Video about the Orion project.

This guy talks about a old classified nuclear powered spaceship.
gizmodo.com...

The George Dyson video from 2002's TED just went live, describing the Orion Project, a deeply classified space vessel from the Atomic Age. It was nuclear powered. The size of a Marriott hotel and 400 tons. George Dyson's father worked on it, starting in General Atomic in 1957. Did I mention that scientists from the hydrogen bomb worked on this thing? Why? Because the nukes weren't used as fuel like they are at Homer Simpson's workplace. They were hoping to smash the atoms and direct the explosions for 20 megatons of lift!

Project Orion is very interesting, but much of it has been declassified since the 1970s. If you're looking for more information regarding Project Orion, here are some ATS discussion links:
www.abovetopsecret.com....
and
www.abovetopsecret.com...

You have to admit that this was big thinking for the 1950s and 1960s.


Wikipedia has a pretty good article on Project Orion that includes some informative links:
Project Orion Wikipedia

If you want to hear the great Freeman Dyson (George's Father) talk about his involvement in the project in his own words, then here's a link (if you don't want to watch the videos, you can view the text transcript):
Freeman Dyson - Peoples Archive

[edit on 2/27/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]