Project A119
Encyclopedia
Project A119, also known as "A Study of Lunar Research Flights", was a top-secret plan developed in the late 1950s by the United States Air Force
. The aim of the project was to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon to boost public morale in the United States after the Soviet Union
took an early lead in the Space Race
. The existence of the project was revealed in 2000 by a former executive at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA
), Leonard Reiffel
, who led the project in 1958. A young Carl Sagan
was part of the team responsible for predicting the effects of a nuclear explosion in low gravity.
Project A119 was never carried out, primarily because a moon landing would be a much more acceptable achievement in the eyes of the American public. The project documents remained secret for nearly 45 years, and despite Reiffel's revelations, the US government has never officially recognized his involvement in the study.
, the Soviet Union
took the lead in the Space Race
with the launch of Sputnik 1
on October 4, 1957. Sputnik was the first artificial satellite in orbit around the Earth, and the surprise of its successful launch, compounded by the resounding failure of Project Vanguard
to launch an American satellite after two attempts, has been dubbed the "Sputnik crisis
" and was the impetus for the beginning of the Space Race. Trying to reclaim lost ground, the United States
embarked on a series of new projects and studies, which eventually included the launch of Explorer 1 and the creation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA
.
, based at the Illinois Institute of Technology
, began covertly researching the potential consequences of an atomic explosion on the Moon. The main objective of the program, which ran under the auspices of the United States Air Force
, which had initially proposed it, was to cause a nuclear explosion that would be visible from Earth. It was hoped that such a display would boost the morale of the American people.
At the time of the project's conception, newspapers were reporting a rumor that the Soviet Union was planning to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon. According to press reports in late 1957, an anonymous source had divulged to a United States Secret Service
agent that the Soviets planned to commemorate the anniversary of the October Revolution
by causing a nuclear explosion on the Moon to coincide with an eclipse on November 7. News reports of the rumored launch included mention of targeting the dark side of the terminator—Project A119 would also consider this boundary as the target for an explosion. It was also reported that a failure to hit the Moon would likely result in the missile returning to Earth.
A similar idea was put forward by Edward Teller
, the "father of the H-bomb", who, in February 1957, proposed the detonation of atomic devices both on and some distance from the lunar surface to analyze the effects of the explosion.
was assembled at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to study the potential visibility of the explosion, benefits to science, and implications for the lunar surface. Among the members of the research team were astronomer Gerard Kuiper
and his doctoral student Carl Sagan
, who was responsible for the mathematical projection of the expansion of a dust cloud in space around the Moon, an essential element in determining its visibility from Earth.
Scientists initially considered utilizing a hydrogen bomb for the project, but the United States Air Force vetoed this idea due to the weight of such a device, as it would be too heavy to be propelled by the missile which would have been used. It was then decided to use a W25 warhead, a small, lightweight warhead with a relatively low 1.7 kiloton
yield
. By contrast, the Little Boy
bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima
in 1945 had a yield of some 13–18 kilotons. The W25 would be carried by a rocket toward the unilluminated side of the Moon, near the terminator
, where it would detonate on impact. The dust cloud resulting from the explosion would be lit by the Sun and therefore visible from Earth. According to Reiffel, the Air Force's progress in the development of intercontinental ballistic missile
s would have made such a launch feasible by 1959.
for future lunar research projects and colonization
.
Later reports show that a corresponding Soviet project did indeed exist, but differed from the scenario reported in the press. Started in January 1958, it was part of a series of proposals under the codename "E". Project E-1 entailed plans to reach the Moon, while projects E-2 and E-3 involved sending a probe around the far side of the Moon to take a series of photographs of its surface. The final stage of the project, E-4, was to be a nuclear strike on the Moon as a display of force. As with the American plan, the E series of projects was canceled while still in its planning stages due to concerns regarding the safety and reliability of the launch vehicle.
in 1967 prevented future exploration of the concept of detonating a nuclear device on the Moon. However, by this time both the United States and the Soviet Union had performed several high-altitude nuclear explosions, including those of Operation Hardtack I
, Operation Argus
, Operation Dominic I and II
, and The K Project
.
