The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
I'll see Rob's War on Men and raise him a War on the Universe.
This story only came out earlier today, but somewhere in Hollywood the rough draft of a script is already being formed. From CBS DC:
Would Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin even had a moon to walk on if the United States had its way in the 1950s?
During the height of the Cold War, U.S. officials debated whether to detonate nuclear bomb on the moon in order to send a message to the Soviet Union, the Asian News International reports.
The secret project dubbed, “A Study of Lunar Research Flights” and nicknamed “Project A119,” was seriously being considered until it was scrapped because military officials were worried it would hurt the people on Earth.
Oh, and by the way, read the reports in full ... Carl Sagan was in on it. Box office gold, people.
Here's the part I'm still getting my head around: you're a senior Soviet official in 1950s Moscow. What message exactly are you taking from the America detonation of a nuclear weapon on the moon?
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Oct '10
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
As I remarked earlier on Twitter, this article about “blowing up [the] Moon” may not just be the scientific innumeracy of the day, but perhaps of the decade. It is far more difficult to blow up a planet or moon than that!
In the late 1950s the Soviets considered a similar project, designated Ye-3, proposed by Academician Yakov Zeldovich, to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon. In chapter 25 of Boris Chertok's Rockets and People, Vol. 2, he writes:
So it wasn't just the cowboy Americans contemplating this; the Soviets were also thinking about it at the same time.
There is a scientific rationale for this: by monitoring the spectrum of the incandescent debris, you can get a sense of the Moon's composition without having to return a sample.
Mar '11
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
A bit loony if you ask me....
Putting the men there sent a more powerful message to Moscow, and our lack of a serious space program today sends another equally powerful one to our foes.
Nov '12
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
General Hawk: Sir, are you suggesting that we blow up the moon?
President: Would you miss it? (to the other assembled officers and politicians) Would you miss it?
(From "The Spy Who Shagged Me").
Nov '11
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
Frank J Fleming can time travel? Now I know we're all doomed!
Jul '10
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
Actually, this was the original recipe for fried cheese.
Jan '11
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
I second John's nomination for the most misleading lede in recent memory: we're not even close to technology that would allow us to "blow-up" a large asteroid, let alone something orders of magnitude larger, like the Moon.
That's right: Michael Bay is more scientifically accurate than this headline.
Aug '10
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
According to what I've read on this episode, Carl Sagan's research (when he was a grad student) is likely what helped convince them NOT to go ahead with the plan.
As such, IMHO, it's a little bit of an overstretch to say that Carl Sagan was "in on it".
Jul '10
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
I get Troy's thought about it giving the Soviets prime mocking material, but the Soviets were all about shows. We still see this in North Korea. The parades, the gleaming city that is Pyongyang, even while the rest of the country suffers. Communist governments are/were all about presenting a bold face. What would have been bolder than making every Communist Party member stare up at the moon and think, "That could be us. These Americans are nuke crazy!"
Of course, the down side would have been most of western Europe joining the Warsaw Pact...
(No, I'm not taking this seriously. Fun to think about, though.)
Aug '10
Re: The Most Grandiose Foreign Policy Gesture in History
Wasn't this the plot of several episodes of The Tick?