Another problem, the genius (Ted Taylor) who designed very small nuclear warheads at the time refused to participate, leaving the Orion without propulsion.
Had this concept been followed through, we would have gotten to the Moon in a few more years, but with a ship able to carry a crew of 200, not 3. These ships work better the bigger they are, so in the design, the hull would have had a casing of water on the inside, protecting against cosmic rays and providing the crew with hot showers on demand for any length of time.
Their motto was "Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970". Instead, the option was taken to kill the program and go with a politically correct and very flawed design because it was quick and dirty, getting only a handful of men to the Moon, never to return.
1958 test video. At around the 1.40 mark the explosive charge is visible dropping from the pusher plate, and then detonating.
Here's the actual history of the project - as told by Arthur Clark - very inspiring period in our history.
Here's Freeman Dyson who actually designed the concept, and was the real force - not the bomb designer, Tyler.
Here's Michio Kaku (a full blown ardent leftist) explaining the costs in terms of human body weight of space programs. He then goes on to poo-poo the whole idea of nuclear bomb propulsion, since "terrorists" could get and use the small bombs. Michio Kaku was instrumental (by his own admission) in getting Ted Taylor to quit bomb designing - Ted was making 3rd generation thermonuclear bombs when he quit.
At about here it should be noted that just before the project was closed down, the design for an interstellar version with a crew of thousands was finalized. The ship would have been able to hit half light speed, making it possible for us to go to another star.
PROJECT ORION ANIMATION - an old animation - some of the better ones seem to have been taken down.
I hope that these men had a good enough grasp of physics to please everyone with concerns about who-knows-what in physics, as well as the actual economics involved in space flight - with the Orion ship being the cheapest by miles.
Economics isn’t just the cost, but also includes “ROE” as in what do you get for your money.
Answer: Nothing you couldn’t get right here on earth for about .0001% of the cost of getting it in space.
Nothing in space valuable enough to justify the cost of getting it.
I notice space kadets are hot to spend other peoples’ money on their pipe dreams (You’ll note the phrase “we should spend...” In most of their posts). In reality they aren’t any different at all from liberals wanting to loot the hard working taxpayers to finance their fantasies. Only the fantasies differ.