Posted on 06/20/2020 8:07:47 PM PDT by EdnaMode
Blow up the moon.
It sounds like the grandiose plan of a James Bond villain. Only the idea came, not from a fictional villain, but the government of the United States of America.
The secret mission, code-named “Project A119,” was conceived at the dawn of the space race by an Air Force division located at New Mexico’s Kirtland Air Force Base.
A June 1959 report entitled “A Study of Lunar Research Flights” outlined plans to explode the bomb on the moon’s “terminator” — the area between the part of the surface that’s illuminated by the sun and the part that’s dark.
The explosion would have likely been visible with the naked eye from the earth, in part, because the military had planned to add sodium to the bomb. When blown up, the sodium would glow.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
That would be cool. But I settled for a fantastic view of Elon’s Starlink sattelite parade the other morning. At first I thought it was a meteor but then quickly realized what it was. Impressive.
I think going to Mars without field-testing long-term activities on the Moon (where you can still get AAA to come out and fill your tire if need be) is an idea that is as dumb as dust.
Good lord, are people still really that stupid, or is this satire?
There IS NO DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (Sorry, Pink Floyd).
Any given location on the moon is iluminated by the sun for half the (Lunar) month and in the dark for the other half of the month.
What I suspect the author MEANT was that the would explode the bomb on the “limb”, the edge of the moon’s disk, as viewed from earth. If that were done at a time when the limb was in darkness, the glowing explosion would possibly be visible from Earth. Maybe. Or maybe not.
They weren’t trying to blow the moon up. The military aspect is aided by investigation of space environment, detection of nuclear device testing, and capability of weapons in space.
The areas discussed in some detail are optical lunar studies, seismic observations, lunar surface and magnetic fields, plasma and magnetic field effects, and organic matter on the moon. Probably part of the fore runner of the star wars project.
If you’re curious:
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB479/docs/EBB-Moon02.pdf
rwood
Trump’s fault
Didn’t Gru steal the moon in “Despicable Me”?
Sigh. We have to keep Trump from blowing up hurricanes with nuclear weapons, now we have to be concerned about the moon!
That would have been just great. Pollute the moon with radioactive fallout. The eventual inhabiting of the moon will be hard enough without that.
Didn’t Chairface Chipendale try that?
Don’t touch the moon.
I need it for loving.
Don’t touch the stars.
I need them, too.
All you frantic scientists,
Find somewhere else to go.
—Cornell Blakely, 1958
I don't think it would spread very far.
From the wonderful movie Oblivion with Tom Cruise
That’s exactly what I thought of. I love Stephenson.
Yeah I was confused too I thought ‘terminator’ moved across the surface as moon phase changes. I think ‘limb’ makes more sense
Moon Laser Experiment = How do you know it won’t blow up?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e5CtbbZL-k
India HAS sent a bomb to the moon.
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