By 1969, the United States had achieved a considerable victory in the Space Race after the success of the Apollo 11
mission. In December that year, Apollo scientist Gary Latham suggested detonating a "smallish" nuclear device on the Moon in order to facilitate research into its geologic make-up. The idea was dismissed, however, as it would interfere with plans to measure the Moon's natural background radiation.
The existence of Project A119 remained largely secret until the mid-1990s, when writer Keay Davidson discovered the story while researching the life of Carl Sagan for a biography. Sagan's involvement with the project was apparent from his application for an academic scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley
's Miller Institute
in 1959. In the application, Sagan gave details of the project research, which Davidson felt constituted a violation of national security. The leak consisted of Sagan revealing the titles of two classified papers from the A119 project—the 1958 paper Possible Contribution of Lunar Nuclear Weapons Detonations to the Solution of Some Problems in Planetary Astronomy, and the 1959 paper Radiological Contamination of the Moon by Nuclear Weapons Detonations. These were among the eight reports created by the project, all of which were destroyed in 1987.
The resulting biography—Carl Sagan: A Life—was published in 1999. Shortly after, a review published in Nature
highlighted the discovery of the leaked information. This led Dr. Reiffel to break his anonymity and write a letter to the journal confirming that Sagan's activity had at the time been considered a breach in the confidentiality of the project. Reiffel took the opportunity to reveal details of the studies, and his statements would later be widely reported in the media. Reiffel's public admission of the project was accompanied by his denouncement of the work carried out, with the scientist noting that he was "horrified that such a gesture to sway public opinion was ever considered".
As a result of the publicity the correspondence created, a freedom of information
request was lodged concerning Project A119. It was only then that A Study of Lunar Research Flights – Volume I was made public, over forty years after its inception. A search for the other volumes of documentation, however, revealed that other reports were destroyed in the 1980s by the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Dr. David Lowry
, a British nuclear historian, has called the project's proposals "obscene", adding "had they gone ahead, we would never have had the romantic image of Neil Armstrong
taking "one giant leap for mankind"."
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
. The aim of the project was to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon to boost public morale in the United States after the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
took an early lead in the Space Race
Space Race
The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...
. The existence of the project was revealed in 2000 by a former executive at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
), Leonard Reiffel
Leonard Reiffel
Leonard Reiffel is an American physicist, author and educator. Reiffel has worked for NASA and the Illinois Institute of Technology, and has won a Peabody Award for his work on the radio program The World Tomorrow.- Universities and inventions:...
, who led the project in 1958. A young Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
was part of the team responsible for predicting the effects of a nuclear explosion in low gravity.
Project A119 was never carried out, primarily because a moon landing would be a much more acceptable achievement in the eyes of the American public. The project documents remained secret for nearly 45 years, and despite Reiffel's revelations, the US government has never officially recognized his involvement in the study.
Background
During the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
took the lead in the Space Race
Space Race
The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...
with the launch of Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...
on October 4, 1957. Sputnik was the first artificial satellite in orbit around the Earth, and the surprise of its successful launch, compounded by the resounding failure of Project Vanguard
Project Vanguard
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Naval Research Laboratory , which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket as the launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Missile Annex, Florida....
to launch an American satellite after two attempts, has been dubbed the "Sputnik crisis
Sputnik crisis
The Sputnik crisis is the name for the American reaction to the success of the Sputnik program. It was a key event during the Cold War that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite....
" and was the impetus for the beginning of the Space Race. Trying to reclaim lost ground, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
embarked on a series of new projects and studies, which eventually included the launch of Explorer 1 and the creation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
.
Project
In May 1958, the Armour Research FoundationIIT Research Institute
IIT Research Institute is a contract research organization located in Chicago, Illinois. IITRI is an independent corporation that operates in collaboration with its parent entity, the Illinois Institute of Technology ....
, based at the Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...
