Orion remains the only interstellar propulsion system we could actually build right now if we really, really needed to.

There was a "son of Orion" project formulated by the British Interplanetary Society called "Daedalus". This was a two stage unmanned vehicle that used pellets of deuterium(?) fused by a ring of lasers around the perimeter of the exhaust. It was hoped this could explore nearby stars within the life time of those who launched it. It would have to be built by a space faring civilisation who could at least get around the Solar System with ease as the proposal used fuel "mined" from Jupiter's atmosphere. As a side note Kubrick looked into using the Orion system to propel the Discovery spacecraft in 2001: A Space Odyssey but he had just done Dr. Strangelove and wanted to get away from looking like he was obsessed with nukes.

My brother, Glendale Smith, and I watched Megaprojects vids together for a while after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. It was kind of our thing, and we really enjoyed it. He passed away October 21, 2020. Thank you Simon and crew for giving me those wonderful memories of my big brother in his final months. It means more than you can possible know. I love and miss you Glen.

The first time I had ever heard of Project Orion, I was absolutely stunned at how simple and most importantly practical the concept was, and then disappointed beyond belief that such a clearly workable method of creating spacecraft for both deep space and inter-planetary exploration and colonization was killed and pretty much buried (I hadn't heard of it until the Internet era despite being an astronomy buff since elementary school) by political and fear-driven reactions to the first practical peaceful application of nuclear power. Today it would be even easier to assemble thousands of pop-can sized nuclear charges by disarming nuclear warheads for fuel to propel an Orion starship, either manned or unmanned to Alpha Centauri or wherever we want. I still feel frustration every time i see a new video on the lost potential of this type of propulsion. Launch the goddamn thing from the middle of Death Valley, or Alaska or Northern Canada or something where the impact of fallout would be minimal, and totally worth the cost to get mankind to the stars.

There is a story I have heard about one of the early underground test in Nevada. A shaft was dug to place the test bomb straight down. After placement the hole was capped by metal plug. When the detonation happened the only sign of the plug was a single frame of film showing it being launched straight upwards. The calculations at the time suggested that it reached escape velocity.

"A vending machine for atomic bombs." Military: Tell me more.

Someone had to create a whole new box, got into that box, got back out of it, built another box, and then had to think outside that...totally forgetting which box they started in.

I love this project, the estimated speeds are amazing, and with modern technology it can get even faster. Launch them from the moon though. No fallout to worry about, no EMP pulse destroying satellites. Also Freeman Dyson knew all about the negatives of nuclear fallout, it was the main factor in developing Orion. He wanted to get worldwide deaths per launch down to less than 6, and he/they got close. Edit: The nukes were directional (towards the pusher plate) and augmented with plastic explosives. Hence the fallout was much less than you would expect, and much more energy efficient.

I’d still really love to see a video on the Hong Kong International Airport!! The fact that they essentially built a whole island almost from scratch, the massive infrastructure projects including the Tsing Ma bridge just to get to the airport, and that all was rushed to be completed before the UK handed off Hong Kong to the Chinese government would make it a perfect mega project!!!

Whatever its problems, Project Orion was absolutely the best use for atomic bombs yet devised.

7:52 ~10% the speed of light is 30,000 km/s not 30,000 m/s. We can achieve 30km/s with normal chemical rockets

Project Orion and Project Daedalus have been favorites of mine ever since I learned of them from Carl Sagan on the original 'Cosmos' television show.

I cannot LIKE this video enough! Orion is my absolute favourite spacecraft, we should never have stopped developing it. It's still currently the only spacecraft we can make that could deflect an Earth-crossing asteroid. And the only viable way to get past Mars in any reasonable length of time in a manned spacecraft.

A full size model of the third version still exists in La Jolla in San Diego county. It is now the dining hall of the old General Dynamics building which was the same diameter as the proposed living quarters on the space rocket. You can see it from Torrey Pines road.

