US Air Force Had Plans to Nuke The Moon!!

The U.S. Air Force developed a top-secret Cold War plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon in the 1950s.

In a letter to the journal Nature, physicist Leonard Reiffel, leader of the effort which was called Project A 119, wrote that the Air Force wanted to explore the effects of exploding a nuclear bomb on the moon’s face. The Air Force wanted the explosion to be clearly visible from Earth.

Part of the team researching the hypothetical explosion was a young Carl Sagan, who was recruited to study how the mushroom cloud would expand and collapse under the moon’s lighter gravity.

To what extent can we humans go to? What a sick idea! And that to from the US Air Force! Don't these guys go through psychological tests before selection into the uniformed services?

Here..

[edit on 18-11-2006 by mikesingh]

I wonder what they were planning to prove by doing that? Ahh... the "man in the moon" was a terrorist, too.

First of read the entire story

Second , read it in the correct historical context, instead of applying your own value judgments to past decision processes

In the 50s anything nuclear or atomic was considered “ superior” and was the preferred solution to a multitude of “ problems “ real and imagined .


They even had a concept of digging canals with a chain of nuclear explosions, what do you think of that ?

If you actually read the plans , you will discover the scientific merit behind the proposal – and its demerits – which lead to it being shelved.

Try some research instead of ill-informed snide comments , deny ignorance.

The soviet block had a near identical plan codenamed “ E-4 “ , and it was cancelled for similar reasons .

This post contains no citations or hyperlinks, to encourage you to research the matter yourselves – while doing so , you may discover other interesting facts .

Deny ignorance, do not sit on your arse waiting to be spoon fed .

Originally posted by Infoholic
I wonder what they were planning to prove by doing that? Ahh... the "man in the moon" was a terrorist, too.

No just a commie sympathizer This idea dates from the 50's. During that time the military still believed that nukes were wonder weapons and the military was trying to find out what they could do with their incredible new toys. They didn't yet truly realize the consequences of detonating them willy nilly.

I wonder what one could do to nuke the moon. It probably would alter the earths oceans. Change the moon's gravity and affect many other problems and it would make it very problematic for us here in our world. Meh.



Why not nuke every country in the globe while you're at it?

It depends how big the explosion was, even back then they must of had some idea that nukes were bad.

that has to be one of the worst ideas ive ever heard,
the entire climate of the earth would change
also the force of the explosion, could send the moon flying into the earth, and even if that didnt happen the mass of the moon would change drammatically, and the chunks that were blown off would hit the planet..

thats proly why that didnt actually do it

Good God.

Detonating a thermonuclear weapon on the moon is crazy, but I would be watching through a telescope.

The moon has one million tons of Helium 3. I dont know much about Helium 3, but I can tell you it is very scarce on earth and it is the optimum fuel for a fusion reaction.

In other words, detonating a nuke on the moon would be like, throwing a match into an ocean of gasoline.

WOW U KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS! anyone who has nuclear capability can end life on earth and end earth. Maybe thats why we even have a moon. So someone can shoot it down into us. That would be #n terrifying. IF the moon slammed into us? wow i would probably die from the overwhelming feeling of something huge approaching.

[edit on 14-12-2006 by dunkindonuts]

wasnt that from austin powers when Dr. Evil was going to blow the moon up.... i loved it when the president didnt want to succumb to dr. evils demands, "would you really miss it?!?"

Originally posted by ababsdfg
that has to be one of the worst ideas ive ever heard,
the entire climate of the earth would change
also the force of the explosion, could send the moon flying into the earth, and even if that didnt happen the mass of the moon would change drammatically, and the chunks that were blown off would hit the planet..

thats proly why that didnt actually do it

May I suggest you go and learn about the following subjects in great detail

Astronomy and physics.

Then please rethink what you have posted above, because, to be frank, you are totally and utterly incorrect

Originally posted by Blitz

The moon has one million tons of Helium 3. I dont know much about Helium 3, but I can tell you it is very scarce on earth and it is the optimum fuel for a fusion reaction.

the He3 on the moon is bound into rock , in such low concentrations [ PPM ] that no chain reaction could occur .

to be of any value in a fusion recaction it must be compressed to mind boggling pressures .

this is why planets like saturn / juptier cannot "ignite " to form a star - the gravity / pressure @ thier cores is simply no where near that required

In other words, detonating a nuke on the moon would be like, throwing a match into an ocean of gasoline.

that is incorrect , lunar He3 is both dispersed and unpressurised .

a thermo nuclear explosion would only initiate fusion in a few molecules of HE3 at ground zero .

the rest would be unnaffected , and there would certainly be no chain reaction

The moon is bigggggg though! A few people here seem to think it's a small body. It is a quarter the size of the earth. It has far more surface area than any continent on earth. It's vast. A nuclear weapon would do nothing to its orbit.

I wonder whether we would be even able to see a nuclear explosion on the moon from earth, with the naked eye. Does anyone incidentally know what the resolution we can get with unaided vision of the lunar surface? Presumably the proposal would have been to study it with powerful telescopes.

Thanks.

Rob.

Sagan apparently presented some of the results of his research on the project in an application for an academic fellowship

I sure would love to read that!

This could have been a precurser to the entire StarWar
project of the Reagan years

Originally posted by ignorant_ape



the He3 on the moon is bound into rock , in such low concentrations [ PPM ] that no chain reaction could occur .

to be of any value in a fusion recaction it must be compressed to mind boggling pressures .

this is why planets like saturn / juptier cannot "ignite " to form a star - the gravity / pressure @ thier cores is simply no where near that required


that is incorrect , lunar He3 is both dispersed and unpressurised .

a thermo nuclear explosion would only initiate fusion in a few molecules of HE3 at ground zero .

the rest would be unnaffected , and there would certainly be no chain reaction

Ok I get what your saying.

This is just a hypothetical scenario, suppose you drill a hole into the moon and detonate the nuke in the hole. Would that cause a chain reaction, since the bomb is compressed with in the rock?

i would be prob wet my pant if the moon had a nuke exploded from its core, or on it in fact any idea to nuke the moon seams reckless,

mars however?

heard years ago that there was a idea to nuke the mars polar regions to melt the water trapped there and kick start life,get plants growing to produce oxygen so it would one day be inhabiltble .dont know how fisible it is,

sure someone here could explain

And i realy hope no nation ever claims the moon or mars its for everyone not just the few,although id love a timeshare apartment up there to watch the earth drinking mahitos,

lol nukes affecting the orbit of the moon and killing us? that's pretty funny considering there are tons of scars on the moon from comets and asteroids hitting it that probably created 100x if not 1000x or more powerful explosions than a nuke would.

[edit on 18-12-2006 by Arkane]

I was about to jump on the folks here claiming a nuke on the moon would make it lose it's orbit and such, but luckily some above posters got to that promptly.
My view is why not? Better to nuke the moon than earth. I'd enjoy viewing it from my telescope too.

i can't believe that they would not know that nuking the moon,would over time destroy earth!

I'm sure it was probably just a ploy to tick off all those werewolves out there...I know firsthand how rowdy some Airmen can get, and those Generals just have bigger toys to play with.