[HN Gopher] The U.S. set off a nuclear bomb in space in 1962
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The U.S. set off a nuclear bomb in space in 1962
Author : evo_9
Score : 48 points
Date : 2021-07-17 17:12 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nationalgeographic.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nationalgeographic.com)
| pomian wrote:
| A very good fiction book on this topic is One Second After, by
| William Forstchen. Thought provoking with pretty good science
| behind it.
| MobileVet wrote:
| Agreed. It is eye opening without being overly indulgent in
| fear peddling.
| breck wrote:
| Was looking for stories in the paper from the day after. Couldn't
| find any but found one a few months later in a 1963 story in the
| Hilo Tribute-Herald about it:
| https://staradvertiser.newspapers.com/clip/66389435/starfish...
| leotravis10 wrote:
| Archival link since some people (including myself) can't read it:
| https://archive.is/tth6Q
| amelius wrote:
| And they didn't take any pictures or movies?
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| There are videos of it (well from ground stations).
| riffic wrote:
| films, to be more precise.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| https://youtu.be/2H9gmXOjxlM
|
| https://youtu.be/XoXtUkcFmG4
| gen3 wrote:
| > This unexpected "Starfish belt," which lingered for at least 10
| years, destroyed Telstar 1, the first satellite to broadcast a
| live television signal, and Ariel-1, Britain's first satellite.
|
| TIL. I wonder what type of effect a "space nuke" would have on
| modern constellations. I would assume they have better radiation
| hardening now, but I'm not sure to what threshold that matters.
|
| What are the odds a country gets pissed off by spacex and tries
| the shudder the constellation.
| nradov wrote:
| That would only happen in the context of a large scale war
| between major world powers. If the US ever gets into a shooting
| war with China then our communications and reconnaissance
| satellites will be among the first targets.
| HWR_14 wrote:
| The odds that a country (with the right tech) gets pissed off
| at SpaceX is approximately zero because Elon seems to be fine
| playing along with the Russian/Chinese governments to prevent
| it. The odds that Starlink and other satellite constellations
| are destroyed in the beginning of a global war seems to be
| about 100%, even if there are no nukes used terrestrially.
| javajosh wrote:
| Let's nuke the moon, next!
| trhway wrote:
| it will accelerate a huge amount of matter from the lunar
| surface into Moon's orbit as well as beyond the grips of the
| lunar gravity. It may make Moon's vicinity hard to navigate,
| and if set "correctly" that explosion would probably result in
| a lot of that matter hitting the Earth.
| amelius wrote:
| And give up tidal energy?
| redis_mlc wrote:
| > The U.S. set off a nuclear bomb in space in 1962
|
| So did Russia.
|
| Both countries stopped doing that because of the excessive damage
| to man-made systems in both space and on the ground.
| amelius wrote:
| Reminds me of the LHC commissioning and people being worried that
| the universe would implode.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_of_high-energy_particle...
| dang wrote:
| Past related threads--I think there may have been others also:
|
| _A Scary Light Show: Exploding H-Bombs in Space (2010)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853823 - Dec 2019 (2
| comments)
|
| _Starfish Prime_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19096803
| - Feb 2019 (3 comments)
|
| _In the summer of 1962, the U.S. blew up a hydrogen bomb in
| outer space_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14671438 -
| June 2017 (70 comments)
|
| _A Very Scary Fireworks Show: Exploding H-Bombs In Space_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1488320 - July 2010 (24
| comments)
|
| _Starfish Prime, outer space nuclear test_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1478114 - July 2010 (24
| comments)
| snomad wrote:
| https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/the-50th-anniv...
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