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originally posted by: Clairaudience
originally posted by: crazyewok
Only problem is if you launch a nuclear pulse ship the bangs so big the whole world will know you launched one.
It actually would be very inefficient to use a nuclear pulse engine to get the spacecraft into orbit. We have better ways to do that, using less fuel and obviously being a lot more low-profile. But using such an engine in space can accelerate you to insanely fast speeds in a very short amount of time.
originally posted by: sputniksteve
a reply to: eNumbra
I was just being precise and arguing the specifics/semantics of the commercial alone, without any accompanying details like his BIO which would explain it.
Image of the smallest Orion vehicle extensively studied, which could have had a payload of around 100 tonnes in an 8 crew round trip to Mars. On the left, the 10 meter diameter Saturn V "Boost-to-orbit" variant, requiring in-orbit assembly before the Orion vehicle would be capable of moving under its own propulsion system. On the far right, the fully assembled "lofting" configuration, in which the spacecraft would be lifted high into the atmosphere before pulse propulsion began. As depicted in the 1964 NASA document "Nuclear Pulse Space Vehicle Study Vol III - Conceptual Vehicle Designs and Operational Systems."