I suggested this one a few weeks ago. Cool!

1:20 - Chapter 1 - Early ideas 4:30 - Chapter 2 - The theory 6:50 - Chapter 3 - Design 8:50 - Chapter 4 - Troubles begins 10:55 - Chapter 5 - The end 12:50 - Chapter 6 - Our last hope ?

only thing more immense than Orion : Freeman Dyson's mind

Aliens: Greetings, we come in peace. Humans: So, how’d you get here? Aliens: Nuclear bombs. Humans: Doh!

The Canadian Avro Arrow would make a great topic for one of the channels!!!

The SpaceX Starship rocket currently in development is super interesting, both in the methods of construction and their future plans to go to Mars. You should definitely look into that.

Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular Speaking of deep holes, how about the Kidd Mine as well?

The idea of the Ford Nucleon seems crazy and outside-the-box, and, well ambitious. There should be an episode on it!

I love how much space stuff you've been covering on all your channels

Assuming it's considered a megaproject, I would love to see a video on the Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars Program) :D

Government funding guy - “And the power-plant?” Smiling scientist - “A nuclear Gatling gun” Me looking at my motorcycle - “hmmm”

One of these ships figured promenently in the science fiction book "Foot Fall" by larry Niven and Jerry Pernell.

Plenty of people pointing out certain facts that were not entirely correct but the idea of self is fascinating! Thank you for making this.

At one time during the production of the motion picture *2OO1:A SPACE ODYSSEY,* the spaceship _DISCOVERY ONE_ was going to be propelled by nuclear pulse propulsion, a.k.a. PROJECT ORION. However, either because it would be too difficult to show such a system operating on film -- OR because it might resemble too closely the ending of Kubrick's previous film, DR STRANGELOVE {or BOTH} -- the idea was dropped. Arthur C. Clarke wrote about this in his nonfiction book, "THE LOST WORLDS OF 2OO1," which chronicles the development of the _novel_ of *2OO1,* as well as the movie.

They had working subscale prototypes that actually few maybe 100ft. There is video you can find on youtube of slomow explosions happening behind this bell shaped object. The Coca-Cola company was contracted to figure out how to rabidly line up and expel the nukes out the bottom because they figured the process might be very similar to bottles on an assembly line. Kennedy killed the project because he was shown a prototype of the Orion vehicle kitted out as a space battleship with actual naval turrets and it terrified him. He didn't want to weaponize space and saw his generals as war mongers.

Suggestions for Mega Projects- the longest permanent floating/pontoon bridge in the world- the State Route 520 Floating bridge crossing Lake Washington in the US State of Washington. WA has the 1,2,3, and 5 longest floating bridges in the world... The Pontoons for the 520 bridge were cast on the WA pacific coast in Aberdeen, and in Puget Sound in Tacoma, and consequently towed to the site via the Ballard Locks and Ship Canal...

Scientists: we need a efficient and powerful way to propel our rockets U.S: NUKE

Yes, on the topic of out of the box thinkers.. Dyson (who thought up wraping a star system with solar collectors, and ridding a string of Hbombs between the stars) has to be top,of the list!

Something not quite brought across by the video is how Orion would truly revolutionize interplanetary travel. Mars in weeks, Saturn in a few months. And these things would have been great honking battleships: it's actually easier to build a big Orion than a little one. So there would have been plenty of room for people and cargo. Also, it was not quite as simple as chucking a bomb out the back and hoping for the best. The individual bomb canisters were guns of a sort (or perhaps you could say bullet cartridges,) that fired vaporized tungsten at the pusher plate. Without a material to transfer the energy, exploding bombs behind the ship would have been much less effective in space.

The first sustained nuclear chain-reaction did not take place until 1942, plenty of nuclear "reactions" were achieved prior to Chicago Pile-1, just in smaller laboratory scales.

