If you like Project Orion, you might like to read about the Medusa Drive, which is a related, but probably more promising concept using a sail instead of a giant pusher plate.
Medusa Drive is interesting, and so are lots of other space propulsion idea, like the nuclear light bulb [1], the direct fusion drive [2], the fission fragment rocket [3] or the pulse nuclear thermal rocket [4]. The difference is that Project Orion was actually funded, and some of the smartest nuclear scientists worked on it for a few years. Of course, they never built the actual rocket, but they carried out a tremendous amount of theoretical and experimental work. All other designs were only done on paper. For Project Orion, they put actual spheres coated in graphite next to nuclear bombs to see if they withstand the explosion, while being inside the fireball. They did, and Scott Manley covered this in one of his youtube videos [5] (see 9:30 where he mentions the Orion project). They got a little island from the Navy where they could carry explosive tests. They built a conventionally powered version of the rocket. They found out by accident that adding a bit of oil on the pusher plate reduces the ablation significantly. They did a lot of testing to see if the pusher plate can withstand the various stresses. When someone comes up with a new idea for interstellar travel, they spend a few days thinking of a few aspect of the design, and then they publish a paper or write a novel. For Project Orion, they hired Ted Taylor, one of the greatest minds in nuclear weapons design, and they also hired Freeman Dyson, one of the greatest minds in the world in general.
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2012/07/20/medusa-nuclear-pu...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DYuBt2nFG98