Bombing the moon: It was real!1!11!!! [View all]

[Silent3]

http://www.iflscience.com/space/the-us-had-an-insane-plan-to-drop-a-nuclear-bomb-on-the-moon-in-the-1950s/

Amidst the scientific progress, big egos, and general madness of the Cold War, the US wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on the Moon. The idea was sold as being in the interest of science, but really it was just a big middle finger to the USSR. As if this cautionary tale couldn't get any weirder, a young Carl Sagan was one of the bright sparks used to hatch the plan.

...

Their idea was to drop a small W25 nuclear warhead along... the Moon’s terminator (the division between the illuminated and shadowed parts). This means the mushroom cloud would be lit up by the Sun and could be seen from Earth and, in particular, viewable from Moscow. All of their research showed they did indeed have the technological clout to pull this off.

Of course, even a much bigger nuke wouldn't crack the moon in two, disrupt the tides on Earth, disturb women's menstrual cycles, or even nudge the moon's orbit to a measurable degree (well, maybe if you had really, really, really sensitive measurements) -- things that DU old-timers will remember were among the breathless concerns of some of their fellow DUers when we merely crashed a small space probe into the moon.

Disrespect the moon goddess? An attack by the patriarchy on the sacred feminine? Harm aliens living on the moon with whom certain humans had psychic communications?

I suppose those effects are more debatable.