How Do You Think We Can Get To Proxima B?

"What Can Black Holes Be Used For?"

"Scientists Penetrate Mystery of Raging Black Hole Beams"

a reply to: tadaman

Orion got canned because launching it from Earth would be astoundingly impractical, and the technology to assemble it in orbit or on the moon didn't exist (and would still be extremely difficult today). Nuclear is still a very good option, just not in the Orion pulse-drive sense. You want something like a nuclear thermal rocket or electrothermal plasma drive that uses reactor heat to accelerate reaction mass.

For some great reading on this whole subject, I highly recommend poking around the Project Rho/Atomic Rockets. It really digs into the possibilities of things like interstellar drives, space warfare and the like for the hardest of hard scifi.

a reply to: ShadeWolf

That reaction mass becomes problematic no matter how you accelerate it out the back. Because you have to carry a lot of it and the more you carry, the more it takes to get it (and you) moving forward.

a reply to: Phage

Yup, which is why conventional rockets are completely out. Liquid hydrogen is the option I see thrown around most often (or reactionless drives, but we're a bit uncertain on those yet), but more ideally we'd use something that can be replenished along the way somehow. The hydrogen density in our neighbourhood is too low for a pure Bussard fusion ramjet, but I'm curious if it could be magnetically scooped to provide remass?

a reply to: ShadeWolf

The hydrogen density in our neighbourhood is too low for a pure Bussard fusion ramjet, but I'm curious if it could be magnetically scooped to provide remass?

A "pure" Bussard system uses a magnetic field to collect material, yes. But there is still not a lot of stuff between stars, protons or otherwise. Trying to use if for just reaction mass is probably less practical than using it as a fuel source as well.

A lot of space in between here and there so I doubt if any of those satellites will make it to many things could go wrong, I am don't think we will see anything from another solar system or even our great grandchildren.