Agreed.    
   People were up in arms about using a nuclear pulse Orion drive for boosting   
   payload from Earth's surface into orbit. Something about detonating hundreds   
   of small nuclear bombs in the atmosphere alarmed them. ;)   
      
   Zubrin's infamous nuclear salt-water rocket is much worse, since it is a   
   *continuously detonating* nuclear explosion drive.   
      
   But having said that, if you want a torch drive (defined as a rocket engine   
   with both high specific impulse and high thrust) then Zubrin's NSWR is the   
   closest thing we have to a theoretically possible engine. Even if many   
   scientists say "Zubrin, I think    
   you should be more explicit here in step two..."   
   http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php#nswr   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)