In defense of the manhole cover, it certainly lost some of its energy to the atmosphere and certainly got very hot, but... it did all that for a very short time, so, maybe, with some luck, it did clear the atmosphere and is on its merry way to some other planetary system.
In any case, since we had demonstrated high-g for centrifugal launches, we might want to consider explosive launches, nuclear or otherwise.
The bad idea of the Orion is that it requires a continuous train of nuclear explosions from the surface up to the ionosphere with a payload the weight of an aircraft carrier.
I was thinking much smaller payloads that could better withstand the acceleration - this is essentially a canon.
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[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 24.9 ms ] threadIn any case, since we had demonstrated high-g for centrifugal launches, we might want to consider explosive launches, nuclear or otherwise.
Project Orion: nuclear pulse rocket
also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXeUkrlxQ98
wait until Elon hears about this!
I was thinking much smaller payloads that could better withstand the acceleration - this is essentially a canon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Research_Corporation