destination..
@@slowedmood7440 it just proved to be to impractical 800 nukes just to get it off of earth ...think about that then how many more for travel totally unpheasable
@@mikeysgametime8914 If you're stuck with the idea of using nukes to leave earth yeah it is but use your brain the ship would be assembled in space and everything would be launch on orbit with classic propulsion. Nuclear propulsion make sense in space not on the ground, like Ion propulsion it can be efficient only in space for example.
@@slowedmood7440 no not stuck on using it to leave earth it would have to be built in space .its to big but then how do u slow down ? Throw nukes out the front too? Think about u never be able to use enough conventional propellant to slow down .u would need millions of tons of oxidizer and catalyst just to match the energy of a coke can size nuke.... Like i said not feasible
@@slowedmood7440 i am using my brain u should try it. its called being practical just becuz its possible doesnt make it a good idea
This sounds like most american rocket ever!
Introducing The Murican rocket Bigger Better Bolder. Warning only use Nucular Bombs for propulsion use of Nuclear Bombs may cause undesired operation.
@@teddyfresh9605 ok... my brain
or the most kerbal
Max Bambusman minus the obesity
Not just anywhere is America, this says "Texas"
British man in strange shirt speaks to me as ominous music plays and nuclear powered spacecraft drifts slowly into frame.
*INSTANTLY SUBSCRIBED*
That orbital battleship looked so badass.
I fell in love with this idea after reading Footfall. It would've been awesome to see this actually happen.
That shirt is a WMD.
Weapon of mass distraction.
Meaning it doesn't exist and the US and U.K. Are about to invade it?
dont forget the aussies. we'll be there too hahah
i stayed at the Luxor casino in vegas, and many many parts of that hotel room had that pattern on it. And the little toiletries.
He has a great number of interesting shirts.
I first read about Project Orion in a book by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle called Footfall.
Marc Barrett
Footfall is superb
Hang gliding baby elephants wearing platform shoes!? Inconceivable! :)
You forgot about their 8-digit noses.
I was scrolling the comments to see if anyone mentioned "Footfall" before I posted a comment about it. The Orion ship Michael was awesome, even though the launch was a little hard on Bellingham, WA. The authors writing themselves into the story... not so awesome. Not nearly as vomit-inducing as when Clive Cussler does it but still a bit hard to take. There's nothing quite like "The Stan Lee Effect" when it comes to instantly destroying suspension of disbelief. Of course, the hardest thing to believe wasn't the aliens or the ship, it was the VW Rabbit that drove 2000 miles on one tank of gas decades before hybrids were available. Based on EPA estimates, it would have needed (at least) a 50 gallon tank to pull that off. Still, "Footfall" is QUITE entertaining and, arguably, one of the best and most believable alien invasion stories around.
Kickass book, best alien invasion story I've ever read.
Don't know which is more epic... conquering space with nuclear bombs, or that shirt!
dgatsoulis They both give off a decent amount of radiation
This is by far my favorite Chanel , thank you for these videos !!
came for the content, stayed for the shirts
lol
Nice video and music.
I bet Austin Powers is full of jealousy seeing your shirt.
Maybe Austin Powers buys his shirts from us!
hahahhahahha
Makes him look like the leader of a fucking UFO cult.
Aaahahahahahahahaha.
I thought I knew it from somehere...
has a little one for Mini me!
Eventually you're going to have to make your soundtracks available. They are an absolutely essential part of these videos, giving them a late 80s to mid 90s flair that I consider to be the signature of this channel.
Asterra2 I completely agree!
This is a 70s Berlin School flair in this vid.
You can find the soundtracks here: soundcloud.com/paulshillito
you must also like lava lamps.
Best propulsion system we have, and its over 50 years old. We really need to make it a reality ASAP!
Apex Tyrannis It's over sixty years old, actually, with the original idea being seventy years old. Other interesting nuclear propulsion systems include: gas-core and plasma-core, nuclear-thermal rocket; fission-fragment nuclear rocket; nuclear saltwater rocket; fusion micro-bomb rocket; gas dynamic mirror nuclear fusion rocket; VASIMIR; MPD; antimatter proton-anti-proton rocket; etc.
The nuclear saltwater rocket may honestly be one of the most extreme propulsion systems devised. It's like the scientists saw the Orion drive and said "what if we made the atomic explosions *continuous* ?".
5000mahmud I want to build one someday, I want to devote the rest of my life to such an endeavour.
"We really need to make it a reality" for what? What's so important about this that it's worth all the poison in the atmosphere? Oh yeah, there ISN'T anything that important, so it's a bad idea and only a moron would advocate it unless it's going to save the planet.
