Scorched Moon: Secret Project A119

In today’s world, it is hard to realize how frightened Americans were at the news of Sputnik orbiting the Earth. Part of it was a fear of what a rival nation could do if they could fly over your country with impunity. Part of it was simply fear generated by propaganda. While America won the race to the moon, that wasn’t clear in the 1950s. The Soviet Union was ahead in the ability to deliver bombs using planes and missiles. They launched Sputnik on a modified ICBM, while American attempts to do the same failed spectacularly. The Air Force wanted ideas about how to respond to Sputnik, and one of the most disturbing ones was project A119, a project we were reminded of recently by a BBC post.

In all fairness, the Soviets had an almost identical plan, code-named E4. Fortunately, both sides eventually realized these plans weren’t a good idea. Oh, did we forget to mention that A119 and E4 were plans to detonate a nuclear device on the moon?

The official title was “A Study of Lunar Research Flights, Volume 1” which sounds benign enough. But the idea was to drop a hydrogen bomb at the terminator line on the moon, presumably to scare the Soviets and prevent them from planning military bases on the lunar surface. Well, ostensibly, it was for science, but it is hard to imagine what science would be worth irradiating the moon with a nuclear device.

The abstract reads:

Nuclear detonations in the vicinity of the the moon are considered in this report along with scientific information which might be obtained frorn such explosions. The military aspect is aided by investigation of space environment, detection of nuclear device testing, and capability of weapons in space.

A study was conducted of various theories of the moon’s structure and origin, and a description of the probable nature of the lunar surface is given. The areas discussed In some detail are optical lunar studies, seismic observations, lunar surface and magnetic fields, plasma and magnetic field effects, and organic matter on the moon.

We aren’t sure what the organic matter part was about. Like many cold war things, this makes no sense knowing what we know now. Keep in mind, too, that back then, people also were proposing other uses for nuclear bombs, such as working with natural gas and working on excavation projects. The moon has been the topic of more than one cloak-and-dagger escapade.