USA planned to Nuke the Moon

By Hum
in Science News & Discussion

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Grand Master

Hum

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In a secret project recently discovered, the United States planned to blow up the moon with a nuclear bomb in the 1950s as a display of the country?s strength during the Cold War space race.

The secret project, called ?A Study of Lunar Research Flights?, as well as ?Project A119? was never carried out but initially intended to intimidate the Soviet Union after their launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, which demonstrated their technological power, the Daily Mail reports.

The sight of a magnificent nuclear flash from Earth was meant to terrify the Soviet Union and boost US confidence, physicist Leonard Reiffel, 85, told the Associated Press. The nuclear device would have been launched from a missile from an unknown location. It would have ignited upon impact with the moon, causing a massive explosion that was visible from Earth.

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The detonation would have been the result of an atom bomb, since a hydrogen bomb was too heavy for a missile to carry the 238,000 miles to the moon.

Astronomer Carl Sagan was responsible for some of the calculations that could cause the nuclear detonation. Sagan, who later became a famous author of popular science, was a young graduate student at the time. He worked as a NASA advisor from the 1950s onward and died in 1996.

One of Sagan?s biographers claims he may have committed a security breach by revealing the classified project in 1959 in his application for an academic fellowship. Reiffel, who once served as deputy director at NASA and was responsible for the nuclear research at the Armour Research Foundation in 1958, confirmed this claim.

In his interview with AP, which took place in the year 2000, Reiffel said the nuclear detonation could have occurred by 1959, which is when the US Air Force deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles. The project documents were kept secret for nearly 45 years and the US government has never formally confirmed its involvement in the study.

But in the end, the mission was abandoned due to safety concerns about the radioactive material that would contaminate space. The scientists were also worried about the bomb detonating prematurely, thereby endangering the people on Earth.

Rather than blow up the moon, the US continued the space race, sending its first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit on Jan. 31, 1958. The project was officially canceled by the Air Force in Jan. 1959, and the US instead focused on sending a man to the moon.

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sagum

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Would have been darkly amusing, if the Moon had broke apart, and big chunks hit Earth. :shifty:

What would have been amusing if the explosion had changed the orbit of the moon, just enough that over the years its created what we think of as global warming. We already know the moon accounts for things like tide and that controls a lot of the earths continental drift's thermodynamics, it'd be funny if it all turned out that the moon landing caused the changes in weather on earth, killing us humans off in less then 200 years. right?

Grand Master

Hum

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The Daily Mail...yeah. BLOW UP THE MOON to scare the USSR? Sure....Hum you need new meds, I can share :rofl:

Ever think to do some Searching before you make instant judgements ?

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Project_A119

http://www.smh.com.a...1128-2aejm.html

Physicist Leonard Reiffel, who was involved with the project, said it would have intimidated the Soviet Union and given the US a morale boost after the Russians successfully launched Sputnik in 1957. Reiffel went on to serve as deputy director at NASA.

Like the revelation this week that Project A119, otherwise known as ''A Study of Lunar Research Flights'', actually existed, and actually got a fair way down the path to implementation. Various respectable news agencies are reporting the great science nerd Carl Sagan, a young science nerd at the time, was involved in the calculations regarding winds, and the projected distribution of dust and gas after the blast.

Leonard Reiffel

Dr. Len Reiffel currently heads three Chicago-based start-ups--Exelar Medical Corporation (www.exelarmedical.com), Luxelar Corporation (www.luxelar.com) and Iron Mount Corporation. His previous entrepreneurial activities have included both privately financed ventures as well as taking one of his companies (Interand Corp.) through the full gamut of development stages to a successful IPO.

Len is a widely-recognized scientist, educator and technical administrator as well as an inventor/entrepreneur. As Deputy Director of NASA's Apollo Program Office (1965-1969), he was the Headquarters executive responsible for all manned lunar experiments and support equipment. He was also the NASA Headquarters person overseeing the lunar landing-site selection process, scientific aspects of astronaut activities, both in-flight and on the lunar surface, and matters of astronaut safety involving a science component such as solar-flare hazards, bio-contamination, lunar surface reactivity and many other such topics. Reiffel also served for several years as the Technical Director of the Interagency Manned Space Flight Experiments Board (NASA, DOD, USAF etc.). While carrying out his NASA responsibilities, Dr. Reiffel concurrently was science consultant and on-air Science Commentator for the CBS Network.

Still waiting on the denials from Carl Sagan's family, and the expected lawsuit ....

post-37120-0-45017000-1354480037.png

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

They wheren't blowing up the moon FFS. They where detonating an atom bomb on the moons surface to demonstrate technological superiority. It would just have resulted an a somewhat spectacular and very short lightshow.

And even then, sending a missile to the moon wouldn't really have impressed anyone at this point.

As for blowing up. Since the moon has no atmosphere, a nuke would have done very limited damage, especially a surface detonation.

Grand Master

Hum

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There's a big difference between blowing up the moon and detonating an atomic bomb on the moon. In one of these scenarios, the moon is destroyed; that is not the scenario that would have ensued had this plan been executed.

You never know -- the Moon is very old -- it might have cracked up into several big asteroid-sized pieces, and came floating to Earth ...

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