Still waiting for the space elevator to get its own episode

When hostile alien elephants come to attack Earth, this will be how we fight back.

A much more practical way of harnessing nuclear energy for interstellar travel would be a ship that used a nuclear reactor to generate the electricity to run an ion drive. It would have to be launched using traditional rocket engines or put together in orbit.

Oooooo is semi on time to this one ☝️!! 🎉 🎈 🎊 love your videos on all 400 of your channels Simon 😍 😆

Your units at 7:52 are off; c = 300,000 km/s so 10% of that is 30,000 km/s not m/s

I just wish NASA hadn't reused the Orion name for its current manned moon project. It just confuses the discussion. While this Project Orion is unlikely to ever to be more than fantasy, is sure is a neat way to move huge masses quickly. A ship the size of the Empire State Building sounds much more comfy than the typical chemical rocket ships that you see.

So I just found and subscribed to your channel today. I'm definitely enjoying your space/rocket related videos (I'm a huge space and star trek nerd.) I know they would probably be more theoretical, but i hope to see more space related megastructre videos. Thanks for making my afternoon :)

I always like these videos. I am getting used to how they rarely have 'models' or 'drawings' or 'concept art' of what Simon is talking about. Sometimes this show might as well be a podcast I guess.

The Alcubierre Drive is a pretty interesting idea.

Very enjoyable! The Coca-Cola company was engaged to design the bomb delivery mechanism, and Ford were consulted about the design of the huge shock-absorbers needed to catch and transmit the shock wave from the plasma created by the explosion behind the pusher plate. As a complement to this video, what about looking into the NERVA project?

The vending machine analogy was very true...Coca-Cola was consulted on the ejector mechanism used in the small tests done with conventional explosives seen in the archive footage.

This video brings back memories of sitting in a (mini) lecture about Project Orion... I still have copies of documentation relating to this endevour.

Simon, you have honestly the best final words on any videos in KZfaq. They are turely inspiring

@Megaprojects - You should look into the Sea Dragon rocket that was conceptualized in the 60's and do a Megaproject on it. It would've been MASSIVE being able to lift 550,000kg into LEO! It was designed to be launched submerged in the ocean with only the payload being above the waterline. A lot of it's design is can now be seen in the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy and it's predecessor the Interplanetary Transport System.

Can we have "Armageddon 2 - Orion Project" with Robert Pattinson, Will Smith and Vin Diesel?

In one of the prequel books to the Ender's Game series that's how the alien Invaders propel their giant spaceship. They don't really care about what they fly by so they end up just blowing up a bunch of human space stations with small nuclear blasts as they go by

So Simon what about a video of the vw beetle

I have one for you Simon. How about a Mega Project on a micro scale ? When I first read Michio Kaku's book on twenty-first sciences there was a passage about data-compression. In effect it stated that the vast majority of the worlds physicists were convinced that humanity wasn't clever enough to go below thirty nano-meters with electron gate. I knew at once that they were wrong. And that we could go to atomic level. I wrote the Pentagon several times and gave them, and more than a few other people in the government, the idea for how we could accomplish this. Two years later the ''European Bio-Informatics Institute'' announced that they had achieved two nano-meter data compression. Which is a very neat trick indeed. All the worlds Holy Books, and the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, along with all the works of William Shakespeare, and other sundry items. Were reduced in size and layed upon something no larger than a tiny, almost invisible mote of dust, which was then sealed in a bottle. This porof of concept was then shipped to another professor inside a small glass vial. Would you do a video on how they did so ? I know they followed the example set by human DNA. It was, after all, my idea. But I simply had the vision for it, and just whispered in someones ear what direction they should follow. But what of the nuts and bolts in that process ? How did they do it ? If they come calling. I think I know how we can accomplish atomic level data compression. So I have something more left to give. Thank you and the team. Love this show & Side Projects. All the best to you and yours.