I think the cons outweigh the pros for Orion, but Daedalus is worth looking into
That did look unreal steady when you have the specific momentum it is riding in mind. 3:09 wicked
This channel is so good at explaining things I've been wondering about.
Your shirt game just gets better and better!
Great video about a great subject, with a great fitting soundtrack and a shirt that looks fittingly like thousands of little nuclear explosions. Right on!
This is what I always imagined the power of the atom could do instead of just turning turbines to produce steam .
Content you can't find anywhere else. Well done Paul!
I am always stunned by the amount of work, the documentation and the accuracy of these videos. I also love the effort put into finding the visuals, with as much archive documents as possible. Although I am fairly familiar with the some of the topics of your videos, you always dig up footage or images I didn't know about.
And talking about crazy '60s tech, have you ever considered doing a video on Project Pluto or Project A119?
Thanks again for all of this hard work!
At around 9:30, I couldn't contain a smile, when the asteroid approached. If instead of 'Curious Droid' it was the 'Because of Science' channel, the dude would either dodge or duck to avoid being hit !
I think the music is a tad bit loud on this episode. Love the channel- keep up the good work. I'm always blown away by the great photos.
Agree, the volume of the music and sound effects spoils the video a bit.
As outlandish as it seems, an Orion Class Spaceship is probably still our best bet at ever visiting another star in a single lifetime.
This technology could've taken us to other stars within 50 years. Imagine if we kept researching it what we could do by now
Not 50 (the likely-unmanned Momentum Limited Orion has a travel time of 133 years to Alpha Centauri without slow down, the definitely-manned Energy Limited Orion - 1330 years), but the Solar System would've been industrialised by now. We could've already had space colonies and cities on Moon and Mars.
one of best channels on youtube
well done. outstanding shirt.
If Paul Shillito's hard work, quality animation, deep research, and amazing interviews aren't enough to make you give to his patreon page....his over the top eye blasting shirt deserves the donation at least.
I love watching Varys talking about spaceships and stuffs
Most of my thoughts and comments were previously mentioned and as usual, my complete enjoyment of all your videos are now pretty much standard. What I would like to know is how an earth anyone could ever give a thumbs down to any of them! Well as my dad used to say, to each his own. Thanks for uploading incredible as always.
I like your shirt mate
A few years ago, when researching information on conventional shaped charges, I started wondering if something similar could be done to focus the blast of nuclear devices for diverting asteroids and found that a recent limited release of this previously top secret information showed concepts of directional shaped nuclear devices. Very interesting reading.
I am glad you mentioned Barnard's star since it would be a good candidate for colonizing as it is moving closer to our sun. If I am not mistaken it will be closer than the Centauri star system in 10,000 years. It will outlive Sol by billions of years.
The thing to remember is that only one ground launch would be needed to put enough infrastructure and people into space to build habitats and more spaceships in orbit from materials from the Moon, asteroids and or comets. Those 800 sub kiloton bombs needed to get into orbit would've still been less radiation released into the atmosphere than the many atomic tests in Nevada. Of course, if we did it today, the EMP's would destroy cell phones over a third of the planet.
No, the EMP effects wouldn't have that effect.
Drive bombs of the Orions (except for theoretical multi-million-ton monstrosities) are too weak to generate any significant EMP effect.
+caav56 Well, the EMP's aren't actually from the nukes directly but by the Compton effect as gamma radiation strips electrons from the upper atmosphere over a wide area, it is the flow of these induced currents that create the EMP and at higher altitudes, the EMP is further enhanced by the direction of travel they would take due to theagnetic fields. The US high altitude tests were 1.4 megaton and the Soviet high altitude tests were 300 kiloton. The Project Orion proposed propulsion units began at sub kiloton and worked their way up to 20 megaton, plus it takes thousands of the smaller bombs to just get out of the atmosphere plus thousands more to leave orbit for another planet. There's no reason to surmise they would not cause an EMP simply due to the initial bomblets being "small". Of course, most equipment have some shielding, iPhones even have a Faraday cage plus products that are turned off are less vulnerable as lightly loaded power lines hence the extent of damage an EMP may cause is unclear, all we know is that streetlights were blown and communications disrupted during historic high altitude testing and we're more vulnerable to EMP's today.
John Wang Then launch out of Point Nemo using a modified oil rig.
+Bad Beard Bill A barge launch was one of the options they discussed though they were concerned with the Van Allen radiation belt at the time and were thinking of a launch from within the Arctic circle. However, it was the Partial Weapons Test Ban treaty and subsequent anti-missile treaties that forbade the development of Project Orion and the deployment of a vessel with what amounts to nuclear weapons into space. They did transfer the project from the Airforce to NASA which developed an 8 man and 20 man stripped down version for a Mars and Jupiter mission so they could argue for a civilian exemption to the treaties but the Soviets would have none of it.
