Dyson (was Re: [OT]Nukes.)

On Mon, 11 Mar 2002, Derek Fulton wrote:

> At 04:40  10/03/02 -0500, Tomb wrote:
> >Reminds me (vaguely) of a story about plans to use nuclear charges in
> >civilian construction (something briefly toyed with before anyone
really
> >understood what they were dealing with).
>
> BTW one of the people involved in the project ( besides Teller, father
of 
> the hydrogen bomb ) was a fellow by the name of 'Dyson', that name
ring any 
> bells?

Freeman Dyson also designed, or helped design, the Orion spaceship. I'm
sure there's stuff on the web somewhere, but there's also a good book,
"The Starship & the Canoe".

Orion was going to use nukes or hydrogen bombs to launch & propel a very
large spaceship - and launch from the surface! The Atmospheric Test Ban
stuffed that idea, and the more sensible proposal to start the ship in
orbit was sunk by the various space weapon treaties.

In deep space (or at least from orbit) Orion is an interesting idea, and
Dyson developed his ship to the point where one might actually be
buildable.

There's also his Dyson Sphere, of course. Mega-engineering at it's
finest!

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://wind.prohosting.com/~warbard/games.html -
 
> Cheers
> 
> Derek
> 
> Derek Fulton
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