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Project A119

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Cover of A Study of Lunar Research Flights - Volume I

Project A119 or "A Study of Lunar Research Flights" was a top-secret plan developed in the late 1950s by the United States Air Force with the intention of detonating a nuclear bomb on the moon. It is assumed that the purpose of such an act would demonstrate the superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union and the rest of the world during the Cold War. The details concerning the project came from a retired executive at NASA, Dr. Leonard Reiffel, who led the project in 1958. A young Carl Sagan joined the team responsible for researching the theoretical effects of a nuclear explosion in low gravity.

Project A119 was never carried out, apparently primarily because a moon landing would be a much more acceptable achievement in the eyes of the American population. The project documents remained secret for nearly 45 years and even with Reiffel's revelations at the beginning of the 2000s, the US government has never officially recognized his involvement in the study.

Background

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union took the lead in the space race with the launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957. Sputnik was the first artificial satellite in Earth orbit, and the surprise of its successful launch, compounded by the resounding failure of Project Vanguard to launch an American satellite after two separate attempts, sparked the Sputnik crisis and was the impetus for the beginning of the space race. Trying to reclaim lost ground, the United States embarked on a series of new projects and studies, which eventually included the launch of Explorer 1 and the creation of DARPA and NASA, among other advances.[1]

The project

Project A119 was one of several possibilities being investigated in the early days of the space race. In May 1958, the Armour Research Foundation, based at the Illinois Institute of Technology and funded by the United States Army, began covertly researching the consequences of an atomic explosion on the moon. The main objective of the program, which ran under the responsibility of the United States Air Force, was the detonation of a device, nuclear or otherwise, in order to cause an explosion that would be visible from Earth. It was hoped that such a display would boost the morale of the American people, which had been shaken by the advantages gained by the Soviets.[2]

The project was likely influenced by a similar study initiated by the RAND Corporation in 1956, whose results remain secret to this day. A similar idea was also put forward by Edward Teller, the "father of the H-bomb", who in February 1957 proposed the detonation of an atomic device some distance from the lunar surface in order to analyze the effects of the explosion.[3]

Research

Led by Dr. Leonard Reiffel, a team of ten people was assembled in Chicago to study the visibility of the explosion, its potential benefits to science, and its implications for the lunar surface. Among the members of the research team was Carl Sagan, who was responsible for the mathematical projection of the expansion of a dust cloud in space around the moon, which was an essential element in determining its visibility from Earth.[2][4]

Scientists initially considered utilizing a hydrogen bomb for the project; however, the US Air Force vetoed this idea due to the weight of such a device, as it would need to be propelled over 375,000 kilometres (233,000 miles). It was then decided to use a device similar in yield to the Little Boy bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, since it could be carried by a rocket toward the dark side of the Moon, near the terminator, where it would be detonated on impact. The dust cloud resulting from the explosion would be lit by the sun and therefore visible from Earth.[3][4] According to Dr. Reiffel, the Air Force's progress ​​in the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles would have made such a launch feasible by 1959.[5]

Cancellation

The project was eventually cancelled in January 1959, seemingly out of fear of a possible negative public reaction and the possible risk to the population should anything have gone wrong with the launch. Another factor was the possible implications of the nuclear fallout for future lunar research projects and colonization.[5][6]

Soviet program

Another major factor in the project's conception may have been a rumor in the press that the Soviet Union was planning to launch a hydrogen bomb at the Moon. There had been press reports in late 1957 that an anonymous source had divulged to a United States Secret Service agent that the Soviets planned to commemorate the anniversary of the October Revolution by launching a nuclear device at the Moon to coincide with an eclipse due to occur on November 7. News reports of the rumored launch included mention of targeting the dark side of the terminator, a detail which was key to Project A119; it was also reported that a failure to hit the Moon would likely result in the missile returning to Earth, which had been a factor in the project's cancellation.[7]

Later reports show that the Soviet project did indeed exist, but differed from the scenario reported in the press. Started in January 1958, it was part of a series of proposals under the codename "E". Project E-1 entailed plans to reach the Moon, while projects E-2 and E-3 involved sending a probe around the far side of the moon to take a series of photographs of its surface. The final stage of the project, E-4, was to be a nuclear strike on the Moon as a display of force. As with the American plan, the E series of projects was canceled while still in its planning stages due to concerns regarding the safety and reliability of the launch vehicle.[8][9]

Consequences

Project A119 came to light due to research carried out for a biography of Carl Sagan.

