7 ms·

"There was even a plan, which ultimately fizzled, to set off a nuclear blast on the moon." Humanity at its best

by tchvil 5y ago

Roritharr 5y ago
A friend of mine had the interesting theory that this will inevitably happen some time, even if it would just be for entertainment purposes.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  NYE 2081? Or maybe a weird version of angry birds for a trillionaire
- mhh__ 5y ago
  As much as I know I it's an awful thing to happen on earth even as a test, there's a part of me that clearly has a Promethean desire to observe a nuclear explosion. I applied to work for a job at a (explosions rather than power) nuclear agency, didn't get the job, slightly glad I didn't now really.
- HPsquared 5y ago
  I wonder... would that be visible from Earth, and what would it look like? Probably wouldn't show on a full moon, but maybe a new moon?
- JasonFruit 5y ago
  We could make it a lot easier to see the man in the moon.
joconde 5y ago
This has got to release energy similar to a meteroid impact, right? Do we know if there was any chance of side effects on the Moon and/or the Earth? (e.g. slight changes in orbit or mass, debris in space, etc.)
- messe 5y ago
  > Do we know if there was any chance of side effects on the Moon and/or the Earth? Pretty much none. The moon is big, and even nuclear blast would release a comparatively tiny amount of energy.
- ben_w 5y ago
  Only in a “well technically” sense. Moon weighs far too much for a mere nuke to do much to its orbit or mass, and any debris you kicked up with one would be lost among all the other bits of grit too small and common to bother enumerating.
  - azernik 5y ago
    And most of the debris (anything that goes flying at less than 1.8km/s) will just fall back down.
    - messe 5y ago
      2.4km/s. Anything not launched at escape velocity will return. Objects at orbital velocities will return to the impact site after a single orbit (more or less, this isn't counting the effects of earth's gravitational pull).
      - mbreese 5y ago
        But wouldn’t it take a while? I’m imagining a dust cloud of epic proportions. But I guess without an atmosphere, the only effect would be gravity, so it would all have to settle back down somewhat quickly? I’m imagining a sci-fi plot where you have two competing moon bases. And as one group is leaving, they detonate a bomb which kicks up enough debris to incapacitate the other base.
        messe 5y ago
        > But wouldn’t it take a while? The Moon's Hill sphere is just under 52000 km in radius. This is the distance at which the Earth's gravitational influence is greater than that of the Moon. Using Keplerian orbital mechanics (i.e. KSP-style patched conics) as an approximation, a circular orbit at that distance takes about two weeks. This is the longest possible orbit around the moon (approximately), and therefore an upper bound on the maximum amount of time it can take for something to shoot up from the moon and fall back again. EDIT: A couple of things to note: in the absence of other bodies, my argument wouldn't apply, as the Hill sphere would be infinite. I'm assuming here, for simplicity, that anything that exits the Hill sphere doesn't fall back. This is not entirely accurate. It's possible that something might enter orbit around the Earth, and hit the moon at some point in the future, but I'm ignoring that.
AniseAbyss 5y ago
Nuclear energy was just a by-product. Every nuclear power plant had to produce weapons grade plutonium. At its height the US had 50000 nukes.
mjklin 5y ago
And a plan by Edward Teller to create a harbor in Alaska using atom bombs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chariot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chariot
- jbrnh 5y ago
  "The Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement" by Dan O'Neill is highly recommended.
Simplicitas 5y ago
we keep forgetting we're just apes
- Koshkin 5y ago
  we also keep forgetting we're 66% just water
DaniloDias 5y ago
Listen- that thing keeps giving women periods. Somebody had to do something.
dang 5y ago
Maybe not, but please don't post unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"There was even a plan, which ultimately fizzled, to set off a nuclear blast on the moon." Humanity at its best

by tchvil 5y ago

"There was even a plan, which ultimately fizzled, to set off a nuclear blast on the moon." Humanity at its best

A friend of mine had the interesting theory that this will inevitably happen some time, even if it would just be for entertainment purposes.

quickthrower2 5y ago
NYE 2081? Or maybe a weird version of angry birds for a trillionaire
mhh__ 5y ago
As much as I know I it's an awful thing to happen on earth even as a test, there's a part of me that clearly has a Promethean desire to observe a nuclear explosion. I applied to work for a job at a (explosions rather than power) nuclear agency, didn't get the job, slightly glad I didn't now really.
HPsquared 5y ago
I wonder... would that be visible from Earth, and what would it look like? Probably wouldn't show on a full moon, but maybe a new moon?
JasonFruit 5y ago
We could make it a lot easier to see the man in the moon.

joconde 5y ago

This has got to release energy similar to a meteroid impact, right? Do we know if there was any chance of side effects on the Moon and/or the Earth? (e.g. slight changes in orbit or mass, debris in space, etc.)

messe 5y ago
> Do we know if there was any chance of side effects on the Moon and/or the Earth? Pretty much none. The moon is big, and even nuclear blast would release a comparatively tiny amount of energy.
ben_w 5y ago
Only in a “well technically” sense. Moon weighs far too much for a mere nuke to do much to its orbit or mass, and any debris you kicked up with one would be lost among all the other bits of grit too small and common to bother enumerating.
- azernik 5y ago
  And most of the debris (anything that goes flying at less than 1.8km/s) will just fall back down.
  - messe 5y ago
    2.4km/s. Anything not launched at escape velocity will return. Objects at orbital velocities will return to the impact site after a single orbit (more or less, this isn't counting the effects of earth's gravitational pull).
    - mbreese 5y ago
      But wouldn’t it take a while? I’m imagining a dust cloud of epic proportions. But I guess without an atmosphere, the only effect would be gravity, so it would all have to settle back down somewhat quickly? I’m imagining a sci-fi plot where you have two competing moon bases. And as one group is leaving, they detonate a bomb which kicks up enough debris to incapacitate the other base.
      - messe 5y ago
        > But wouldn’t it take a while? The Moon's Hill sphere is just under 52000 km in radius. This is the distance at which the Earth's gravitational influence is greater than that of the Moon. Using Keplerian orbital mechanics (i.e. KSP-style patched conics) as an approximation, a circular orbit at that distance takes about two weeks. This is the longest possible orbit around the moon (approximately), and therefore an upper bound on the maximum amount of time it can take for something to shoot up from the moon and fall back again. EDIT: A couple of things to note: in the absence of other bodies, my argument wouldn't apply, as the Hill sphere would be infinite. I'm assuming here, for simplicity, that anything that exits the Hill sphere doesn't fall back. This is not entirely accurate. It's possible that something might enter orbit around the Earth, and hit the moon at some point in the future, but I'm ignoring that.

AniseAbyss 5y ago

Nuclear energy was just a by-product. Every nuclear power plant had to produce weapons grade plutonium. At its height the US had 50000 nukes.

mjklin 5y ago

And a plan by Edward Teller to create a harbor in Alaska using atom bombs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chariot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chariot

jbrnh 5y ago
"The Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement" by Dan O'Neill is highly recommended.

Simplicitas 5y ago

we keep forgetting we're just apes

Koshkin 5y ago
we also keep forgetting we're 66% just water

DaniloDias 5y ago

Listen- that thing keeps giving women periods. Somebody had to do something.

dang 5y ago

Maybe not, but please don't post unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html