Project A119, the top secret US plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon that was never carried out – 05/14/2023 – Science

The moment astronaut Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) took his famous step onto the surface of the Moon in 1969 is remembered as one of the most memorable in human history.

But what would it have been like if the moon Armstrong stepped on had been scarred by huge craters and tainted by the effects of a nuclear bombing?

This is because, in the middle of the Cold War, the United States considered detonating a hydrogen bomb on the Moon, in what became known as Project A119, authored by Leonard Reiffel (1927-2017).

One of America’s leading chemical physicists, Reifell worked with Enrico Fermi, the creator of the world’s first nuclear reactor, known as the “architect of the nuclear bomb.”

Hydrogen bombs were far more destructive than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 and were considered the ultimate in nuclear weapons at the time.

Between May 1958 and January 1959, Reiffel produced several reports on the feasibility of the project.

Incredibly, one of the scientists who made this plan possible was the astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-1996), who would become an icon in the field.

In fact, the project’s existence was only discovered in the 1990s because Sagan mentioned it in an application to an elite US university.

space battle

While it is believed that the plan could have helped answer some rudimentary scientific questions about the Moon, the main purpose of Project A119 was a show of force.

The bomb would explode in the Moon’s terminator (twilight zone or “gray line”), i.e. the boundary between the light and dark sides of the Moon, to create a bright flash of light that anyone, but especially in the Kremlin, could see. with the naked eye.

The absence of an atmosphere meant that there would be no nuclear mushroom cloud.

There is only one compelling explanation for proposing such a grim plan, and its motivation lies somewhere between insecurity and despair.

In the 1950s, it didn’t look like the United States was winning the Cold War.

There was a feeling, fueled by American politicians and public opinion itself, that the Soviet Union (USSR) was ahead in the nuclear race, especially in the development and number of nuclear bombers and missiles.

It later turned out that these fears were unfounded.

But the United States had reason to suspect that it was falling behind, despite the explosion of the first hydrogen bomb in 1952.

To Washington’s surprise, the Soviets managed to blow theirs up just three years later, and then, in 1957, Moscow took a giant leap forward in the space race with the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite into orbit around the world.

Contributing to American jitters was the fact that Sputnik was launched on a Soviet ICBM — albeit a modified one — and that Washington’s own attempt to launch an “artificial moon” ended in a resounding failure.

Footage of the Vanguard rocket turning into a huge ball of fire went around the world.

At the time, a British newsreel described the episode without mincing words: “THE VANGUARD HAS SPOKEN… a major setback in the field of prestige and propaganda…”.

Meanwhile, in American schools, students were exposed to the famous informational film “Duck and Cover”, in which Bert, an animated turtle, taught children what to do in the event of a nuclear attack.

Later that year, American newspapers, quoting a high-level intelligence source, reported that “the Soviets will bomb H (hydrogen) on the Moon on the anniversary of the Revolution, November 7”.

Other reports indicated that the Soviets may already be planning to launch a nuclear-armed rocket against the US.

As with other Cold War rumors, its origins are difficult to decipher.

Strangely, this same fear probably motivated the Soviets to go ahead with their plans.

One of them, code-named E4, was an American imitation and was eventually scrapped by Moscow for similar reasons: fear that a failed launch could cause the bomb to fall on Soviet soil, in what was described as a “highly undesirable international incident “.

It may be that they realized that landing on the moon would be more advantageous.

‘Technically feasible’

In 2000, Reiffel said the project was “technically feasible” and that the explosion would have been visible from Earth.

The damage the explosion would have done to the primitive lunar environment has not distressed the US Air Force, despite scientists’ concerns.

“Project A119 was one of several ideas launched in response to Sputnik,” says Alex Wellerstein, historian of nuclear science and technology.

“Another was shooting down Sputnik. Those ideas are considered publicity stunts designed to impress people.”

“What the Americans did in the end was get their own satellite up and running, and that took a little time, but they continued with that project with some seriousness, at least until the late 1950s,” adds the historian.

In Wellerstein’s view, “it was a very interesting period about the kind of American mentality at the time. This need that, in order to compete, you had to create something very impressive.”

“I think in this case it was impressive and terrifying at the same time,” he added.

However, Wellerstein cannot say whether fear of anti-Communist witch-hunts prompted nuclear physicists to work on this project.

“Anyone who has held these positions probably did so because they were motivated to some extent,” he opines.

“They didn’t mind doing the work. If they were afraid they could have done a million other things. Many scientists did that in the Cold War; they said physics had become too political.”

lunar focus

Another turning point may have been the Vietnam War, which may have provoked further soul-searching.

Bleddyn Bowen, an expert on international relations in outer space, says they were very serious studies, “but they didn’t get funding or attention when they left the space community.”

“If there is something like this kind of lunar hysteria again, it goes against the established international legal order … agreed upon by almost every state in the world,” he said.

Could these plans resurface despite the international consensus?

“I’ve heard some noise coming from some places and from the Pentagon about the US Space Force studying missions to the lunar environment,” says Bowen.

The point, though, is that if some of the craziest ideas don’t catch on in the US, that doesn’t mean they can’t succeed in other countries, like China.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a community in China that wants to promote some of these ideas because they think the moon is cool and they work in the military,” adds Bowen.

Most of the details of Project A119 remain shrouded in mystery. Apparently many of them were destroyed.

That said, perhaps the biggest lesson we learned was that we should never ignore research paper with an undefined and bureaucratic name without at least reading it first.