[ExI] Hot Rod (was:Nuclear Space)

[John K Clark]

"Bryan Bishop" <kanzure at gmail.com>

> Yes, shouldn't that working model of the original Project Orion be in a
> museum somewhere or up for grabs somehow?

The working model was called "Hot Rod" and was launched in 1959 at
Point Loma California and is now is now in the Smithsonian Air and
Space Museum. It used 6 explosive charges to reach an altitude of
105 meters, the first charge was of black powder but the other 5 were
high explosives, PETN (Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate) .

You can read what George Dyson and his father say about the test flight in
his book, a little is online:

http://books.google.com/books?id=4S2KocYp8AkC&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=orion+explosives+model+%22hot+rod%22&source=web&ots=yQQ9JTzSrr&sig=7i_YeMRWmREqKXp7I9-GqqFzIO0#PPA157,M1

There is also some interesting stuff about Hot Rod at:

http://spacebombardment.blogspot.com/2005/11/project-orion-hot-rod-revisited.html

 John K Clark