[HN Gopher] NASA aircraft uncover Cold War nuclear missile tunne...
___________________________________________________________________
NASA aircraft uncover Cold War nuclear missile tunnels under
Greenland ice sheet
Author : nullhole
Score : 104 points
Date : 2024-11-28 04:48 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.space.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.space.com)
| rurban wrote:
| This is featured prominently in the great movie
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_(film) with Morena
| Baccarin, though they filmed the entrance in Iceland, not near
| Thule. https://maps.app.goo.gl/vxknuDCxRSGtJ4j88
| unwind wrote:
| Wait what, a tunnel system in Greenland has an entrance in
| Iceland?
| krisoft wrote:
| No. In the in-movie fiction both the tunnel and the entrance
| was in Greenland.
|
| But in reality they were shooting the entrance scenes
| somewhere else. In Iceland in this case.
|
| This happens quite frequently in movies. Toronto or Budapest
| frequently stands in to all kind of other cities for
| production reasons. (A subway escalator from Budapest even
| shows up on the space station of Alien: Romulus)
| unwind wrote:
| Ah, I completely mis-read the GP. Thanks.
| alexey-salmin wrote:
| Too bad I already cracked up and upvoted the perceived
| joke (unless your second comment digs even deeper into
| layers of irony)
| OJFord wrote:
| Toronto skyline is often apparent in 'New York' scenes, in
| many productions, _Suits_ for example. It 's like they
| think only NYC will be recognisable (formerly the twin
| towers, ESB, statue of liberty, etc.) so any view of
| Toronto can just sub in for an anonymous bit of NYC.
| (Except perhaps the CN tower, haven't seen anything _that_
| stupid!)
| bregma wrote:
| This was the source of humour in "Star Trek: Strange New
| Worlds" S2E3 where Kirk stands in Sankofa Square in front
| of a large sign emblazoned "Toronto Eaton Centre" and
| asks "Are we in New York City?"
| morkalork wrote:
| Lots of film production goes on in Toronto, I especially
| love how Roy Thompson Hall always shows up in anything
| vaguely sci-fi. Vaught headquarters in The Boys, U.N.
| headquarters in The Expanse, it was even in the
| background of a few scenes of The Handmaid's Tale.
| Someone wrote:
| > It's like they think only NYC will be recognisable
|
| Probably more because they look at how much dollars and
| hassle it would cost to film in NY, compared to the
| (relatively) cheaper Toronto.
| blitzar wrote:
| Most likely production tax credits.
|
| "The Ontario Film & Television Tax Credit is a 35%
| refundable tax credit on Ontario labour for film and
| television productions by Ontario-based Canadian
| controlled companies for productions shot in Toronto,
| Ontario."
| walrus01 wrote:
| Same general reason why a lot of film/tv production is
| done in the state of GA now, which decided to compete
| with California, Vancouver and Toronto to attract
| productions.
| OJFord wrote:
| I'm not saying they should film in NY, I meant the lack
| of care to use less recognisable bits or remove them
| digitally etc. - that they think 'we can't film in NYC,
| people will recognise it, and this isn't set in NYC' -
| not that they were trying to film NYC and should do it in
| NYC. (But I realise now I made that confusing with the
| Suits example.)
| walrus01 wrote:
| Vancouver filming in the 1990s was worse, there's a
| Jackie Chan movie supposedly set in NYC where you can see
| a clear view of the snow capped north shore mountains
| across the water.
| abcd_f wrote:
| There was a scene in an X-files episode of a secret
| meeting in some US city ... under the Skytrain monorail
| with a train whizzing by.
| walrus01 wrote:
| The 'new' Vancouver Public Library also serves as the
| headquarters of an evil human cloning corporation in "The
| 6th Day", and is seen in Battlestar Galactica.
| mturmon wrote:
| Something like the stray palm trees in the background of
| ads and shows that are supposed to take place in the US
| Midwest.
|
| I know where you _really_ are!
| philistine wrote:
| Halloween, supposedly set in Illinois, has palm trees in
| the background of many scenes, and classrooms with doors
| that lead directly outside.
| erk__ wrote:
| Also in the end of "A Danish Girl" the scene contains
| mountains and large hills, which is a bit funny because
| those don't exist in Denmark at all.
