Author Topic: Pulsed conventional explosive propulsion  (Read 3430 times)

Offline rryan82

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Pulsed conventional explosive propulsion
« on: 10/10/2011 09:05 pm »
I guess this is not "advanced" and has actually been tested (for project orion)

I can't find any information about using conventional explosive to provide
propulsion in space, other than nuclear. Since exploding nukes in space
is not going to happen soon... Man has been very good at building bombs
to blow stuff up, so can't we specifically design ones to produce some
kind of usefull thrust? I guess the thrust-to-weight ratio and yeild of the bombs/explosion will be important factors.

Any thoughts?
« Last Edit: 10/10/2011 11:03 pm by Chris Bergin »

Offline gospacex

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Re: pulsed conventional explosive propulsion
« Reply #1 on: 10/10/2011 09:06 pm »
i guess this is not "advanced" and has actually been tested (for project orion)

i can't find any information about using conventional explosive to provide
propulsion in space, other than nuclear. Since exploding nukes in space
is not going to happen soon... Man has been very good at building bombs
to blow stuff up, so can't we specifically design ones to produce some
kind of usefull thrust? I guess the thrust-to-weight ratio and yeild of the bombs/explosion will be important factors.

Any thoughts?

Already done. SBRs are fueled by essentially finely grained explosives.

Offline douglas100

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Re: pulsed conventional explosive propulsion
« Reply #2 on: 10/10/2011 09:22 pm »
There is a video somewhere of an Orion model (the nuclear Orion that is) being propelled into the air by a series of small explosive charges.
Douglas Clark

Offline douglas100

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Re: pulsed conventional explosive propulsion
« Reply #3 on: 10/10/2011 09:30 pm »
Found the video.



Of historical interest only.
Douglas Clark

Offline jbrooks

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Re: pulsed conventional explosive propulsion
« Reply #4 on: 10/10/2011 10:16 pm »
Using conventional explosives for Orion-style propulsion would be very inefficient.  Nuclear explosives can be used because of their tremendous power - even if you can only use a fraction of the blast (not factoring in loses with the shock absorbers), you still get a massive amount of thrust.

Solid rocket motors, like gospacex said, utilize chemical energy much more efficiently - and even then they have much lower performance than liquids, NTR's or other concepts.


Offline Moe Grills

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Re: pulsed conventional explosive propulsion
« Reply #5 on: 10/10/2011 11:01 pm »
Found the video.



Of historical interest only.


Alas, the 1963 Test-Ban Treaty made it illegal for the USA, the Soviet Union (Russia) and the UK to detonate nukes in space, killing Project Orion.

However, neither China (nor perhaps France) are signatories to that treaty.
And in perhaps another ten years, China may have a SaturnV class HLV capable of launching payloads of over 100 tonnes into LEO.

Could those 100 tonne payloads (one day) be components/parts of a Chinese version of Project Orion?
« Last Edit: 10/10/2011 11:06 pm by Moe Grills »

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