RE: Asteroids in Space (was: RE: FT Taskforce and Fleet Actions)

>
>Well, you've got to get *something* out of it, or the Orion propulsion 
>system wouldn't be much use.  Although, to be fair, that relied on
bombs 
>exploding within tens of meters to fifty meters of a solid plate,
generally 
>coated with graphite... I'm not sure how thick the plate needed to be,
or 
>the graphite, and (of course) how that would relate to FT era starship
hull 
>and/or armor.	The Starflight Handbook is, not unsurprisingly, not the 
>greatest source of information on how to *destroy* starships.... ^_-
>
>Anyone know more on this?
>					  Aaron

The idea was proposed by Stanislaw Ulam in 1955.  I'd do a net search
for
you, but it's to late.

Project Daedalus, pulsed fusion, was the next step, and was investigated
by
the British Interplanetary Society in the 70's.  I apologize, in an
earlier
email this evening, I mistakenly wrote Project Orion instead of Project
Daedalus.  I was going by memory, thought it was wrong, read your email,
and went back to my books to correct myself.