🚀 go-pugleaf

fretts@willee.enet.dec.com (Carole Fretts) writes:

>I'm not sure that this is the right forum for my question, but I need to
>ask this.  Has anyone else heard a news report that the U.S. is planning
>on detonating a nuclear device in space?  I heard it this weekend on
>a Boston morning radio news broadcast but cannot track it down for any
>further information.  What I caught was that a planned nuclear detonation
>in space was being postponed for a few months to make sure that no
>satellites are damaged in the explosion.


YIKES!!! Let's HOPE she heard this wrong. A nuclear explosion in space
would damage more than satellites. Depending on the type of bomb (er,
excuse me: DEVICE), a detonation in space could cause at least as much,
and possibly more damage, than a ground detonation. One of the nastier
weapons considered during the cold war was an "EMP," or electro-magnetic
pulse bomb. This goodie would send a really lethal EM pulse down and (at
least) fry all the electronics under it. Bye-bye Reddi-Teller...
I'm fairly certain that existing nuclear test-ban treaties explicitly
forbid space (in fact, any non-underground) detonations.
On the other hand, if we are ever going to take seriously the threat of
large comets and asteroids wiping us out, we'll HAVE to think about
sending some nukes up some day. But those would be (hopefully) detonated
millions of kilometers from the Earth.

Haven't heard a peep about this anywhere else, so I think it just may be
another one of those cases where scientifically-illiterate reporters
tried to report on something beyond their comprehension. But THAT'S
flamage for another forum...


-- 
              Dave Palmer             dpalmer@csulb.edu

********************I finally found the perfect woman,*********************** 
*****************but she was looking for the perfect man*********************