From: Alberto Monteiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Bryon Daly wrote: > > Couldn't Orion be assembled in orbit to avoid the > atmosphere effects? It certainly would be far far > more expensive to do that way, but if the > atmospheric detonations are the biggest hitch... > The whole point of this Orion thing is to put stuff into orbit. Going from ground to orbit is harder than going from orbit to escape speed
I certainly see the benefit of that, but I had thought the big point of Orion was that the relative
weight efficiency of its propulsion method (vs. say, rocket fuel) made more/longer acceleration
(and thus higher travel speeds) possible, enabling interplanetary (and interstellar) exploration.
I think I've seen Orion pitched as a way to reach a nontrivial fraction of light speed (IIRC, > 10%)
for a mission to another star.
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