What practical issues might prevent making a conventional-explosives bomb-powered spacecraft?
Project Orion was a project to construct a spacecraft that rode the shockwaves of nuclear blasts as a form of propulsion, but the project was abandoned because of budget cuts, environmental concerns, and the end of the space race.
In my world, a new space race starts between the U.S. and China over lunar recourses; due to China using "pseudo-orion" spacecrafts powered by conventional explosives to "cheaply" go to and from the moon, extracting lunar resources to substantial economic gain. This starts a great space race between two states with similar technological and economic might, causing it to go much , MUCH farther and out of hand than the first one ever did.
My Question:
What practical issues might prevent such a craft from being made?
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