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Blow It Up · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: History books love to discuss space exploration in nationalistic terms.
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  Speaker 1: This is an unsurprising tendency. After all, the space race
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  Speaker 1: is one of the most famous chapters in the history
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  Speaker 1: of the Cold War. In nineteen sixty two, President John F.
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy famously declared that America would put a man on
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  Speaker 1: the Moon. It was, in his speech, a way of
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  Speaker 1: bringing the pioneer spirit of America into the future. The speech,
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  Speaker 1: of course, came over a year after the Soviet Union
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  Speaker 1: had successfully sent the first man into space, and later
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  Speaker 1: one of the more iconic images associated with the space
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  Speaker 1: race would be the American flag planted on the Moon. However,
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  Speaker 1: we can't forget that the realm of space exploration is
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  Speaker 1: now one of global collaboration. The most famous spacecraft is
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  Speaker 1: still the International Space Station, which is maintained by five
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  Speaker 1: separate space agencies, each belonging to a different country. The
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  Speaker 1: hostile environment of space is not as easily divided as
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  Speaker 1: an island or a land mass here on Earth. Like
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  Speaker 1: the ships that set sails centuries ago, spacecraft are cobbled
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  Speaker 1: together from different pieces. Only, instead of a mast and
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  Speaker 1: sales that are constructed at different ports, we have entire
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  Speaker 1: engineering systems that require rigorous testing to perfect. In the
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  Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies, NASA was in the early stages of
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  Speaker 1: their Shuttle program. Its purpose was to create a spacecraft
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  Speaker 1: that could be reused in multiple trips out of the atmosphere,
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  Speaker 1: a space truck which could ferry cargo. The eventual design
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  Speaker 1: of the Shuttle would include a large cargo hold that
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  Speaker 1: opened outward. It was an efficient system, allowing NASA to
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  Speaker 1: make the most of the shuttle's interior. However, a cargo
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  Speaker 1: hole that opens outward into space requires someone or something
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  Speaker 1: on the outside to receive it. They needed some sort
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  Speaker 1: of robotic arm to unload and deposit supplies and gear.
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  Speaker 1: The eventual solution to this need would be developed by
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  Speaker 1: a team of engineers working for the Canadian Space Agency.
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  Speaker 1: NASA's technical requirements were very specific. The thing needed to
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  Speaker 1: function in microgravity and operate with a fraction of the
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  Speaker 1: Space Shuttle's electrical supply. It had to be resistant to
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  Speaker 1: the extreme heat of the sun and the extreme cold
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  Speaker 1: of night in space. The Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMs,
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  Speaker 1: would be deployed for the first time in nineteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: one aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, emblazon with the Canadian flag.
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  Speaker 1: It was a resounding success. It could lift up the
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty six kilograms of weight in zero gravity,
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  Speaker 1: all while using no more electricity than a tea kettle.
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  Speaker 1: The SRMs would remain in use for over thirty years,
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  Speaker 1: and its function was not only limited to hauling cargo.
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  Speaker 1: It could lift and deposit astronauts themselves onto different parts
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  Speaker 1: of the Shuttle, deploy satellites, and once they even put
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  Speaker 1: a pair of Imax cameras on the end of it
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  Speaker 1: to capture the astronauts at work. July of twenty eleven
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  Speaker 1: was the last time this particular SRMs was used in space,
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  Speaker 1: although iterations of the design have been employed since. Its
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  Speaker 1: two successors were designed specifically to interface with the International
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  Speaker 1: Space Station and Lunar Gateway, which means that original team
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  Speaker 1: of Canadian scientists invented one of the most enduring pieces
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  Speaker 1: of space technology, and the device itself would earn an
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  Speaker 1: official name that more properly recognized its origin. Shuttle Remote
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  Speaker 1: Manipulator System is a practical name, but it's a mouthful
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  Speaker 1: for most of us. To the public at large, the
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  Speaker 1: SRMs is known simply as the Canada arm. Its successors
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  Speaker 1: would be Canada ARM two, developed in two thousand and one,
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  Speaker 1: and Canada ARM three, developed in twenty twenty four. So
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  Speaker 1: if the thought of the space race fills you with
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  Speaker 1: national pride, you're not the only one. The final frontier
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  Speaker 1: is one of many flags, many nations, and a whole
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  Speaker 1: lot of empty space. When you travel beyond the bounds
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  Speaker 1: of our little blue planet, it's best not to go
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  Speaker 1: there alone. Give us salute to Canada for making greater
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  Speaker 1: flexibility in space possible, and thanks to those engineers and
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  Speaker 1: their robotic arm our, spacecraft are a little more handy.