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| You're right, but in searching for the highest peak I
| found this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hills_an
| d_mountains_in... which is amusing.
| UltraSane wrote:
| Like the big mountain visible in so many parts of Rumble
| in the Bronx
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| I've watched that, and don't think it's great. I've also
| watched https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevation_(film) , and in
| the end titles you can see her pointing a telescope (
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtonian_telescope ) with the
| backside into the sky.
|
| WTFF!? That's like the stock pictures for electronics assembly
| snd repair, where you can see people holding a soldering iron
| at the hot tip.
| walrus01 wrote:
| total clickbait title, to the best of my knowledge ZERO actual
| missiles were ever based at camp century, and the whole rest of
| the ridiculous concept of using the greenland ice cap to base
| missiles was obsoleted in the 1960s by rapid advances in land
| based and submarine ICBMs.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Century
| pandemic_region wrote:
| I found the title to be correct, reflecting what was discovered
| i.e. missile "tunnels". I have zero clue about any of this, so
| it was an interesting read. And yes, a ridiculous idea but
| that's probably what the Egyptians also thought when the plans
| to build a pyramid were unveiled ;-)
| walrus01 wrote:
| There were no missiles, erectors, launchers, silo doors,
| hatches, warheads, fueling systems or solid rockets, launch
| control systems. Therefore not "nuclear missile tunnels". The
| whole concept was shelved once they learned what a pain in
| the ass it would be to build and maintain such a base, and
| the advances in range and reliability of regular icbms became
| obvious.
|
| Camp century was built around the same time as the DEW line
| and other north warning system radars throughout Greenland
| and northern Canada, which had a more obvious use and
| necessity.
| mrweasel wrote:
| I think the extend of the US nuclear weapons program for
| Greenland was limited to bombers stationed in Thule. There is a
| Danish book written about the whole thing, including the
| accidents. In it there is a paragraph or two about the US
| government approaching the Danish government, to hear if they
| would be interested in a briefing about the activities
| regarding nuclear weapons stationed in Greenland. The answer
| given to the US was "Absolutely not!".
|
| The weapons where not suppose to be there, and the Danish
| government basically took a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to
| the whole thing.
|
| Still the consensus is that Project Iceworm never really
| amounted to anything. The shifting ice and snow cover would
| have made the whole thing a nightmare to maintain.
|
| There is a nuclear bomb somewhere under the ice near Thule,
| which was never recovered after the crash of a B-52.
| lazide wrote:
| Yeah, apparently Camp Century is under an additional 100ft
| (!) of snow/ice since it was abandoned.
|
| That is a lot of snow shoveling.
| hyperific wrote:
| > There is a nuclear bomb somewhere under the ice near Thule,
| which was never recovered after the crash of a B-52.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Thule_Air_Base_B-52_cra.
| ..
| preisschild wrote:
| True and they didnt even mention the small nuclear reactor they
| used there to power / heat the base...
| dredmorbius wrote:
| The project was a pilot and trial for a proposal to stage ICBMs
| in the Greenland ice sheet. To that extent, the description is
| accurate: a site whose goal was emplacing nuclear-tipped
| missiles in Greenland has now been observed by Nasa
| researchers.
| tokai wrote:
| >U.S. government [...] will "work with the Danish government and
| the Greenland authorities to settle questions of mutual security"
|
| In the end they did no such thing.
| lostlogin wrote:
| The Wikipedia entry is interesting. Living there sounds nasty.
|
| 'The sewage sump was 150 feet (46 m) from the nearest building
| and initially, was not vented. As a result, the odor of sewage
| became almost unbearable in the nearest quarters after the first
| year of operation. Subsequent venting of the sump reduced the
| odor, but did not eliminate the fundamental condition.'
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Century
| cesaref wrote:
| Well it's good to know that once they abandoned the project, they
| cleared the site and left it how it was before they turned up. Oh
| wait, no, actually they left it with all the waste still there,
| under the assumption that it would be entombed 'forever' by the
| perpetual snowfall. Who would have thought it.
| wffurr wrote:
| 1960s US military is the gift that keeps on giving. For
| millions of years.
| InDubioProRubio wrote:
| Be asbestos as you can be
| lazide wrote:
| Hey, at least they didn't leave the reactor!
| acidburnNSA wrote:
| Nuclear engineer/amateur reactor historian here. Camp Century
| found here was famously powered by a small Army nuclear reactor
| called PM-2A. There's a really great documentary about it from
| the 1960s here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=28NYczAuXl4
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-11-28 23:02 UTC)