Recently, Kev posted:

Montblack wrote:
("Danny Deger" wrote)
You can not be any more wrong about this. In space craft design,
weight is EVERYTHING.

For getting your payload (one time) up to space, after that weight
is much less of an issue. g

But then there was the infamous Project Orion in the '50s, which was a
spaceship designed to be pushed along by multiple atomic blasts. It
was envisioned to hold 200 crew, weigh thousands of tons, and be able
to get to Mars and back in four weeks (!!!). I think they planned to
use two Saturn V's to launch it, in case people objected to using the
atomic blasts inside the atmosphere.

IIRC, Project Orion intended to launch from Earth with successive atomic
blasts, as well. Interesting what can be imagined when one is unencumbered
by reality.

Neil