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Comment by legrande | Hacker News Reader

I always wondered, did we put the nukes on the wrong end of the rockets? I mean a nuclear warhead can cause serious damage, but if you put it behind a rocket for controlled propulsion, we can explore deep space, which is better. Why go to war when we can become space faring instead? It's much more humane, civilized, and less embarrassing as a species.

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As I understand , nuclear power wasn't used for space exploration mostly for political reasons. It's considered quite unpopular to put nuclear engines which fly above people heads. There are therefore a lot of regulations for the use of nuclear propulsion, which has discouraged its use for now.

Well, political reasons generally, and the Partial Test Ban treaty in particular. It turns out there's really good reasons to limit the number of bombs detonated in the atmosphere, and for that matter the number of bombs, period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...

Atomic engines wouldn't really accelerate space development all that much. I don't see a world where telecommunications, computers and robotics advance any faster than the one we're in from a 1960s starting point. And we're only just getting to the point where automated manufacturing is advanced enough that space industry seems like almost maybe viable. Even if atomic engines let people in the 70s put more mass into orbit, they wouldn't really have the tech to do much productive with it.

Plus, a rocket with a nuke on the other end can still destroy a city if you point it in the right direction. There's no such thing as an unarmed spaceship.

>Why go to war when we can become space faring instead?

Because going to war can benefit you and / or harm your enemies. There's not much to do out in space compared to our home planet.

Because space settlement could pose a threat to you guys, I mean the US, and also because of cosmic radiation. Habitats with thick enough shield are way too impractical to launch from down here, and must be somehow constructed in space, which is hard.

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