, began covertly researching the potential consequences of an atomic explosion on the Moon. The main objective of the program, which ran under the auspices of the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, which had initially proposed it, was to cause a nuclear explosion that would be visible from Earth. It was hoped that such a display would boost the morale of the American people.
At the time of the project's conception, newspapers were reporting a rumor that the Soviet Union was planning to detonate a hydrogen bomb on the Moon. According to press reports in late 1957, an anonymous source had divulged to a United States Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
agent that the Soviets planned to commemorate the anniversary of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
by causing a nuclear explosion on the Moon to coincide with an eclipse on November 7. News reports of the rumored launch included mention of targeting the dark side of the terminator—Project A119 would also consider this boundary as the target for an explosion. It was also reported that a failure to hit the Moon would likely result in the missile returning to Earth.
A similar idea was put forward by Edward Teller
Edward Teller
Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," even though he did not care for the title. Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy , and surface physics...
, the "father of the H-bomb", who, in February 1957, proposed the detonation of atomic devices both on and some distance from the lunar surface to analyze the effects of the explosion.
Research
A ten-member team led by Leonard ReiffelLeonard Reiffel
Leonard Reiffel is an American physicist, author and educator. Reiffel has worked for NASA and the Illinois Institute of Technology, and has won a Peabody Award for his work on the radio program The World Tomorrow.- Universities and inventions:...
was assembled at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to study the potential visibility of the explosion, benefits to science, and implications for the lunar surface. Among the members of the research team were astronomer Gerard Kuiper
Gerard Kuiper
Gerard Peter Kuiper , Netherlands – December 24, 1973, Mexico City) was a Dutch-American astronomer after whom the Kuiper belt was named.-Early life:...
and his doctoral student Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
, who was responsible for the mathematical projection of the expansion of a dust cloud in space around the Moon, an essential element in determining its visibility from Earth.
Scientists initially considered utilizing a hydrogen bomb for the project, but the United States Air Force vetoed this idea due to the weight of such a device, as it would be too heavy to be propelled by the missile which would have been used. It was then decided to use a W25 warhead, a small, lightweight warhead with a relatively low 1.7 kiloton
TNT equivalent
TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...
yield
Nuclear weapon yield
The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy discharged when a nuclear weapon is detonated, expressed usually in the equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene , either in kilotons or megatons , but sometimes also in terajoules...
. By contrast, the Little Boy
Little Boy
"Little Boy" was the codename of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon...
bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
in 1945 had a yield of some 13–18 kilotons. The W25 would be carried by a rocket toward the unilluminated side of the Moon, near the terminator
Terminator (solar)
A terminator, twilight zone or "grey line" is a moving line that separates the illuminated day side and the dark night side of a planetary body...
, where it would detonate on impact. The dust cloud resulting from the explosion would be lit by the Sun and therefore visible from Earth. According to Reiffel, the Air Force's progress in the development of intercontinental ballistic missile
Intercontinental ballistic missile
An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery...
s would have made such a launch feasible by 1959.
Cancellation
The project was eventually canceled by the Air Force in January 1959, seemingly out of fear of a negative public reaction and the risk to the population should anything have gone wrong with the launch. Another factor, cited by project leader Leonard Reiffel, was the possible implications of the nuclear falloutNuclear fallout
Fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes...
for future lunar research projects and colonization
Colonization of the Moon
The colonization of the Moon is the proposed establishment of permanent human communities on the Moon. Advocates of space exploration have seen settlement of the Moon as a logical step in the expansion of humanity beyond the Earth. Recent indication that water might be present in noteworthy...
.
Later reports show that a corresponding Soviet project did indeed exist, but differed from the scenario reported in the press. Started in January 1958, it was part of a series of proposals under the codename "E". Project E-1 entailed plans to reach the Moon, while projects E-2 and E-3 involved sending a probe around the far side of the Moon to take a series of photographs of its surface. The final stage of the project, E-4, was to be a nuclear strike on the Moon as a display of force. As with the American plan, the E series of projects was canceled while still in its planning stages due to concerns regarding the safety and reliability of the launch vehicle.
