One of my favorite books, perhaps the best 'alien invasion' book. What an inspiring movie it would make with digital effects!
Also can recommend Poul Anderson's novel Orion Shall Rise.

That video made me think of "The Honeymooners" that I used to watch as an allosaur chick. All I had to do was type "bang zoom" and I was there with a video likely just as old as the inspiration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98qw86Dsd...

Why not use this differently, fewer bombs, greater acceleration per bomb, optimized for moving heavy equipment and materials into space. The "other" space elevator. Launch thousands of tons (insert real # here) of steel, plastic, composites, etc, into space for construction of manufacturing equipment in space, or a giant shipyard for an even more massive space ship.

Heck, make it the Enterprise:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...

There's got to be a way to make a "clean" fusion bomb. Lasers to ignite hydrogen pellets, or something, I don't know.

One flaw in the Orion concept was that because of the radiation released, it couldn't be safely used for ground launch. The other flaw was in the use of Earth testing data with conventional explosives to project performance in space. Firing explosives in Earth's atmosphere behind the vehicle was enhanced by the air compressed by the explosive acting as a pressure chamber, keeping most of the thrust behind the vehicle, but when fired in the vacuum of space, with no atmospheric resistance, the effective thrust would be a great deal less due to explosive force moving in all directions uncontained.

NERVA was actually a nuclear reactor, through which hydrogen fuel was flowed, gaining heat from the reactor before being ejected through a conventional rocket nozzle. While it was tested, and showed the promise of relatively high specific impulse (around 900 sec - twice that of the best chemical engine possible), the expected operating life was uncertain, as the very high temperatures and radiation destroyed seals fairly rapidly. As you state, the exhaust had a high radiation level, and would not be suited for ground launch.

I remember it was called NERVA, for Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application. And it would have worked--but you would never have dared take off on a Nerva engine.

Very interesting. Personally, I have always favored electromagnetic rail guns at least for getting stuff into orbit, however the space elevator is also interesting.