> Instead, Burkey’s model uses a bomb tunes to produce a crazy amount of x-ray radiation which heats up one side of the asteroid. You heat it up so much that the rock liquifies, then bubbles, and outgasses - and forms a propulsive engine, right on the surface, shooting out gaseous ultra-hot rock.

Sounds similar to the ablation ("outwards firing rocket engine") theory for how the secondary gets compressed in a thermonuclear bomb. Pretty cool.