Apathy Curve: Nuke the Moon

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Thursday, June 14, 2018

Nuke the Moon

Project A119 was a secret U.S. Air Force proposal to detonate a tactical nuclear warhead on the surface of the Moon. The idea was to throw up enough moondust that a spectral analysis for water (and other elements important to building a moonbase) could be performed from Earth. It was canceled in 1959 as the idea of a manned expedition began to take form. One of the project's more famous team members was Carl Sagan, along with his mentor Gerard Kuiper, after whom the Kuiper Belt is named.

Ultimately, the question of water on the Moon was answered by the LCROSS Centaur impactor in 2009, which used kinetic energy to accomplish the task originally envisioned by Project A119.

Read more about the project here.

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