Editing 2423: Project Orion
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete|Created by a FADED PHYSICIST. More on the title text project. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
− | + | White Hat and Cueball are having a conversation. In the first panel, Cueball is telling White Hat about his gardening experiences. White Hat tunes out for the middle two panels, and when he starts paying attention again, Cueball is discussing {{w|Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)|Project Orion}}. | |
− | + | Project Orion was an ambitious plan to launch enormous spaceships into orbit by detonating a series of nuclear bombs below them. The force from the explosions would be absorbed by a pusher plate on the bottom of the rocket, which is the detail Cueball is sharing when White Hat tunes back in. It was considered feasible for construction, but abandoned out of concerns for both cost and the idea of spaceships literally armed with atomic bombs. People probably daydream about this project because it seems like it could provide for rapid and massive entry into space, but was halted due to the intense danger. We likely have had sufficient technology for some time now to, with extensive additional engineering, somehow make this safe, but the space of risk is still so large and with such intense impact that such things are not allowed to happen. | |
− | The | + | The fact that physicists' conversations tend to converge towards Project Orion is similar to how Randall's conversations tend to converge towards carcinization in [[2418: Metacarcinization]]. This may turn out to be part of a series, similarly to the scaled world series, that will show similar examples in other fields, such as meteorologists' conversations converging toward tornadogenesis, mathematicians' conversations converging toward the Riemann hypothesis, or Randall's conversations converging toward raptors. |
− | Project Orion has been mentioned before, in [[786: Exoplanets]], where Beret Guy sums it up as "nuke-riding city ships" | + | The title text transitions to another cool nuclear rocket tech, [http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist2.php#fissionfragment dusty plasma fission fragment rockets]. |
+ | |||
+ | Project Orion has been mentioned before, in [[786: Exoplanets]], where Beret Guy sums it up as "nuke-riding city ships." | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :[Cueball is raising his arm, holding the hand | + | :[Cueball is raising his arm, holding the hand titled down with palm up towards White Hat. Above them is the words Cueball says (without a speech line). the first three lines in normal font, but then it fades to lighter and lighter gray and finally in the fourth line after the first three, just above their heads, it is almost white.] |
:Cueball: Our garden grew really well last year, so we think we might put a second raised bed along the garage, if we can find a... | :Cueball: Our garden grew really well last year, so we think we might put a second raised bed along the garage, if we can find a... | ||
− | :[Only White Hat is shown, | + | :[Only White Hat is shown, no text, he stares away from where Cueball must be.] |
− | :[Only White Hat again, | + | :[Only White Hat again, he now seems to look straight out of the panel.] |
− | :[Back to the original setting. Cueball has lifted both hands up in front of him. He once again has the attention of White Hat. The text above begins with a line | + | :[Back to the original setting. Cueball has lifted both hands up in front of him. He once again has the attention of White Hat. The text above begins with half a line under the top of the panel, almost white, and then the text fades back to black font over the next three lines, with the last line in his first paragraph all black. And then a small speech line between this and the last two lines of text in his second paragraph. This time with a speech line down to Cueball. The text to the first comma is difficult to read as only bottom half is shown, and in faded font.] |
− | :Cueball: ...thanks to X ray ablation, the pusher plate would absorb the nuclear blast, recoil, and then return to position for the next bomb. | + | :Cueball: ...thanks to X-ray ablation, the pusher plate would absorb the nuclear blast, recoil, and then return to position for the next bomb. |
:Cueball: Such a wild idea! Probably good that it was abandoned. | :Cueball: Such a wild idea! Probably good that it was abandoned. | ||
− | :[Caption below the panel | + | :[Caption below the panel] |
:If you temporarily tune out while a physicist is talking, when you tune back in they'll be talking about Project Orion. | :If you temporarily tune out while a physicist is talking, when you tune back in they'll be talking about Project Orion. | ||
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[[Category:Physics]] | [[Category:Physics]] | ||
[[Category:Space]] | [[Category:Space]] | ||
+ | [[Category:Convergence]] |