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  Speaker 1: In his groundbreaking pop science book Pale Blue Dot, the
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  Speaker 1: famed astronomer, TV personality and science communicator Carl Sagan reflected
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  Speaker 1: on the Moon's constant presence in our skies. It was
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  Speaker 1: there when our ancestors first descend from the trees into
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  Speaker 1: the savannahs, he said, when we learned to walk upright,
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  Speaker 1: when we first devised stone tools, when we domesticated fire,
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  Speaker 1: when we invented agriculture and built cities and set out
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  Speaker 1: to subdue the earth. For the past four point five
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  Speaker 1: billion years, the moon has been our nightly companion, watching
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  Speaker 1: over us from the heavens. But that doesn't guarantee that
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  Speaker 1: it will always be there or never change. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: not too long ago, the US military came within a
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  Speaker 1: hair trigger of blowing it up. It was the late
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  Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, the height of the Cold War, and America
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  Speaker 1: was embroiled in a space race with the Soviet Union.
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  Speaker 1: Both countries top scientists were hell bent on one upping
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  Speaker 1: the other, and the United States was losing. In nineteen
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  Speaker 1: fifty eight, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite
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  Speaker 1: into orbit. Americans were desperate for a rebuttal something big,
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  Speaker 1: bold and visible. More satellites would feel like old news,
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  Speaker 1: and the technology to put a man on the Moon
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  Speaker 1: was still years away. That's when the Air Force settled
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  Speaker 1: on a plan with significantly more oomph. We would nuke
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  Speaker 1: the Moon as they saw detonating in nuclear warhead on
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  Speaker 1: the Moon would achieve two things. First, it would demonstrate
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  Speaker 1: American military might and control over space, and second, it
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  Speaker 1: would create a massive explosion visible from Earth, proving US
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  Speaker 1: dominance to the world and more importantly, to the Soviets.
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  Speaker 1: This proposal, internally known as Project A one nineteen, called
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  Speaker 1: for a nuclear warhead roughly the size of the one
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  Speaker 1: dropped on Hiroshima, to be launched at the Moon's surface.
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  Speaker 1: The Air Force was particularly interested in detonating on the
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  Speaker 1: dark side of the Moon, where the flash would be
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  Speaker 1: the brightest. Ideally, the mushroom cloud could be back lit
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  Speaker 1: by the sun, creating a spectacular show. It sounds like
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  Speaker 1: something out of a cheesy sci fi movie, but the
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  Speaker 1: military was dead serious. They even hired some of the
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  Speaker 1: country's top astronomers and physicists to work out the details.
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  Speaker 1: Many of those scientists balked at what they'd been asked
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  Speaker 1: to do, fearing that nuclear radiation would permanently contaminate the
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  Speaker 1: la lunar environment, which had been untouched for billions of years.
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  Speaker 1: It would never be possible to study samples of the
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  Speaker 1: Moon before it was bombed, and landing on the surface
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  Speaker 1: would be riskier in the decades to come. There were
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  Speaker 1: also fears that radioactive debris would fall back on the Earth,
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  Speaker 1: or that the explosion might affect the Moon's orbit, but
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  Speaker 1: the science suggested that both of these were unlikely, so
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  Speaker 1: the military wasn't concerned. No, they were far more focused
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  Speaker 1: on the pr angle. Specifically, they worried that the explosion
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  Speaker 1: would damage the man in the moon, the faint impressions
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  Speaker 1: that people have long interpreted as a human face. Ultimately, though,
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  Speaker 1: the project was scrapped for an even more shallow reason.
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  Speaker 1: The scientists working on the project convinced military brass that
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  Speaker 1: the visual demonstration wouldn't be nearly as impressive as they'd
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  Speaker 1: hoped for. The Moon doesn't have an atmosphere, so there
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  Speaker 1: would be no dramatic fireball or shockwave, just a silent
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  Speaker 1: burst of light followed by a lot of dust, a
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  Speaker 1: far cry from the breathtaking show of might that the
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  Speaker 1: US Air Force was hoping for. Soh the project was
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  Speaker 1: canceled and the US focused on a less violent lunar goal.
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  Speaker 1: When Apollo eleven landed on the Moon in nineteen sixty nine,
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  Speaker 1: America won the space race without blowing up any celestial bodies,
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  Speaker 1: and no one was more relieved than the scientists who
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  Speaker 1: worked on Project A one nineteen. One of those men
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  Speaker 1: was a recent college grad named Carl Sagan. The young
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  Speaker 1: astronomer would eventually become one of the most recognizable scientists
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  Speaker 1: of the twentieth century, hosting the show Cosmos, writing influential books,
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  Speaker 1: and helping popularize space science. And we can speculate that
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  Speaker 1: he may have gained his deep appreciation for our lunar
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  Speaker 1: partner while working on that top secret Project A one nineteen.
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  Speaker 1: After all, he was one of the few people on
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  Speaker 1: Earth who knew just how close we came to blowing
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  Speaker 1: up the Moon. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time,
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  Speaker 1: stay curious.