It was October 1957, and the Americans had just fallen behind in the Space Race. The Soviet Union had managed to launch SPUTNIK-1, their and the world’s first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. To catch up with them, the US launched or tried to launch VANGUARD, their satellite. However, it failed on two separate attempts, with the world mocking them for their failures. The US government was under fire by its people, with questions being asked as to what they can do to reclaim the first spot in this race.
The US and the Soviet Union had begun their enmity at the end of World War II. Both developed hydrogen bombs, atom bombs, nuclear bombs and anything that could show the other how superior they were. The Cold War had begun, and now, both of them turned their eyes to space.
Huge amounts of money and time were being spent on different studies to find options to show the world something spectacular. The US was trying to come up with something after the success of SPUTNIK-1. But, before they could do so, the Soviets gave them a second blow just a month later, by launching SPUTNIK-2, this time carrying the first living creature to space, a dog named Laika. The Americans were stunned and silenced. They need to act fast now.
Then the US government came up with a plan, a plan to explode a nuclear bomb on the moon!
Objectives of The Project
- Create a visible ball of explosion on the moon
- Study the effects of the nuclear bomb in space
- Analyse the behaviour of lunar dust and surface material
- Boost public morale and show off their stunt to the world
Scientists Behind The Mission
Leonard Reiffel, a prominent Physicist who later became deputy director of the famous APOLLO missions, was given the task of researching the feasibility of the project. He organised a team of ten people, which also included Gerard Kuiper, who is considered the Father of Modern Planetary Science and who also has an asteroid belt named after him, called the Kuiper Belt. He was accompanied by his student Carl Sagan, whose role shall be discussed ahead. They named their research, ‘A Study of Lunar Research Flights.’
They began their study in May 1958 at the Armour Research Foundation’s (ARF) facility at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. They had to submit a report to the US Government about how the project could be achieved, what its consequences would be and what they could do next.
What Studies Showed
The plan was to explode a bomb on the middle line of the moon, which is the part most visible from Earth. The whole point of the project was to make the blast visible and show the world what the US had achieved.
Initially, they thought of using a hydrogen bomb, the most powerful bomb at that time and capable of creating a huge mushroom cloud that would be visible from Earth. However, due to its weight, the US Air Force disagreed with its usage. Then they thought of using a W25 warhead which was light in weight and with a small 1.7 kiloton yield. The bombs dropped on Japan had yields between 13 and 18 kilotons, for comparison.
Since the US army had developed an intercontinental ballistic missile, using it to explode a W25 warhead on the moon was seen as a feasible idea. It would create a smaller dust cloud in comparison to the hydrogen bomb, but the Sun’s rays would light it up and make it visible on Earth.
Report Details
The report was submitted in June 1959, stating that with current scientific progress, equipment, knowledge and military prowess, the United States of America was capable of blasting off a bomb on the Moon’s surface. The mission would comprise three goals:
- Scientific Goals: To gather lunar data for future studies.
- Military Goals: Bombing a celestial body in comparison to any place on Earth would be the greatest flex of any military in the world.
- Political: To show the world and especially the Soviet Union, what the US is capable of doing.
Cancellation of The Project
Even though the report stated that the project could be a success and the government desperately wanted it to be so, the Air Force declined to conduct it out of safety concerns. They stated that ‘its risks outweighed its benefits.’ It was a brave call, given the fact that at that time, the government used to persecute anyone going against their wishes. However, it was also a decision made by common sense.
Missiles during those times were capable of travelling a few thousand kilometres, but the moon is located around 384,000 km away from Earth. There was a high chance that the missile would never reach it and instead get blown off inside the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a catastrophic series of disasters. Besides, the moon’s presence is important for life on Earth and blowing up a nuke on it would just be as catastrophic. Hence, the project was officially dropped off, with the US eventually moving towards landing a spacecraft on the moon instead.
Discovery of The Project
All this was happening behind closed curtains; the public and the world didn’t even have a whiff about it. The project would never have been known if it hadn’t been for Carl Sagan.
While applying for a fellowship in the same year, Carl Sagan mentioned working in research in his resume. However, those who went through it thought it to be just another research. Years later, his biographer picked up this research mention and dug deep into Project A119. It was more than four decades later when Leonard Reiffel, as well, decided to speak out about the project in interviews and discussions. He called it out to be a PR stunt by the government. To this date, the US government hasn’t accepted or denied working on this project as a Cold War show of strength.
Aftermath of The Project
The USA wasn’t alone in thinking about this mad idea. Even the Soviets were planning to nuke the moon. They had planned Project E with similar objectives of studying the moon and eventually nuking it. However, they had realised its harmful effects earlier.
The world, or maybe the US and Soviets, realised that putting up guns in space could be a one-way road to extinction. They signed the ‘Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty’ in 1963 and then the ‘Outer Space Treaty’ in 1967 to ban the deployment of weapons in space.
Conclusion
Project A119 serves as a cold reminder of how far humans go in the name of power and fame. Even thinking of blowing the moon apart can seem illogical and frightening, yet it was seriously considered a show of strength. As this article comes to an end, just imagine yourself, a nuclear bomb explodes on the moon, you see a bright flash of light and a few minutes later, no moon in the sky. What would you feel? Wonder? Horror? Or just Silence?