 After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4th of 1957, reactions among Americans were diverse. A lot of people were scared, wondering if this thing orbiting overhead was suddenly going to be able to drop bombs on them. Other people were less scared, understanding that you can't actually drop bombs from orbit, and they knew that Sputnik was a pretty innocuous satellite. Some people were really excited because it was opening the new frontier of space. But one guy with the U.S. Air Force had a pretty unique reaction. He decided that the only recourse was to nuke the moon. This idea came from U.S. Air Force physicist Leonard Rifle in the innocuously titled report A Study of Lunar Research Flights. It was published in 1958, and one of the ideas he laid out in this report was the idea of nuking the moon. Now it wasn't just for funsies, there was a real scientific and political motivation, he wrote, for detonating a nuclear device on the moon. On the straight up scientific side, Rifle proposed nuking the moon as a way to study the environment, learn about the moon, and ultimately learn more about the Earth. He proposed soft landing three identical scientific instrument packages, carrying seismometers and radiation detectors on random spots on the visible face of the moon. Complimenting these in-situ stations would be optical and spectroscopic observations done from ground-based observatories as well as high altitude telescopes hoisted into the upper atmosphere by balloons. Detonating the nukes would give scientists a lot of information about the moon's composition gathered by the seismometers. Measuring the blast from ground-based and upper-atmospheric telescopes would tell scientists about the environment of the moon, and potentially, filtering through the Earth's atmosphere, could tell us a little bit more about the Earth's composition as well. On the military side of things, Rifle said that detonating a nuke on the moon would give American scientists and American military leaders more specifically a very good, advanced knowledge of what war might look like in space. Scientists would learn how to detect nuclear material in space, giving them the upper hand to know whether the Soviet Union had actually detonated a bomb to start a war. But maybe detonating a nuke on the moon wouldn't even work because there is no appreciable atmosphere. Well, the only way to figure out whether or not it would work would be to try detonating a nuke on the moon. But more than anything, Rifle understood the political gain that would come from nuking the moon. This would be a way for America to show its dominance over the Soviet Union. Yes, the Soviets had launched two satellites into Earth orbit, the second, Sputnik II, having some biological capabilities. Nuking the moon would show that America not only had more advanced weapons, it had bigger rockets. The R7 that launched the Sputniks into orbit could never take something as heavy as a warhead all the way to the moon. If America did it first, it would show American technology was stronger and more powerful and that America was the dominant nation. Rifle also understood that there were some negative elements to nuking the moon. If something went wrong, especially if the rocket exploded during launch and the nuke detonated in Earth orbit or even in the upper atmosphere, it could not only kill a lot of people, but damage America's standing on a global front. As we know, luckily the U.S. Air Force did not nuke the moon. And instead, we explored the moon and the space around our own planet with peaceful missions done to further mankind's understanding of space. The idea of nuking the moon stayed in this one proposal that Rifle published in 1958. If you'd like to know a little bit more about this sort of completely bonkers idea, I do have a bit more information on my companion blog post over on Discover, so definitely check that out if you still have questions. So speaking of questions, what other absolutely bonkers reactions to Sputnik or the early space age have you guys heard about? Leave me anything you'd like to explore more or just share in the comment section below. If you enjoyed this video, guys, give it a like and be sure to subscribe so you never miss one of my episodes. And of course, be sure to follow me all across social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for daily vintage space content. Thanks so much for watching, guys, and I'll see you next time.