In 1957, Nobel laureate microbiologist Joshua Lederberg and biostatician J. B. S. Haldane sat down together imagined what would happened if the USSR decided to explode a nuclear weapon on the moon. (Maybe they read a recent United Press article about the rumored USSR plans.)

The Cold War was on, Sputnik had recently been launched, and the 40th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution was coming up – a good time for an awe-inspiring political statement. Nuking the moon would make a powerful political statement on earth, but the radiation and disruption could permanently harm scientific research on the moon.

What Lederberg and Haldane did not know was that they were onto something – by the next year, the USSR really investigated the possibility of dropping a nuke on the moon. They called it “Project E-4,” one of a series of possible lunar missions.

What [...]

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Outline:

(01:31) “Why would anyone think it was a good idea to nuke the moon?”

(01:54) Reasons to nuke the moon

(04:33) Reasons to not nuke the moon

(07:00) Afterwards

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First published:

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Linkpost URL:
https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2024/04/12/nuking-the-moon/

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.