From: Ellen K. 

How would they keep the environment controlled enough to keep doing one
every half second?

On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 18:53:18 -0500, "Steve Ewing"
 wrote in message
:

>On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 19:37:35 -0500, Geo  wrote:
>
>> I'm not against the space station or developing new engines to move us
>> out into space.
>
>This month's Discover mag has an article about the old "nuclear bomb
>drive".  I had heard of it, of course, and thought it certainly feasible,
>but upon reading the article realized for the first time that they had
>intended to take off from Earth!!  I had imagined a construction-in-space
>deal, but they were proposing to raise this 10,000 ton behemoth to space
>using "little" atom bombs:
>
>http://www.discover.com/issues/feb-05/features/grandest-rocket-ever/
>===
>Propulsion would come from nuclear detonations at half-second intervals,
>the yield increasing as the atmosphere decreased. The first 200
>explosions, providing a combined yield equivalent to 100,000 tons of TNT,
>would lift the ship from sea level to 125,000 feet. Each additional kick
>would add about 20 miles per hour to the ship’s velocity. After 600 more
>explosions, the ship would be lofted into a 300-mile orbit around Earth.
>===

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