Spaceship - Orion (takeoff)

Another insane spaceship project from the 60s : using nuclear warhead to propel a spaceship (fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet_O…)

Most of the design of this spaceship is conceived to dampen the initial shock of the explosion of several (read: Lot of) kiloton nuclear warheads. I don't joke, this is a feasible project!

Well it would have several issue, like stockpiling several thousands of nuclear warheads, diplomatic conundrums when trying o land on a foreign planet, insane acceleration for crew quarters and oh... Fallouts. Lots of it. Yikes!

To be fair, as a strictly interstellar spaceship, it would work. Some issues, like the degradation of the dampening plate or the acceleration bursts are surprisingly easy to resolve.

Pencil doodle on A6 sketchbook