JFK: we must explore space American Scientists and Engineers: Project Orion JFK: not like that

I was wondering when you’d get to this. 🤣 Also, Simon, your dry delivery is perfect for how absurd this whole thing was. But like space elevators, this is one of those things that are mad, but might actually be useful.

a video about the Supersonic Low Altitude Missile would be interesting and/ or the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) projects

You should do a video on Toronto's Skydome (now Rogers Centre). At the time of it's opening it was the first stadium with a retractable roof, and is home to Canada's only MLB team. Or maybe Alberta oil sands, over a trillion barrels of oil untapped, and extremely hard to process. But we built massive facilities to do so. Or West Edmonton Mall which was the largest mall in the world at the time. It also has a theme hotel, amusement park, water park, multiple food courts and restaurants, driving range, shooting range and bungee jumping to name a few things.

Freeman Dyson was a fascinating, brilliant nutbar. I like the mix, but I think not too much into the theoretical, this had enough work done on it to make it interesting.

Amazing video! I'd heard of this in passing based on various sci-fi things but never knew how closely rooted in reality it really was.

Superb as always✌️. How about a look at Live Aid from 1985?

I clearly remember seeing this in some science magazine in the middle of the 80's as the future of space exploration. Images of mars domes and all... 😅

Do a Megaprojects on James Webb Space Telescope?

I absolutely love this! If you want another fun nuclear powered video try looking up the SSC-X-9 SKYFALL: A Nuclear Powered Nuclear Cruise Missile!

"Ok hear me out... What if we could have a KZfaq where you wake up in the morning with a Simon Whistler video, take lunch with another Simon Whistler Video And Go to bed with yet another Simon Whistler Video".. oh wait , we already have it!

You did the ISS, you did Skylab how about mir or the salyut stations.

I clicked on the video when it had 68 views. Nice. Nice video too, Simon

For the record I'm pretty sure most people planned on launching the project in parts with chemical rockets so the only fallout would be in space

That's what you get when you give LSD to a bunch of scientists.

Mr. Whistler: Before my screed, I am grateful to the sponsors for this and all the other programs you manages to produce. Think what it would look like without them. (THE GREAT VOID). >>As for nucs as engines, I am a layman, and only remember the horror of the bombs and all the politicking and bally-hoo that grips us. But once in space, if good hearted women and men can get their collectivity in gear, let us all be happi-fied. >>And as for ideas, I like this direction of "Megaprojects To Be." The proof of your genius is the burgeoning gang of competitors who are on the Tube (don't stare googly-eyed at them, leap forward to success -- there is a brain under that scalp, old boy). >>Lastly, here in the States, PU-l,ease get out the vote!! It is so important in this cycle. >>Warmly Yada, Yada, Yada

Granola Munchin Tree Humper: "We need an energy solution to replace fossil fuels..." (YES, we do, I know) Science: "The only option available in the alotted time frame, at that scale, is nuclear energy" Granola Munchin Tree Humper: "Nope, no way. I can't see past the stigma to accept the only feasible way" ... we're never getting nuclear anything :(

one of the ones ive been waiting for orion was great

Would really be keen on a video about “startram” the use of maglev tech with launching vehicles to the atmosphere

Project NERVA. :) . Not sure, but I think Project Orion led to much breakthrough in Shock Absorbers as well as Ablation. ... This wasn't purely theoretical: they physically proved the concept with that model using conventional explosives. :P

NASA: This is blasphemy. This is madness! Dyson: Madness? THIS IS ORION!

You want some real Cold War nuke weirdness check out Project Plowshare. The idea was to use nuclear bombs in construction projects. Artificial harbors, canals mines and fracking. Yes the original mechanism for fracking involved nuclear bombs. My personal favorite was what would have been the first fusion powerplant. Dig a deep hole, lower a hydrogen bomb down it, detonate it, pump in water into the now very hot hole and extract the steam for power generation. When it starts to run out of heat just drop another nuke down the hole. Our grandparents were fucking crazy.

