America once planned to drop an atomic bomb on the Moon

In 1957, the Soviet Union surprised the world by putting into orbit an artificial satellite, Sputnik, at a time when American rocket manufacturers were still figuring out the complexity of the launch system. On their first attempt, the rocket exploded right on the launch pad. Nearly 4 months after Sputnik, and 3 months after the Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 brought the first living creature, the dog Laika, into space, the US successfully launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, on January 31, 1958. . This satellite weighs only 14 kg while Sputnik weighs 83.6 kg and was the most powerful rocket ever designed at that time.

Clearly, the Soviet Union was ahead in the space race and America sought an achievement that would strengthen its position. US authorities thought about the possibility of sending an atomic bomb to the Moon and detonating it for the whole world to see. That is why project A119 was born, according to Amusing Planet.

Immediately, a group of physicists and scientists were mobilized to study the observation of the explosion from Earth. That is the number one research goal along with a number of other issues such as whether such an explosion could harm the lunar environment. They determined that the bomb would be detonated in the twilight zone so that sunlight would shine on the dust cloud formed from the explosion, making it visible from Earth. Renowned astronomer and planetary scientist Carl Sagan, then a graduate student under Gerard Kuiper, was also on the research team. He was asked to create a mathematical model of the expansion of the dust cloud in space around the Moon.

Initially, experts considered using a thermonuclear bomb but then concluded it was too heavy for the 386,243 km flight to the Moon. Instead, a smaller device with a relatively low explosive equivalent (mass of a reactant) of 1.7 kilotons was chosen. Compared to it, the Little Boy bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 had an explosive yield of 13 – 18 kilotons. Activities on the A119 project lasted until January 1959 and were suddenly stopped. A119 became a top secret project and all project members had to swear to keep the mission secret.

The existence of Project A119 remained a secret until the mid-1990s when writer Keay Davidson discovered the story while researching the life of Carl Sagan for a biography. Sagan mentioned some details of the project and was accused of violating national security when applying for a scholarship to the University of California in 1959. Many details about the project became clear in 2000, not long after the Carl Sagan’s history was published and physicist Leonard Reiffel, who directed the research, shared it with the press.

“If they promote the project, we will never have the historical image when Neil Armstrong made ‘a giant step for mankind’,” Dr. David Lowry, British nuclear historian, emphasized.