The signing of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 and the Outer Space Treaty in 1967 would prevent future exploration of the concept. However, by this time both the United States and the Soviet Union had performed several high-altitude nuclear explosions, including those of Operation Hardtack I, Operation Argus, Operation Dominic I and II, and The K Project.[3]

By 1969 the United States was the dominant power in the space race after the success of the Apollo 11 mission. In December of that year, Apollo scientist Gary Latham suggested detonating a "smallish" nuclear device on the Moon in order to facilitate research into its geologic make-up.[10] The plan was dismissed, however, as it would not only violate both treaties, but also interfere with plans to measure the Moon's natural background radiation.[11]

The existence of Project A119 remained largely secret until the mid-1990s, when writer Keay Davidson discovered the story while researching the life of Carl Sagan for a biography. Davidson discovered Sagan's involvement with the project from Sagan's application for an academic scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley's Miller Institute in 1959. In the application, Sagan gave details of the project research, which Davidson felt constituted a violation of national security.[12]

The resulting biography—Carl Sagan: A Life—was published in 1999. Shortly thereafter, a review published in Nature highlighted the discovery of the leaked information.[13] This led Dr. Leonard Reiffel to break his anonymity and write a letter to the journal confirming that Sagan's activity had at the time been considered a breach in the confidentiality of the project. Reiffel took the opportunity to reveal details of the studies, and his statements would later be widely reported in the media.[4][14]

As a result of the publicity the correspondence created, a freedom of information request was lodged concerning Project A119. It was only then that A Study of Lunar Research Flights – Volume I was made public, over forty years after its inception.[15] A search for the other volumes of documentation, however, revealed that other reports were destroyed in the 1980s by the Illinois Institute of Technology.[3]

Dr. David Lowry, a British nuclear historian, has called the project's proposals "obscene", adding "had they gone ahead, we would never have had the romantic image of Neil Armstrong taking "one giant leap for mankind"."[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ "50th Anniversary of the Space Age". NASA. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c Barnett, Antony (May 14, 2000). "US planned one big nuclear blast for mankind". The Guardian. Retrieved September 8, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d Ulivi, Paolo; Harland, David Michael; Zhou, Chaochen (2004). Lunar Exploration: Human Pioneers and Robotic Surveyors. Springer. pp. 19–21. ISBN 978-1-85233-746-9.
  4. ^ a b c Broad, William J (May 16, 2000). "U.S. Planned Nuclear Blast On the Moon, Physicist Says". The New York Times. Retrieved September 9, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ a b Associated Press (May 18, 2000). "U.S. considered lunar a-bomb blast". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 7. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  6. ^ Associated Press (May 18, 2000). "U.S. Weighed A-Blast on Moon in 1950s". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 9, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ Myler, Joseph L (November 1, 1957). "Latest Red Rumor: They'll Bomb Moon". Pittsburgh Press. p. 13. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  8. ^ Zheleznyakov, Aleksandr. "The original E-3 project - exploding a nuclear bomb on the Moon". Sven Grahn. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  9. ^ Tanner, Adam (July 9, 1999). "Russia wanted nuclear bomb on moon". Independent Online. Retrieved September 9, 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ "Moon madness". The Sydney Morning Herald. December 21, 1969. p. 19. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  11. ^ "Scientist Withdraws Plans for Nuclear Blast on Moon". St. Petersburg Times. Janurary 7, 1970. p. 7. Retrieved September 9, 2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Davidson, Keay; Sagan, Carl (1999). Carl Sagan: A Life. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-25286-3.
  13. ^ Chyba, Christopher (October 28, 1999). "An exobiologist's life search". Nature. 401: 857–858. doi:10.1038/44716. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  14. ^ Reiffel, Leonard (May 4, 2000). "Sagan breached security by revealing US work on a lunar bomb project". Nature. 405: 13. doi:10.1038/35011148. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  15. ^ "A STUDY OF LUNAR RESEARCH FLIGHTS, VOLUME I". Defense Technical Information Center. Retrieved September 9, 2011.

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