{Couldn't find old thread so just blipped a new one}
Had a thought on another incremental improvement in an interstellar version of the 1960s vintage Orion concept.
In prior discussions, we have discussed utilizing a segmental pusher plate and finely gradated propulsion charges. Bump in vehicle performance (payload and/or velocity) is interesting.
A refinement in jettisoning pusher plate pieces along the journey would be to instead recycle the material as bomb casings. As it turns out, bomb casings are a large line item in the mass budget of our vehicle. This could be a rather significant 'tweak' in the design. With recycling the pusher plate material, we can possibly utilize rather more material in the bomb casings. This improves the efficiency of the radiation channel effect of the nukes, and synergistically improves the vehicle dynamics. In other words, we can carry less mass in the form of premade bomb casings, and the efficiency of our propulsion units increases. More efficient utilization of the nukes implies smaller budget for high Z fission materials, and/or more propulsion units for a higher vehicle delta vee.
It's tough doing the math on this, but as originally envisioned, an interstellar Orion might have achieved 0.05C, this and other improvements might be (cautiously) pushing Orion towards 0.1C.
Had a thought on another incremental improvement in an interstellar version of the 1960s vintage Orion concept.
In prior discussions, we have discussed utilizing a segmental pusher plate and finely gradated propulsion charges. Bump in vehicle performance (payload and/or velocity) is interesting.
A refinement in jettisoning pusher plate pieces along the journey would be to instead recycle the material as bomb casings. As it turns out, bomb casings are a large line item in the mass budget of our vehicle. This could be a rather significant 'tweak' in the design. With recycling the pusher plate material, we can possibly utilize rather more material in the bomb casings. This improves the efficiency of the radiation channel effect of the nukes, and synergistically improves the vehicle dynamics. In other words, we can carry less mass in the form of premade bomb casings, and the efficiency of our propulsion units increases. More efficient utilization of the nukes implies smaller budget for high Z fission materials, and/or more propulsion units for a higher vehicle delta vee.
It's tough doing the math on this, but as originally envisioned, an interstellar Orion might have achieved 0.05C, this and other improvements might be (cautiously) pushing Orion towards 0.1C.
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