Research and testing facilities

All engines are tested extensively on static test beds before they are put in service(). An extreme example, the Orion nuclear fission pulse vehicle, designed in the early 1960s by General Atomic, included plans for a number of test facilities(). These would have allowed for the testing of complete engine assemblies using conventional explosive charges and, eventually, a nuclear charge.

Declassified drawings for full scale test installations of 10m Orion, by General Atomic, March 1964. The first installation shown is for preliminary tests using conventional explosives, the second one is for a full scale nuclear test in a vacuum chamber. (8)

The engines required for Interstellar starships will need to be tested as well, and will probably require some kind of space construction for full scale tests. Icarus Firefly’ drive system, for example, is over 50m long, requires a near perfect vacuum and creates unacceptable levels of radiation for thousands of kilometers around it. It is also too fragile for Earth, but might be built on The Moon. An asteroid might provide the best emplacement, particularly if it was close enough to the sun to get substantial solar power from photoelectric arrays to power the drive for the tests.

The test stands for pellet based propulsion systems might be simpler to build than continuous fusion ones, and would resemble working fusion reactors, although full flow operation at hundreds of explosions per second might be more than what Earth based facilities could handle.

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