As we all know, since the 1950s, the world has entered a Cold War pattern centered on the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The all-out confrontation between the capitalist camp and the socialist forces is represented by both of them, and in the decades-long competition, this confrontation spans many fields from economics to politics to science and technology, with aviation being the most prominent.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet Union took the lead in making artificial satellites and manned spaceflight, which really overwhelmed the United States, and the United States also caught up and soon launched the famous Apollo program.
Detonate the moon
The Apollo program is familiar to everyone, its core is the manned moon landing, which was not successful in the world at that time, and the United States realized this technology for the first time in human history.
In 1969, Apollo 11 successfully landed on the moon with astronauts, creating a new milestone in the space industry and regaining its advantage in the confrontation with the Soviet Union.
Subsequently, NASA continued to advance the program, sending more than a dozen astronauts into space, as the first astronaut to step on the surface of the earth, Armstrong's famous quote still circulates to this day, "I took a small step, but it was a big step for human civilization." ”
The expedition was generally very successful, and it also left a strong mark on astronomical history, but what many people don't know is that after the success of this program, NASA scientists quickly had a new idea, and it sounded very shocking.
Simply put, they want to blow up the moon.
Although the moon is not as big as the earth, but it is not a simple thing to blow up, in order to do this, the first thing to do is not to use a general bomb, but the most powerful nuclear bomb, but because it is too influential in every sense, so the plan is not announced to the public, but in the form of a secret seal, code name is the A119 project.
How? At that time, NASA gathered a lot of experts, hoping to find the best solution.
Latham, a scientist from Apollo, believes that after all, the use of nuclear bombs must produce a large amount of nuclear radiation, which will bring unpredictable harm to us once it enters the Earth's atmosphere, and in order to avoid such a problem, we should choose to detonate on the back of the moon instead of the front.
But this leads to another problem, that is, the observation conditions, in order to be able to catch the moment of the explosion on Earth, it must only be detonated on the front.
Possible hazards
While the discussions were raging on the American side, the Soviets had the same idea, and scientists from all over the country were gathered together to discuss the best detonation plan.
According to some of these scientists, the most straightforward way is to send a nuclear warhead to the moon and then detonate it, which is more efficient and less costly than launching a probe.
No matter which plan, whether it was the United States or the Soviet Union, their desire to detonate the moon was very strong at that time, as long as the nuclear bomb exploded and the moon fell apart, this historic picture could be captured on the earth with instruments and equipment, and even ordinary people could see it with the naked eye.
Many researchers have also specifically studied the diurnal changes of the moon itself, and relied on calculations to find the most suitable tipping point. But having said all that, you must have a question you really want to ask, and that is what is the purpose of detonating the moon?
From the available information, this detonation has no scientific value in the strict sense of the word, and of all the descriptions of it, the most mentioned is the spectacular scene produced by the explosion, which seems a bit too reckless, so many scientists oppose it.
After all, detonating the moon would mean destroying our only satellite, and the possible impact of this event is unimaginable.
For example, if the explosion of the moon can be clearly seen on Earth, then the power of the explosion must be very terrible, and a considerable part of the various debris and radiation generated by it may enter the goal, which is a great risk for us.
Think about it, sixty million years ago, a meteorite with a diameter of ten kilometers directly led to the extinction of dinosaurs, and what kind of debris the moon would explode is still unknown, once history repeats itself, the tragedy is human beings themselves.
In fact, the moon is very important for the earth, first of all, it has a very constant gravitational balance relationship with us, if the moon is suddenly blown up, the earth may not be able to maintain its current position and state, such as the tilt of the earth's axis will change.
Even a few degrees of change can have very serious consequences for humans.
The change in inclination means that the angle between the earth and the equatorial plane changes, the direct point of the sun will change, the polar regions that were originally in the cold zone may heat up, the glaciers will melt and then the sea level will rise, the desert will flood, the rainforest will have no water, the balance of the entire ecosystem will be broken, and it is possible that even the most basic seasonal changes will disappear completely.
This almost means annihilation for living creatures on Earth.
Of course, more terrifying than this slow change is the direct attack of explosive debris, perhaps a meteorite far larger than ten kilometers in diameter fell from the sky, subjecting the earth to another terrible impact, triggering a series of bad events, so that human beings are completely destroyed like dinosaurs.
epilogue
Of course, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union put this plan into practice, in addition to considering the disaster it may bring, it is actually related to their own limited capabilities, after all, the moon is not a hydropower station, it is not an easy task to blow up, just from the amount of nuclear bombs, it is far beyond our production capacity.