It's sad to see that that this kind of propulsion hasn't seen much light in science-fiction.
Thanks for telling us where you got the shirt. I love it!
This channel is better than Vintage Space.
reminds me of what vsauce used to be.
what happened to vsause?
he sold out.
Hey now, "why animals don't have wheels" is a perfectly sensible investigation into the circular - ambulatory potential of organisms that has real world applications. [citation needed]
Vsauce was great untill he commercialized his channel.
guys he didn't sell out, all mind field episodes are free now.
Sir ! Everytime I watch your videos, I get hypnotized by your Shirt and feel like I'm travelling in space time.
he looks like a character from Guardians of the Galaxy in that shirt! Love it :D
Your channel reminds me of that show long ago in the 80's or so, with the host that talked about space and called his audience 'stargazers' and at the end always said "And as always... keep - looking - up."
Is it just me or is the background music rather loud in the last few videos?
It’s to the point now I click the like button even before the video starts. Always on point. Love the content mate
04:59 is that the CocaCola brand next to the ESA logo?
The intro to this video is phenomenal.
great vid keep them coming
Love the Jean Michelle Jar music... Spaced right out .. Superb as always 👊
Space nukes go really well with that peacock shirt pattern!
Your shirt is lit AF
Imagine either a Sea Dragon or a couple of capsuleless Saturn 5s as the booster rockets for orbital insertion of this project.
Oh screw that...just launch it with the nukes! There are big parts of the earth that are already uninhabitable.
There was a gigantic reusable booster design called the Convair Nexus that was specifically designed to launch large nuclear interplanetary vehicles into orbit. Maybe the Nexus could have been used to launch an Orion.
@@ianmathwiz7 Musk is already planning on building an 18m wide generation 2 super starship. Whilst it may not be the 45+ diameter behemoth that the Nexus was designed to be its quick turnaround capability should more than make up for the size discrepancy.
Can't wait until you go viral.your videos are educational and fun at the same time.keep up the good work
That shirt is fucking awesome! Nice video too!
I've seen a few videos on this rocket but none with this much information. This was really interesting, thanks.
Nice video but the music is at same volume as the speach.
amazing video yet again! These videos need to be shown in schools
4:52 i see that Coca Cola will be sponsoring the first Orion rocket...
lmao
Ten minutes is not enough to give justice to this idea.
Paul should dedicate another video to the details of a Mars mission using Orion.
Could you keep your background music on the background?
Sander Datema play kerbal space program
Ryan Bernard I've got a lot of hours there, but why is that relevant for his irritating background music?
I can't believe the crazy stuff we came up with back in the 1950s and 60s. I wonder if you use this if we could use clean fusion mini bombs
That shirt is out of control!
This concept is amazing!
Wish one day we could use it for space exploration.......
Nivens and Pournelle explored this in their Si-Fi book 'Footfall'.
I think the assembly orbit idea was the best way to do this project from the start. I don’t know why they even thought about launching such a thing from the earth’s surface. I think the idea should still be looked at but without the nuclear battleship angle. Project Daedalus sort of thing.
3:55 The *loud* background music is really obnoxious.
ambient music + great content as usual, so happy I've found your channel!
Your title gave me heart attack. Thought CNN was sending notification of a nuclear launch At first, then I realized it's the spider dude from got
how does Curious Varys travel so fast? He systematically uses small nuclear detonation to propel himself across the narrow sea.
TheScoutsniper75 you nailed it
Scott Johnstone I'm very sleepy man it's late. I just saw atomic bomb and my
Heart skipped a beat. I'm on high alert in my internet capable bunker :p
You shouldn't be letting CNN send you notifications.
CNN is fake news.
I love the fact you wear an odd looking shirt for every episode and made it your TH-cam thing.
i think that shirt can protect you from intergalactic radiation in space
Lots of mentions here of the novel Footfall, but Stephen Baxter also explored the Orion concept in his novel Flood. The earth is, well, flooding, and the last-ditch, decades long effort is made to launch a large starship with FTL drive before the last land disappears. To life something so massive, only Orion works to get it out of orbit until the warp drive kicks in. Let’s just say it’s not a good day for the people in Colorado who try to crash the launch site.
Excellent, but noise/music in the background makes it dificult to focus on the subject.
You're amazing man. stay the course, keep presenting badass scifi/military/space topics, and keep churning out videos, and you'll have multiple millions of followers in no time. You're at 224k subs as of this comment
nuclear power can be used for many things, but if possible we want to avoid nuclear explosions.
