Ep. 18, Page 76

smbhax on Feb. 21, 2013

Speaking of seismometers and blasts, did you know that both the US and the Soviets had plans to nuke the Moon? True story! You can even read the 1959 Air Force Special Weapons Center report on how best to do it right here.
They never quite made it that far, but they did get up to high-altitude testing on Earth: here's 1962's Starfish Prime test exploding 250 miles over the Pacific as seen at 11 pm in Honolulu:

Good evening for a tan! Radiation from the explosion disabled three satellites, and, along with radiation from similar Soviet tests, formed man-made radiation belts around the globe that ended up crippling seven low-Earth-orbit satellites–1/3rd of the total operating at the time. The belts could still be detected five years later.