There were several developments from Project Orion, whose technical details remain classified. Casaba Howitzer is one. What little detail I've been able to find, describes it as a kind of nuclear shaped charge. Apparently it's a variation on the pusher charges designed for the Orion pulse rockets. The pusher charges themselves were a kind of diffuse shaped charge, that focused the blast in a sort of lozenge shape. This would increase the propulsion force, while enabling the use of smaller bombs.

This premise was used but not shown in Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey. The scorch marks on the the engines of Discovery were from nuke explosions for propulsion.

we used nukes for mining, with plans to divert rivers for aquaducts with nukes. this was quickly abandoned, after measuring nuclear fallout and contamination of the minerals to be mined, and the water to be delivered to cities. project orion (and the tzar-bomb) extends the fallout-problem to the whole atmosphere. clean-nuclear-bombs never happened, but where dreamed about. project orion is feasible and simple and it scales VERY nicely up to city-size, BUT it completely kills the atmosphere.

Miguel Alcubierre Warp drive. Theoretical at this time, but for how long?

This was the method of launching Ark 3 towards Jupiter in Stephen Baxter's Ark novel. A dope read.

I watched a documentary about this project. The biggest problem was how to make a lot of small and very cheap nuclear bombs.. and they had the formula. It is said that the formula is even today inside Freeman Dyson`s safe, and not even his son has seen it. You can guess the reasons why.

Love space-related megaprojects, any chance of a video on Orbital elevators, and/or colonies like the O'Neill cylinder?

Coke cola actually helped in the design of the feeding system for the bombs

Always loved this project. The engines could have been used in space. Final killed off by the by Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty. The idea was used in a modified form by the British Interplanetary Society Project Daedalus.

Orion was ahead of its time. This is not the sort of vehicle that you would launch from Earth but rather in space. This is the sort of thing that you build once you have already established a significant presence in space.

30's - 60's the golden age of mad scientist's, those were good times (pls make a video of the SU-47 Berkut)

Hey Simon! You should look at Denver International Airport! It’s the second largest airport in the world, fifth busiest in the USA and one of the busiest in the world! I think it would be worth a video for sure, especially considering all the conspiracy theories behind it... Just a thought!

Hi Simon, can you do a video on "Project Habakkuk". I mean it was after all an insane idea. Also, I do find your contents ("All of them"), very very interesting and informative. Looking forward to you new video. Love from INDIA.

Cover the Libyan "Great man-made river", irrigation systems are cool.

The best part was left out. They weren't just nukes, they were nuclear *shaped charges* to increase efficiency.

Look up the Niven & Pournelle book 'Footfall' - one of these was made and armed with space shuttles and piloted battleship gun barrels full of rocket and weapon kit - to save the earth from Alien invasion!

Hey, Simon and the team, I would like to suggest an episode of megaprojects about the Ellora caves, although we have limited knowledge about them they are an INCREDIBLE project and works of art. I hope you guys read this!

The only thing we got out of Project Orion was the PEZ dispenser.

This isn't absurd or lunacy, it is probably our future. It is our best way to get to speeds that would allow Humans to become interstellar.

an idea for a theoretical mega project: have you heard of the 'Aldrin cycler'?

Project Orion for the win!

There was also a plan to assemble the "space ship" in outer space using conventional launch vehicles to deliver the constituent parts, thus saving earth's atmosphere from potential nuclear contamination.

I watched a documentary about this a while ago. It claimed that after the project was shelved Dyson had 24 hour security for the rest of his life. Because he knew how to make almost suitcase sized nukes he was considered a kidnapping risk from groups with nefarious agendas.

8:16 "Imagine a large scale vending machine... for atomic bombs" what a statement. No matter with or without context it still sounds very strange lol

well what can I say I'm blown away :)

I reckon a nice Megaprojects wrap up of Martian colonisation concepts would be compelling