Specially nowadays were we have literally more electronic sensitive devices than humans on this planet. Would be bad if the majority suddenly fails.
Finally a way to escape those damn paparazzi!!
well using interstellar ship, which fry all modern cameras(except military one) on launch, is very spectacular way to escape paparazzi for VERY long time (at least while they did not catch up ship near other star :)
ABaumstumpf We just need to avoid detonations in atmosphere and within the vanallen belts.
Underground explosions should be fine though (they worked in North Korea). A Nuclear Verne Gun could be doable.
if its the only way to knock a large asteroid on collision with earth out of its trajectory then objections fade away quickly
unbelievable .. great vid ..thanks paul
I love atomic rockets, screw the nuclear scare.
Vacuum only use of course. Nuclear salt water seems way safer than having nukes though, plus make for a smoother ride and doesn't violate nuclear test treaties. No bombs, just riding on a Chernobyl steam explosion.
The Eh Team
A highly radioactive steam explosion that you might not want in your back yard....
That's why it's for vacuum use only. Luckily for the crew they're sitting on the other side of the ship with a large tank and supplies between and the engine. The radioactive exhaust would be 66,000m/s so it's definitely leaving the solar system. The exhaust would probably be a plasma at those temperatures, not steam :P . It's about as efficient as an ion engine while pulling a few G's like in The Expanse.
Mayer Your lack of fear is not based in reality
Beer Me
In what way?
He's talking about people's fear of putting nuclear power in space, not nuclear weapons.
I like Shillito's channel really very much. The shirts are so horrible that they are cute.
On point: this type of nuclear propulsion is only acceptable in space, not for lift-off.
Even so, there is the issue of how to safely lift the fissile to orbit.
Great vid as usual mate.
Question, did you ever read Larry Niven's Sci Fi novel Footfall?
Some of the best bits of the book are where they built an old school
atomic bomb powered Orion and rode it into near earth orbit for a space battle :)
And Jerry Pournelle (RIP) "Footfall" (1985).
When you put A bombs under a big metal plate, Quote "That sucker will MOVE!"
Reply
All your videos are so interesting! Many thanks for posting them!
Congrats on the shirts! They all are also great.
Awesome content. Please also do a video about Project NERVA as a companion to this video, showing a nuclear thermal rocket engine. This project made it into real testing of actual test engines.
I love the new synth retro sci-si music in the background.
We could've had massive nuclear interplanitary battleships... so cool
Cool is definitely it the word for that level of insanity
The best youtube chanel ever!
I heard a story that the first man made object in space was a steel cover plate from a underground nuclear test .
I think it was the German A-4 (V-2) rocket, which also traveled faster than sound.
Unfortunately, that's probably not true. Almost certainly, the plate was vaporized in the atmosphere.
Seeing how rocket development usually goes so smoothly I'm surprised no one has tried this out.
You could power a rocket with that collar POP!
Interesting topic as I already was aware of it.
But that shirt. Suit you sir!
A great video, a pity the music is sometimes too loud.
We are all made of star stuff. We are the universe experiencing itself. It is our job to explore as much of it as we possibly can.
Hello!
You are doing a great job here on YT. Could you consider making a video about the Zoyus(spelling?) 11?
Regards from Sweden!
Mats Bengtsson fyi it's spelt Soyuz
Dubsy 102 thanks mate!
I learn so much in every one of your videos. You never fail to make them interesting too. Please keep them coming!
I remember " Footfall " by Niven & Purnelle.
In that SF , alien race defeated human using " Rods from God " - like weapon.
Human race strikes back by nuclear pulse propulsion spaceship and fire away nuclear X-ray laser munitions.
It's an amazing and exciting novel 💖, but I hope it won`t become reality 😅.
The best thing? Human lasers are powered by the drive of the "Michael" (human Orion warship) itself! Just drop several self-aiming bundles of whatever gain medium is used and let the next drive bomb explosion pump them! Another package of gamma-fried elephants from space is ready!
Arthur Pournelle helped invent "Rods from God" when he worked as an aerospace engineer in the 1960's. His friend Dr. Edward Teller invented the nuclear pumped X-ray laser but Pournelle had the idea of using Michael's pulse bombs to pump them. And he really was a consultant to the Pentagon along with other hard SF authors.
Thank you for the summary of this line of thinking! Also, amazing collar.
I'm sorry, but the background music playes so loud, I can't hear a word you're saying! Too bad, because I like the story.
Wow, that Varys's shirt! I love that the pattern matches from one half to the other across the button