America "Planned to Nuke the Moon"

[Suicidejim]

So. Yeah. Title speaks for itself. This story has been circulating around today:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4667882/america-had-plans-to-nuke-the-moon.html

Basically, the US allegedly had plans during the height of the Cold War to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon to intimidate the Russians. This is one of those stories that's just a little too crazy for me to be entirely convinced of its authenticity, but if this is the case . . . wow. Certainly an interesting idea.

The story is better if you play this in the background as you read:

Spoiler: AMERICA!

EDIT: As several users have helpfully pointed out, this was indeed a real thing, and has been public knowledge for some time. Why several sites reported it as news today is something of a mystery.

 

[Dangit2019]

Really? The Sun? They're the American (BRITISH FINE, they're still popular in America) equivalent of the Daily Mail, only worse. I'm not trusting their reporting.

 

[Suicidejim]

Really? The Sun? They're the American equivalent of the Daily Mail, only worse. I'm not trusting their reporting.

Hence my skepticism. It was also reported in the Daily Mail, since you mention it. I've yet to see it reported by a news source I trust, but if it turned out to be true, it was too good a story to pass up. And if not, well, still amusing.

Incidentally, I know Rupert Murdoch owns the newspaper, but I'd still classify it as British.

 

[The Funslinger]

Really? The Sun? They're the American equivalent of the Daily Mail, only worse. I'm not trusting their reporting.

They're actually the British equivalent of the Daily Mail.

Technically they're not, though, as the Daily Mail is also British.

Damn Yanks, trying to steal our hilariously bad tabloids!

 

[disgruntledgamer]

Peace on Earth. Take That Moon!

LoL

 

[Hollock]

We're Earthlings, let's blow up Earth things.

 

[jetriot]

American military intelligence and think tanks work in a way where thousands of ideas are pushed out for thousands of scenarios and then documented and filed. When the think tank goes back over the ideas to consider practical applications they cherry pick and narrow down different responses to different scenarios. This leads me to believe that there was actually a dude in a think tank that came up with an idea to do this. Nothing really wrong with this system, it encourages out of the box thinking and has led to innovations like dolphins trained to disarm/detect mines and the missile defense system.

Of course it has also created horrible ideas like the famous bat bomb and the many many other weird military ideas, some of which were actually heavily experimented with.

 

[IamQ]

So. Yeah. Title speaks for itself. This story has been circulating around today:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4667882/america-had-plans-to-nuke-the-moon.html

Basically, the US allegedly had plans during the height of the Cold War to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon to intimidate the Russians. This is one of those stories that's just a little too crazy for me to be entirely convinced of its authenticity, but if this is the case . . . wow. Certainly an interesting idea.

The story is better if you play this in the background as you read:

Spoiler: AMERICA!

This is old news. I've known this for like 4 years now. I thought everyone knew this.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Nah I bet the real reason was that they hated tidal waves and surfers!

 

[geK0]

Honestly, this is the first thing that came to mind

 

[DoPo]

Erm, yeah, that's not really news to me. Here is a far more reliable source, though - Cracked [http://www.cracked.com/article/153_nuke-moon-5-certifiably-insane-cold-war-projects/].

Also, I did a very thorough research, that is, I googled A119 and I came up with this [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119] as the first result. It's one thing to go "Well, the source is bullcrap" another to just say it when they are actually correct and the information is easily verifiable.

 

[Suicidejim]

Erm, yeah, that's not really news to me. Here is a far more reliable source, though - Cracked [http://www.cracked.com/article/153_nuke-moon-5-certifiably-insane-cold-war-projects/].

Also, I did a very thorough research, that is, I googled A119 and I came up with this [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119] as the first result. It's one thing to go "Well, the source is bullcrap" another to just say it when they are actually correct and the information is easily verifiable.

How curious it is that such a thing happened to reappear today then. Well . . . um . . . be as that may - WAIT, LOOK OVER THERE!

*runs*

 

[Ryotknife]

A pre-emptive strike against the Earth Anhilation System. Come on, how many videogames uses the moon as a device to destroy or enslave the planet? quite a few.

Also, obligatory "AMERICA F$#% YEA!"

 

[Soviet Heavy]

"Sir, are you suggesting we blow up the moon?"

"....Would you miss it? Would you miss it?"

 

[RufusMcLaser]

What a stupidly misleading headline. A 1.7 kiloton detonation is not going to "blow up the Moon." Make a flash visible from Earth? Sure. Create a respectably sized crater? Probably. Destroy a rocky body with an equatorial circumference of 10,921 km? Never.
The project was obviously frivolous at the best, but the headline in question is getting much further under my skin than carrying the project out would have.

 

[renegade7]

We're Earthlings, let's blow up Earth things.

But we're also Americans (well, I am at least) so let's blow up everything! TAKE THAT COMMIES!

 

[Suicidejim]

The project was obviously frivolous at the best, but the headline in question is getting much further under my skin than carrying the project out would have.

Not much I could do to alter the misleading language in the attached article, but decided to alter the thread title to reflect the actual story more accurately.

 

[RufusMcLaser]

Not much I could do to alter the misleading language in the attached article, but decided to alter the thread title to reflect the actual story more accurately.

You, sir(?), are incredibly nice and win one hundred internets forever.
Just to be clear, I was annoyed by the Sun, not your thread title. Gawrsh... you didn't have ta do that for me!

 

[Yoshisummons]

Actually they wanted to nuke the dark side of the moon to test the nukes without them ol' ruskies from finding out. This is very old news, you can check out the Fog of War documentary of Robert McNamara.

Wait, I was beaten to the punch, awwww .