128 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
128 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2016-02-28T16:40:31.000Z'
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title: The US Air Force's plan to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon (2000)
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url: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2000/may/14/spaceexploration.theobserver
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author: dsr12
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points: 42
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story_text:
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 35
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1456677631
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_dsr12
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- story_11191326
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objectID: '11191326'
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---
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The US Air Force developed a top-secret plan to detonate a nuclear bomb
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on the moon as a display of military might at the height of the Cold
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War.
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In an exclusive interview with The Observer, Dr Leonard Reiffel, 73, the
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physicist who fronted the project in the late Fifties at the US
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military-backed Armour Research Foundation, revealed America's
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extraordinary lunar plan.
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'It was clear the main aim of the proposed detonation was a PR exercise
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and a show of one-upmanship. The Air Force wanted a mushroom cloud so
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large it would be visible on earth,' he said yesterday. 'The US was
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lagging behind in the space race.'
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'The explosion would obviously be best on the dark side of the moon and
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the theory was that if the bomb exploded on the edge of the moon, the
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mushroom cloud would be illuminated by the sun.' The bomb would have
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been at least as large as the one used on Hiroshima at the end of World
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War II.
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'I made it clear at the time there would be a huge cost to science of
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destroying a pristine lunar environment, but the US Air Force were
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mainly concerned about how the nuclear explosion would play on earth,'
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said Reiffel.
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Although he believes the blast would have had little environmental
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impact on Earth, its crater may have ruined the face of the 'man in the
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moon'.
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Reiffel would not reveal how the explosion would have taken place. But
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he confirmed it was 'certainly technically feasible' and that at the
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time an intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile would have been
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capable of hitting a target on the moon with an accuracy of within two
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miles.
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Reiffel was approached by senior US Air Force officers in 1958, who
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asked him to 'fast-track' a project to investigate the visibility and
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effects of a nuclear explosion on the moon. The top-secret Project A119,
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was entitled 'A Study of Lunar Research Flights'.
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'Had the project been made public there would have been an outcry,' said
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Reiffel.
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Many Cold War documents are still classified in the US, but details of
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Project A119 emerged after a biography of celebrated US scientist and
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astronomer Carl Sagan was published there last year.
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Sagan, who died in 1996, was famous for popularising science in the US
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and pioneering the study of potential life on other planets. At the
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Armour Foundation in Chicago - now called the Illinois Institute of
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Technology Research - he was hired by Reiffel to undertake mathematical
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modelling on the expansion of an exploding dust cloud in the space
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around the moon. This was key to calculating the visibility of such a
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cloud from the Earth.
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At the time scientists still believed there might be microbial life on
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the moon and Sagan had suggested a nuclear explosion might be used to
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detect organisms.
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Despite the highly classified nature of the work, Sagan's biographer,
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Keay Davidson, discovered that he had disclosed details of it when he
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applied for the prestigious Miller Institute graduate fellowship to
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Berkeley.
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Yet, until today, the full nature of Project A119 has never been
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revealed. Friends of Sagan believe he never would have wilfully revealed
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classified information, but Reiffel has come forward to put the
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'historical record straight'.
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Reiffel continued: 'It was well known that the existence of this project
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was top secret. Had Sagan wanted to make any disclosures to any party,
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as his boss at the time, I would have had to take forward any such
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request and Air Force permission would have been extremely unlikely in
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those very tense times.'
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In a letter to the science magazine Nature, Reiffel said: 'Fortunately
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for the future of lunar science, a one or two horse race to detonate a
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nuclear explosion never occurred. But in my opinion Sagan breached
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security in March, 1959.'
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Reiffel produced eight reports between May 1958 and January 1959 on the
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feasibility of the plan, all of which were destroyed in 1987 by the
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foundation. Reiffel would not discuss details of these reports,
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believing they were still classified, but it was clear the conclusion
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was that the explosion would have been visible from Earth
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He does not know why the plans were scrapped, but said: 'Thankfully, the
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thinking changed. I am horrified that such a gesture to sway public
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opinion was ever considered.'
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Dr David Lowry, a British nuclear historian, said: 'It is obscene. To
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think that the first contact human beings would have had with another
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world would have been to explode a nuclear bomb. Had they gone ahead, we
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would never have had the romantic image of Neil Armstrong taking "one
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giant step for mankind".'
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Lowry believes Project A119 has relevance today with the US proposing a
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missile defence system in space. He said: 'The US has always wanted to
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militarise space and some of the fanciful ideas currently being put
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forward will seem as incredible as the idea of nuking the moon in the
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Fifties seems today.'
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A Pentagon spokesman would not confirm or deny the plans.
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•
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[antony.barnett@observer.co.uk]('mailto:antony.barnett@observer.co.uk')
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