Episode 367: Project A119: Why Not Nuke the Moon?!
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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we take a look at some Cold War madness and delve into America’s plan to nuke the moon—Project A119. The year was 1957. The Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik and was winning the nascent Space Race. The American military needed a win, so their plan was simply to throw a hydrogen bomb at the moon. Like you do.
Why a nuke? Well, it would show technological and military dominance. In fact, the whole point was to make it visible to the naked eye, so the entire world could see it. So, the lead researcher, a man named Leonard Reiffel (who made his career working with Nazis from Operation Paper Clip) was tasked with creating a think tank in Chicago to figure out the ins and outs of the moon nuke from Project A119.
He hired some up and comers like a young Carl Sagan and was off and running. They explored the psychological impact on America, the Soviets, and the rest of the world. They looked at technical limitations and what type of bomb to use. They looked at what other scientific knowledge could come from it. And, thankfully, they looked at dangers like the bomb boomeranging back into the earth’s atmosphere.
Reiffel’s group wrote a total of eight different reports between their inception and when the group was put to bed in 1959, but only the first of them exists since the other seven were all destroyed in the magical 80s. They even discussed the Soviet’s own plan (which was long since confirmed) to nuke the moon as well, so Project A119 wasn’t the only game in town.
Many scientists were worried that a nuke would ruin the possibility of colonizing the moon, and eventually something like Project A119 was actually ordered. In 2009, NASA hit the moon with a high velocity rocket to get a debris cloud to spread. It was all the science with none of the nuke! So, if you want to hear about our plan to annihilate the Soviet Union, why Carl Sagan committed treason in his biography, and whether or not the moon is hollow, check this one out.
Cool Cold War Article: https://www.newsweek.com/2014/09/26/plan-nuke-moon-and-other-cold-war-plots-revealed-secret-documents-271088.html
Black Vault Document Archive: http://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/project-a119-a-study-of-lunar-research-flights/#
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