This is a short video presentation from the 2007 TED Conference by George Dyson (son of physicist Freeman Dyson). The elder Dyson was part of a project that fascinated the son and became a lifelong interest - Project Orion.
Project Orion was a nuclear powered spacecraft that would cruise between planets - powered by nuclear warheads impacting a massive inertial plate. Liftoff to low Earth orbit would be catastrophic for life on Earth, but interplanetary travel via nukes was considered safe enough.
Not to spoil the video, but the project never got far off the ground. There were ground tests with conventional explosives, but thankfully the full concept was never funded. Then, 40 years later, NASA resurrects the concept. Be slightly afraid.
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