Using conventional rocket technology, it is estimated that it would take nearly 165,000 years for a spacecraft to reach Alpha Centauri, the closest planetary system to Earth's Solar System. New research into ion-propulsion systems holds the tantalizing possibility of closing that gap, but in the 1950s, an entirely different rocket-system promised to complete the same trip in only 44 years. In a program code-named Project Orion, it was proposed that spaceships could be sent into the outer reaches of space carrying entire cities using the power of nuclear explosions.

At the core of Project Orion was the idea to place atomic bombs at the tail of a spaceship to blast it into space for interplanetary and interstellar travel. Of the project, physicist Freeman Dyson, who worked on the program extensively, wrote for Quanta Magazine: [QUOTE] “So we would launch the ship into space — bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb — going up about four bombs per second...”

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Dark Space features the mysterious and little told stories of US, Soviet, and global space exploration from the dawn of the space race to today... all in the cinematic short documentary format we love to create. Subscribe today, and feel free to reach out with your own suggestions for new stories that you want us to bring to life. Thanks as always for your support.