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Thursday, May 18, 2000
U.S. thought of bombing the moon
Physicist: Idea came amid Cold War tensions
Associated Press
The United States considered detonating an atom bomb on the moon during the late 1950s as a demonstration of the nation's Cold War might, a Chicago physicist says.
The secret project, titled "A Study of Lunar Research Flights," was never carried out. But its planning included calculations by the astronomer Carl Sagan of the behavior of the dust and gas generated by the blast.
Viewing the nuclear flash from Earth might have intimidated the Soviet Union and boosted Americans' confidence after the launch of Sputnik, said physicist Leonard Reiffel, who directed the inquiry at the former Armour Research Foundation, now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
The U.S. space program was sputtering while the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik and a pair of lunar probes.
The Eisenhower administration considered the lunar blast as a way to reassure Americans that the Soviet threat could be countered, while demonstrating to the Kremlin that the United States had an effective war deterrent.
Under the scenario, a missile carrying a nuclear device was to be launched and travel 238,000 miles to the moon, where it would be detonated upon impact. The planners decided it would be an atom bomb because a hydrogen bomb would have been too heavy for the missile.
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