Would anyone be crazy enough to use project pluto?

1950s Project Orion (NOT the NASA Orion Capsul) is also A Nuclear Engine spaceship
that use Atomic bombs as fuel !
in early stage of project they wandet groundlaunch from Nevada or Pazific
later desgin used Booster like Saturn V first stage to bring Orion up to 40 Km high
then orion start its nuclear Kraaaboom drive
USAF wandet ORION as orbital Platform for Counterstrike in case of Nuclear War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)

I think virtually everybody on this forum knows what the 50s Project Orion idea was.

Some of us think, that the 50s version was good, and its the 2000s version that is bad.

The 50s version remains the only feasible method with current technology to launch multi-thousand (or even million) ton payloads into space, and the only feasible way for manned exploration of the outer solar system. Perhaps the Japanese will make the space elevator work (but the materials problems are hard), but the space elevator won't take you to Saturn.

The radiation risk is actually quite small. A statistical increase (i.e. not specifically identifiable cases) by a literal handful of cancer cases per Orion launch from Earth. And that's using 50s level technology, relatively dirty bombs, and few precautions. Today, the risk would be much lower with better bombs, better material science (less fallout), and simple precautions, like launching on top of a 2nd pusher plate, instead of from the ground level.

Personally I would consider the risk acceptable even for a few hundred Orion launches per year using 50s technology. The reason is simple, we can then move a lot of dirty processes off Earth once we establish a substantial space presence (and we could do that with far less than few hundred Orions per year - just a handful of Orions might be enough) - for example - solar power from space, heavy metal mining on the moon. The number of people we currently already kill from burning fossil fuels (which also contribute to cancers as well as contributing to other problems like global warming), and putting metals into the environment, etc., dwarf any number of early cancer deaths that would be caused by Orions -- so if Orion was implemented as part of a planned program to replace these dirty process, it would offer a net saving of lives, and allow us to improve the environment.

As for space exploration, Arthur C. Clarke, Werner von Braun, Niels Bohr, as well people connected to the project (like Freeman Dyson and General Thomas S. Power) all thought Orion a good idea.
 
TBO is very bomber-centric as a TL - they pretty much bollixed ICBMs in the 1950s except for space vehicles. Its likely Project Pluto got canned even sooner than OTL, if it ever got proposed. Given that TBO has aircraft flying at near-missile speeds anyway (the SR-71, XF-12, and XB-70 OTL all flew at Mach 3+; in TBO they're all in frontline service), and by the late 1980s they have prototype "turboscramrockets" capable of sending aircraft into space. Nuclear powered missiles don't fit.

There was, OTL, a project to outfit a B-36 with a nuclear reactor, though...:D

I know, but as they had most other cool wank...:D

And "TBO" is what?

A fun but atrociously edited althist with some believability problems
 
There was, OTL, a project to outfit a B-36 with a nuclear reactor, though...

called NB-36H and it flight ! :eek:
the Test was to see how a Nuclear reaktor works in flight 1955-1957
on ground the Reaktor was stored in pool were made Material Radiation test for Aircraft frame
nb36_title.jpg


x6_17.jpg

note the cockpit hull was from dick lead weight over 15 tons
the pilots din't hear the Engine !

x6_23.jpg

the Reaktor raise from cooling Pool in to NB-36H for Flight.

the 47 testflight were made from Fort Worth, Texas.
in one of flight the NB-36H almost crash near Dallas do thunderstorm.

so fare is know the sovjet made simlar test in 1960s
 
the cockpit hull was from dick lead weight over 15 tons
Hihi, thats a heavy reproductive organ.
Sorry, I'm very immature.

called NB-36H and it flight ! :eek:
the pilots din't hear the Engine !

IIRC there was a thread about this some time ago and I'll repeat what I said there because you seem to suggest this B-36 was nuclearpowered;

AFAIK and the Wiki supports that, the reactor was active during flight, but not used to power the airplane.
Wiki of the B-36:
This plane, designated the NB-36H, was modified to carry a 1 MW, air-cooled nuclear reactor in the aft bomb bay, with a four ton lead shield between the reactor and the cockpit. The cockpit was encased in lead and rubber, with a 6-inch (15 cm)–thick acrylic glass windshield. The reactor was operational but did not power the plane; its sole purpose was to investigate the effect of radiation on aircraft systems.

Back on topic;
However usefull, I doubt that post-Tsjernobyl in the West any kind of project Orion/Pluto could be developed.
I just don't see the general public agreeing with that. F.ex look at how much opposition there is against nuclear plants for civilian purposes.
 
I started reading the TL, it seems like a quite interesting if unextraordinary alt-WW2, with bomber wank thrown in, then it starts to get a bit more unbelievable what with the same presidents coming up, and so on

Then wow, there's a thirty year gap between 201x and 2040, and finally this Loki character appears out of nowhere. Having never been mentioned before

Then I start looking around and see Demons. Loki is a demon. WTF?
 
It's an althist with a fantasy element thrown in. Taking it for what it's worth, it's actually highly entertaining.

The actual TBO scenario, though, is a reasonable example of why, even if everything else went right for Germany, they couldn't possibly beat the US.
 
Well, except that the scenario's not all that believable, of course. Just the entire premise, if the Germans conquered Britain and Japan didn't attack the US, why the hell are they even in the war? Why the hell do they send millions of troops to die in a freezing Russian hell to prop up a regime that was almost as hated as Hitler's own? I can see that they might build up B-36s to defend themselves, but just how did FDR get a US declaration of war through Congress?
 
It contunes into the future as well; Stuart Slade has a full timeline at his forum.

Ah, thianks...
I started reading the TL, it seems like a quite interesting if unextraordinary alt-WW2, with bomber wank thrown in, then it starts to get a bit more unbelievable what with the same presidents coming up, and so on

Then wow, there's a thirty year gap between 201x and 2040, and finally this Loki character appears out of nowhere. Having never been mentioned before

Then I start looking around and see Demons. Loki is a demon. WTF?
Should be interesting getting to that bit... :D
 
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