Carl Sagan Was On US Team To Nuke the Moon 206
First time accepted submitter novakom writes "Apparently during the cold war, one fall-back position the U.S. was looking at to ensure mutual assured destruction was to put nukes on the moon. This would ensure that the U.S. could retaliate against even an effective first strike by the Russians. The first step, of course, would be to detonate a nuke on the moon. And yes, Carl Sagan was on the team (and apparently leaked the info!)"
slow news day? (Score:5, Informative)
> [...........] And yes, Carl Sagan was on the team (and apparently leaked the info!)
That's in the wiki entry [wikipedia.org]. Slow news during the holiday season?
Re:Typical slashdot summary (Score:5, Informative)
Hmm, might review your history a bit.
Potsdam (w/ Truman hinting to Stalin about the A-bomb) happened in 1945. Eisenhower was President after 1953. This nuke-the-moon plan didn't get rolling until 1957 (after Sputnik) when the US heard a rumor about a similar Soviet plan to nuke-the-moon (aka Project E-4).
The publication "A Study of Lunar Research Flights" (which documented the nuke-the-moon plan) wasn't printed until 1959.
Re:It is truly frightening (Score:3, Informative)
I know we all joke about politicians and bureaucrats, but to think there are really people that stupid in high places just scares the crap out of me.
Na, what's really frightening is the U.S. missed the moon 2 times in their first attempts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_program [wikipedia.org] so you would have two nukes flying who knows where.
Be try to spot a big boy sized "asteroids" at this time.
To actually answer your post, yes the U.S. was very paranoid and sure the Russians were going to strike.
It wasn't until they tapped into the undersea telephone cable that they found it far from the truth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells [wikipedia.org]
Re:Why would that be the first step? (Score:2, Informative)