![]() ![]() It was part of the late 50s, early 60s space mania before anybody knew exactly what nature the Space Age was going to take," he says. "These were serious studies, but they didn't get any serious funding or attention when they left the space community. A lot of scientists did this in the Cold War they said physics has gotten too political." If they were afraid, they could do a million other things. "Anyone who's in these roles is probably self-selected to some degree," he says. He isn't sure that fear of the anti-communist witch hunt made nuclear physicists work on this project. I think, in this case, impressive and horrifying are a bit too close to each other." This push to compete in a way that creates something very impressive. "It is a pretty interesting window into the sort of American mindset at that time. "Now what they did in the end was put up their own satellite, and that took a little while, but they continued this project somewhat seriously, into at least the late 1950s. They refer to them as stunts… designed to impress people. "Project A119 was one of several ideas that were floated for an exciting response to Sputnik," says Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science and nuclear technology, "that included shooting down Sputnik, which feels very spiteful. ![]() The loss of the pristine lunar environment was less of a worry to the US Air Force despite the scientists' concerns. He confirmed that it was "technically feasible", and that the explosion would have been visible on Earth. They may have simply realised that landing on the Moon was the bigger prize. A British newsreel at the time was brutal: "THE VANGUARD FAILS…a big setback indeed…in the realm of prestige and propaganda." The inferno that consumed their Vanguard rocket was captured on film and shown around the world. It didn't help American nerves that Sputnik was launched on top of a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile – albeit a modified one – nor that the US's own attempt to launch an "artificial moon" ended in a huge, fiery explosion. In 1957 they went one better, stealing a lead in the space race with the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite in orbit around the world. Three years later the Soviets shocked Washington by exploding their own. In 1952, the US had exploded the first hydrogen bomb. Political and popular opinion in the United States held that the Soviet Union was ahead in the growth of its nuclear arsenal, particularly in the development, and number, of nuclear bombers ("the bomber gap") and nuclear missiles ("the missile gap"). In the 1950s, it didn't look like America was winning the Cold War. Asked to "fast track" the project by senior officers in the Air Force, Reiffel produced many reports between May 1958 and January 1959 on the feasibility of the plan. Hydrogen bombs were vastly more destructive than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, and the latest in nuclear weapon design at the time. ![]() Project A119, as it was known, was a top-secret proposal to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon. ![]() He worked with Enrico Fermi, the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor who is known as the "architect of the nuclear bomb".
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |