From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Orion drive in vacuum -- how?
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 15

In article <1qn4bgINN4s7@mimi.UU.NET> goltz@mimi.UU.NET (James P. Goltz) writes:
>  Would this work?  I can't see the EM radiation impelling very much
>momentum (especially given the mass of the pusher plate), and it seems
>to me you're going to get more momentum transfer throwing the bombs
>out the back of the ship than you get from detonating them once
>they're there.

The Orion concept as actually proposed (as opposed to the way it has been
somewhat misrepresented in some fiction) included wrapping a thick layer
of reaction mass -- probably plastic of some sort -- around each bomb.
The bomb vaporizes the reaction mass, and it's that which transfers
momentum to the pusher plate.
-- 
All work is one man's work.             | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
                    - Kipling           |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu  utzoo!henry
