題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。
掲示板,ＭＬを含むこのサイトすべての
一切の引用、転載、リンクを許可いたします。確認メールは不要です。
引用元リンクを表示してください。
| Tweet |
http://www.asahi.com/0514/news/international14002.html
----
１４日付の英紙オブザーバーによると、米国は冷戦さ
なかの１９５０年代末、軍事力を誇示するために核爆弾
を月面で爆発させることを極秘に計画していた。この計
画に関与した物理学者のレナード・ライフェル博士が同
紙とのインタビューで明らかにした。
広島に投下された原子爆弾と同規模以上の核爆弾を使
用し、太陽に照らされてきのこ雲が地球から見えるよう
にする計画だったという。軍の気が変わって計画は実行
されなかったが、その理由は明らかでない。
ライフェル博士は、核を爆発させても地球への影響は
ほとんどないものの、月面は破壊されてしまったはずだ
と述べた。（時事）(11:25)
----
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,220679,00.html
US planned one big nuclear
blast for mankind
Antony Barnett, Public Affairs Editor
Sunday May 14, 2000
The US Air Force developed a top-secret plan to
detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon as a display
of military might at the height of the Cold War.
In an exclusive interview with The Observer, Dr
Leonard Reiffel, 73, the physicist who fronted the
project in the late Fifties at the US
military-backed Armour Research Foundation,
revealed America's extraordinary lunar plan.
'It was clear the main aim of the proposed
detonation was a PR exercise and a show of
one-upmanship. The Air Force wanted a
mushroom cloud so large it would be visible on
earth,' he said yesterday. 'The US was lagging
behind in the space race.'
'The explosion would obviously be best on the dark
side of the moon and the theory was that if the
bomb exploded on the edge of the moon, the
mushroom cloud would be illuminated by the sun.'
The bomb would have been at least as large as the
one used on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
'I made it clear at the time there would be a huge
cost to science of destroying a pristine lunar
environment, but the US Air Force were mainly
concerned about how the nuclear explosion would
play on earth,' said Reiffel.
Although he believes the blast would have had
little environmental impact on Earth, its crater
may have ruined the face of the 'man in the moon'.
Reiffel would not reveal how the explosion would
have taken place. But he confirmed it was
'certainly technically feasible' and that at the
time an intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile
would have been capable of hitting a target on the
moon with an accuracy of within two miles.
Reiffel was approached by senior US Air Force
officers in 1958, who asked him to 'fast-track' a
project to investigate the visibility and effects of
a nuclear explosion on the moon. The top-secret
Project A119, was entitled 'A Study of Lunar
Research Flights'.
'Had the project been made public there would
have been an outcry,' said Reiffel.
Many Cold War documents are still classified in
the US, but details of Project A119 emerged after
a biography of celebrated US scientist and
astronomer Carl Sagan was published there last
year.
Sagan, who died in 1996, was famous for
popularising science in the US and pioneering the
study of potential life on other planets. At the
Armour Foundation in Chica
go - now called the
Illinois Institute of Technology Research - he was
hired by Reiffel to undertake mathematical
modelling on the expansion of an exploding dust
cloud in the space around the moon. This was key
to calculating the visibility of such a cloud from
the Earth.
At the time scientists still believed there might be
microbial life on the moon and Sagan had suggested
a nuclear explosion might be used to detect
organisms.
Despite the highly classified nature of the work,
Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson, discovered
that he had disclosed details of it when he applied
for the prestigious Miller Institute graduate
fellowship to Berkeley.
Yet, until today, the full nature of Project A119
has never been revealed. Friends of Sagan believe
he never would have wilfully revealed classified
information, but Reiffel has come forward to put
the 'historical record straight'.
Reiffel continued: 'It was well known that the
existence of this project was top secret. Had Sagan
wanted to make any disclosures to any party, as
his boss at the time, I would have had to take
forward any such request and Air Force
permission would have been extremely unlikely
in those very tense times.'
In a letter to the science magazine Nature, Reiffel
said: 'Fortunately for the future of lunar science,
a one or two horse race to detonate a nuclear
explosion never occurred. But in my opinion
Sagan breached security in March, 1959.'
Reiffel produced eight reports between May 1958
and January 1959 on the feasibility of the plan,
all of which were destroyed in 1987 by the
foundation. Reiffel would not discuss details of
these reports, believing they were still
classified, but it was clear the conclusion was that
the explosion would have been visible from Earth
He does not know why the plans were scrapped,
but said: 'Thankfully, the thinking changed. I am
horrified that such a gesture to sway public
opinion was ever considered.'
Dr David Lowry, a British nuclear historian,
said: 'It is obscene. To think that the first contact
human beings would have had with another world
would have been to explode a nuclear bomb. Had
they gone ahead, we would never have had the
romantic image of Neil Armstrong taking "one
giant step for mankind".'
Lowry believes Project A119 has relevance today
with the US proposing a missile defence system in
space. He said: 'The US has always wanted to
militarise space and some of the fanciful ideas
currently being put forward will seem as incredible as the idea of nuking the moon in the Fifties seems today.'
A Pentagon spokesman would not confirm or deny
the plans.
antony.barnett@observer.co.uk
題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。