Tomorrow, 16 October, is the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Aerobee pellets, the first artificial objects to exceed escape speed

http://utenti.lycos.it/paoloulivi/aerobee.html

Well now I'm not so sure about that. Were they able to "clear their neighborhood?"

Well, I would have got out of the way.

Zwicky later described this as a test of a concept to strike the Moon with a pellet so the surface composition could be measured from the spectrum of the flash. See Stooke (2007).

Phil

Now that's crazy! What are the chances of one such hit?

The Aerobee test would only have been the earliest stage in testing. An operational version would have been targetable.

Phil

Whole thing sounds like a downsized version of Fredric Brown's initial plot device in What Mad Universe (1949)...hit the Moon with something that goes boom, spectroanalyze the debris cloud.

Not that there's anything wrong with that; if so, it would have a Deep Impact on us all...

(runs like hell...)

Zwicky published his idea for hitting the Moon with a pellet in Spaceflight, v. 3, no. 5, September 1961, pp. 177-179. "Possible operations on the Moon".

Phil

Interesting 'artifical planets' or satellites weblink: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/eurospace/espdatabase/index.html

Whenever I hear the term "artificial planet" I always think of this: Supramundane Planets (ZIP file) That is an engineering plan for a REAL artificial planet!

Bill