The idea that man could fly to Pluto and return within a year is not just an idea, but fact. Project Orion is the high performance method of space flight, making speeds as fast as 10% the speed of light possible for manned missions. Harnessing the power of nuclear blasts to provide propulsion for massive space craft would make our solar system a much smaller place, with unmanned missions capable of achieving a theorized 50-80% the speed of light.
Project Orion never came to be, unfortunately, as lifting an Orion spaceship off the ground into low level orbit would require 300 nuclear blasts, beginning at ground level and working their way up to 300 miles high. The partial nuclear test ban treaty of the 1960's ruined any chance Project Orion ever had of taking off. A few signatures, some hand shakes and some smiles for the camera's put an end to mans ability to travel hundreds of millions of miles through space in a single day. Until man becomes fascinated with the idea of stepping foot on other planets, the project will never be. Perhaps in the future, man will be interested in walking on Pluto, and Mars. Until then, they will remain tiny dots in the night sky, forever waiting our arrival.
Life has the amazing ability to survive in any situation you place it in. Man, being the tool user, could build a habitable base on every planet, requiring only single trips to transport all his materials. When our planet is ravaged by global warming and famine, we'll have nowhere to go but skyward. Project Orion will be our last great hope for survival when our home can no longer support us. Maybe this won't occur for thousands of years, maybe we'll be long extinct by that time. The fact of the matter is this: One day, we will inhabit more than one planet, and Project Orion will make it happen.
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