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Carl Sagan Was On US Team To Nuke the Moon

Posted by timothy on from the only-a-light-nuking-around-the-edges dept.

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!)"

7 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Why would that be the first step? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In what world does putting nukes on the moon require first detonating them on the moon? It would seem like that might make things harder.

    1. Re:Why would that be the first step? by sribe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In what world does putting nukes on the moon require first detonating them on the moon? It would seem like that might make things harder.

      I think the summary was poorly worded. It's not the first step to getting them on the moon; it's the first to using them as a deterrent, after siting on the moon, because it would be proof positive to the Soviets that you had actually gotten working nukes onto the moon, as opposed to some kind non-functional decoy. (Ironically, decades later, Ronald Reagan used a non-functioning decoy (SDI) to wreck the Soviet economy and win the cold war...)

    2. Re:Why would that be the first step? by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ... If you can't nuke the moon from Earth, then you can't nuke Earth from the moon.

      Horse manure. Different size gravity wells.

      --
      Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
    3. Re:Why would that be the first step? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's much harder to get a nuke to the moon. You're climbing up the big gravity well and falling down the little one instead of vice versa. It took a Saturn V to get people to the moon and only a couple of puny boosters to get them back.

  2. News for Nerds, Stuff from Twelve Years Ago by Swampash · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2000/may/14/spaceexploration.theobserver

    Slashdot editors, kill yourselves.

    1. Re:News for Nerds, Stuff from Twelve Years Ago by fotoguzzi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      http://slashdot.org/story/00/05/15/1238219/us-had-plan-to-nuke-the-moon

      --
      Their they're doing there hair.
  3. Re:War; War never changes by CapOblivious2010 · · Score: 5, Funny

    WTF man? Of course he was talking about going some where else with sufficient resources and habitable conditions. You might as well have assumed he meant we should set up a colony on the surface of the sun for all the idiocy you've attributed to him.

    As long as you stayed inside during the day, and only went out at night, a solar colony might be workable.