Consequences
The signing of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 and the Outer Space TreatyOuter Space Treaty
The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law...
in 1967 prevented future exploration of the concept of detonating a nuclear device on the Moon. However, by this time both the United States and the Soviet Union had performed several high-altitude nuclear explosions, including those of Operation Hardtack I
Operation Hardtack I
Operation Hardtack I was a series of 35 nuclear tests conducted by the United States in 1958 in the Pacific Ocean.Operation Newsreel was a series of three high-altitude nuclear tests conducted as part of Hardtack I. The individual tests in the series were Orange, Teak and Yucca.-Test Blasts:-...
, Operation Argus
Operation Argus
Operation Argus was a series of nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted during August and September 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean by the United States's Defense Nuclear Agency, in conjunction with the Explorer 4 space mission. Operation Argus was conducted between the...
, Operation Dominic I and II
Operation Dominic I and II
Operation Dominic was a series of 105 nuclear test explosions conducted in 1962 by the United States. Those conducted in the Pacific are sometimes called Dominic I. The blasts in Nevada are known as Dominic II. This test series was scheduled quickly, in order to respond in kind to the Soviet...
, and The K Project
The K Project
The K Project, or also Operation K, was a series of five high altitude nuclear explosions, nuclear tests performed by the Soviet Union during the years 1961 and 1962. Their purpose was to test the performance of anti-ballistic missiles of the ABM System A and their resistance against nuclear blasts...
.
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
mission. In December that year, Apollo scientist Gary Latham suggested detonating a "smallish" nuclear device on the Moon in order to facilitate research into its geologic make-up. The idea was dismissed, however, as it would interfere with plans to measure the Moon's natural background radiation.
The existence of Project A119 remained largely secret until the mid-1990s, when writer Keay Davidson discovered the story while researching the life of Carl Sagan for a biography. Sagan's involvement with the project was apparent from his application for an academic scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
's Miller Institute
Miller Institute
The Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science was established on the University of California, Berkeley campus in 1955 after Adolph C. Miller and his wife, Mary Sprague Miller made a donation to the University...
in 1959. In the application, Sagan gave details of the project research, which Davidson felt constituted a violation of national security. The leak consisted of Sagan revealing the titles of two classified papers from the A119 project—the 1958 paper Possible Contribution of Lunar Nuclear Weapons Detonations to the Solution of Some Problems in Planetary Astronomy, and the 1959 paper Radiological Contamination of the Moon by Nuclear Weapons Detonations. These were among the eight reports created by the project, all of which were destroyed in 1987.
The resulting biography—Carl Sagan: A Life—was published in 1999. Shortly after, a review published in Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
highlighted the discovery of the leaked information. This led Dr. Reiffel to break his anonymity and write a letter to the journal confirming that Sagan's activity had at the time been considered a breach in the confidentiality of the project. Reiffel took the opportunity to reveal details of the studies, and his statements would later be widely reported in the media. Reiffel's public admission of the project was accompanied by his denouncement of the work carried out, with the scientist noting that he was "horrified that such a gesture to sway public opinion was ever considered".
As a result of the publicity the correspondence created, a freedom of information
Freedom of information in the United States
Freedom of information in the United States refers to the independent bodies of Freedom of information legislation at the federal level and in the fifty states.-Federal level:...
request was lodged concerning Project A119. It was only then that A Study of Lunar Research Flights – Volume I was made public, over forty years after its inception. A search for the other volumes of documentation, however, revealed that other reports were destroyed in the 1980s by the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Dr. David Lowry
David Lowry
David Lowry is a research consultant with specialist knowledge of UK and EU nuclear and environment policy.-Biography:Lowry is a contributing author to a 2007 book on British energy choices entitled Nuclear or Not? In 2001, Lowry was presented with a special award for education at the Nuclear-Free...
, a British nuclear historian, has called the project's proposals "obscene", adding "had they gone ahead, we would never have had the romantic image of Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong
Neil Alden Armstrong is an American former astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor, United States Naval Aviator, and the first person to set foot upon the Moon....
taking "one giant leap for mankind"."