Comments on: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Atomic Spaceship https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/ Fascinating true stories from science, history, and psychology since 2005 Sun, 12 Jul 2015 15:57:09 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 By: Museful https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-27546 Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:23:22 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-27546 [quote]davidw987 said: “I expect the breaking mechanics would depend on the gravity of a nearby star.”[/quote]
Not possible. Gravity is what is called a “conservative force”, meaning that all loss of kinetic energy due to gravity must go into gravitational potential energy. The only way to do that is if you end up further from the star than you started, regardless of trajectories.

]]> By: John https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-27501 Fri, 10 May 2013 07:46:35 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-27501 It’s common in most reporting of “old Bang-Bang” to see lots of poetic license,
The 4000 ton ship used .1 kt bombs at lift-off, and maybe ,4 kt in space. Hardly the “huge mushroom cloud forming thousands of times brighter than the noon Sun” spectacle writers seem to be so fond of.
In space, Dyson said there would be a tiny brief barely visible flash as the bomb went off, followed a few thousandths of a second later by a building flare as the plasma piled up on the pusher plate.

Also, It could be clarified that assembling it in space and using it only in space, high orbit or above, would eliminate ALL environmental concerns -except the bomb-making industry, and without the Cold War impetus to ‘damn the pollution, full speed ahead”, I like to think we as a species are smart enough to handle fissionable fuels cleanly and responsibly.

It’s also interesting to point out that though .1C is lousy performance for an interstellar ship, it’s just fine for opening the solar system. Colonies in the Oort halo at 500AU or so would not be out of touch with ships like this that could make the run in a few years. The colonies only need to provide the propellant to go into the ships’ bomb/thrust-pulse units (about 90% of the total “expended” mass of the rocket.)

]]> By: Space Odyssey https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-27051 Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:09:31 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-27051 Errata in the previous comment: inteRstellar, articLe :-)
I recommend to enter the specified site from Google Chrome.
Otherwise the article may be not displayed correctly.

]]> By: Space Odyssey https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-27050 Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:56:57 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-27050 I am sorry because of my poor english (I am russian).

The main idea of Orion project, i.e., direct utilizing of the energy of nuclear explosions, was right and extremely productive. But this concept needs to be developed further an intestellar probe based on it could be realized.
Such a development is proposed in my artice https://sites.google.com/site/extremalmechanics/next_orion

]]> By: dragondm6 https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-25265 Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:52:06 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-25265 We should build one while in orbit. We are very close to being able to make an elevator to space. It would be very easy to cart building materials up and down that way. Also, I personally think we should make a ship that is like a biodome, so it can support X amount of humans for eternity.

]]> By: wayno@oz https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-24117 Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:38:08 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-24117 Fantastic article guys!!!! Just one thing, for all of those who use the example of extremophile life found on Earth as a defence / offence when discussing the possibility of alien life, just remember that no scientist has yet proved that these kind of life forms didnt need sun and water/liquid to originally evolve. In all chance, these life forms may have only evolved/acclimatized to live in the conditions they currently occupy. I honestly believe the chance of finding life on Europa or Triton may be very slim for this same reason, Panspermia not withstanding. Sorry for getting off subject but the prevelance of alien life discussions compelled me to write!

]]> By: voodish https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-15703 Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:39:37 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-15703 A great article, like someone else mentioned it is these ground breaking events that make milestones in your lifetime. The next for me will be the Large Hadron Collider which will be switched on in November 2007. Like the Atomic Spaceship, people will always be sceptical but whatever your opinion it will make for an interesting month:
Further reading about the Large Hydron Collider

]]> By: hushoo https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-15327 Fri, 01 Jun 2007 02:09:42 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-15327 Just wondering…
Why do we search for “livable conditions” in extraterrestrial planets? There are lifeforms here on Earth that show that they CAN survive very harsh conditions.
How can we make sure that a planet without Earth-like characteristics does, or does not support life?

]]> By: Floj https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-13212 Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:54:38 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-13212 Wow, I’m glad I took a moment to look back on one of my favorite articles! Thanks Silverhill, that was Damn Interesting. Man I hope you still comment on this site. This project rivals even pie with it’s greatness. Such a craft would redefine the worlds concept of nuclear weapons.

Thanks again Anthony, Damn Interesting indeed!

]]> By: psyOtic https://www.damninteresting.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-atomic-spaceship/#comment-11193 Wed, 20 Dec 2006 06:32:57 +0000 https://www.damninteresting.com/?p=679#comment-11193 can i say one thing is responce to Silverhill’s comment………… damn you know that the article was damn interesting when a responce is as long as the article itself.

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