Project Orion. To Mars by A Bomb

[Chorlton]

Watched a prog on TV last night, To Mars- By A Bomb.
Fascinating. At first I thought the whole thing was a joke, then realised these people were serious. How the hell dod they think theye were going to steer or direct the thing?

I founf this beloe, on the web though there is some other stuff around

http://www.islandone.org/Propulsion/ProjectOrion.html

[Cogburn]

Here's the propulsion system, straight from NASA.

This information is nearly 10 years old. Might be a good jumping off point for more research.

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20000097368_2000138015.pdf

The primary effort must be made to examine the potential
for EPPP. The first is the communication to the many
existing technology research entities the basic operational
premises of external pulse operation and how their existing
work can be of assistance to proving or disproving various
EPPP approaches. Generation of published papers on specific
EPPP aspects and in-depth trade studies of ,,ehicle
configurations are paramount. Unlike most space propulsion
modes which have been studied extensively (i.e., nuclear
thermal, gas core. solar electric, advanced chemical to name a
few), EPPP has had no direct research other than the 1958
ORLON program and a dozen papers over the past 30 years. It
should be a clear recommendation that the vast array of
configurations EPPP can take, should be fully explored in
future work by a variety of researchers, scientists and engineers.
Future work planned within the MSFC Propulsion
Research Center is comprised of both system studies and
experimental hardware testing. A more defined vehicle and
mission analysis is planned to validate beamed propellant
methodologies. The development of carbon fiber shock
absorbers is underway and testing is expected in September
2000. A push for advanced chemical explosive research is
expected to begin within the next year as well.

[Chorlton]

But what stunned me was that the origins of the project went back to the late 50's, and a lot of it is still classified.