Unfortunately, this is probably a good argument against project Orion. Hundreds (thousands?) of tiny nukes going off in LEO would probably also do bad things.
It means Orion has to be built in space and moved away from the planet on some other kind of propulsion before you can start launching nukes, not that Orion is a bad idea...
Except that in this case, you need to put the thing in LEO using several Saturn 5 propellers. And this is so expensive (not too mention the risk) that it basically ruins the whole concept. No, really, I used to like Project Orion too but there's no way it could work. Too dangerous, too expensive. Let's put it to rest, already.
Not everyone on
-brian
And some of us quiet readers just have a lot of respect for guys like you (which is not exactly the same as "idolize").
Why is this RUBBISH on the front page?
Yeah, yesterday, I was just asking myself "Why is this RUBBISH on Ars Technica" ?
actually, it was started by a french whore, and the cheeks were not on someone's face
(Score:3, Informative)... only on Slashdot...
Einstein's House, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, Princeton, New Jersey
Einstein's House in Princeton is nothing special, really. It's just a regular house in dowtown Princeton (Mercer Street) and last I checked, it wasn't open to visits. Besides, it's got absolutely nothing to do with PPPL (Plasma physics lab you mention) which is outside the city center, although a visit to the fusion and other experiments conducted there is also interesting (I used to work there).
I like to build things. I am good at building things. I have no desire and no particular talent for soliciting customers and investors or managing people, infrastructure and money. If I were to start my own business, guess what I would have to spend most of my time doing?
Amen to that. It took me some time to accept it ("What ? Engineer ? Build stuff ? You really don't want to have a career ?"), but I feel exactly the same as you do. Wish I had mod points...
Actually if you want to see a planet you should really be looking down, not up.
Or behind: Uranus is not very far.
Did he even take a glance though? A lot of university folk (esp the PhDs) are so full of themselves they dismiss anything that doesn't match their worldview. I know the kind of people you're talking about, and while many truly are insane, there are a few with good ideas. Heck, Marconi, Tesla, Bell, Wright; at some point they were all considered "insane" by their peers, yet look at us today,
Right, except that usually, nutjobs come with awfully intricate schemes and it takes a lot of time to debunk them by finding where the contradiction(s) with thermodynamics lies. Really, it's not easy, it takes much time and researchers in universities haven't been hired to do this all day long. Actually, those willing tend to do it during their spare time.
Those who can, do; those who can't, write. Those who can't write work for the Bell Labs Record.