All contemporaries have long known the terrifying arms race organized by the Americans and the Soviet Union after the end of World War II. And the main object in this action was the cosmos, used far from for good and peaceful purposes.
So, by the end of the fifties of the last century, all the world media trumpeted not only about satellite launches, but about thundered nuclear explosions in outer space closest to the Earth. Of course, the Union was also aware of such experiments, but nobody knew about the Soviet tests in the world. The Iron Curtain closed access to classified information about the USSR’s nuclear experiments. However, it has not been disclosed to this day, and all the available stories about Soviet military space operations are unofficial information.
Of course, both the USSR and the USA were engaged in collecting data on how a nuclear explosion and radiation, “hatching” from it like a chicken from an egg, affect the operational state of satellite equipment, rockets, and systems that connect the Earth with space. This bacchanalia ended only in 1963, thanks to the signing of an agreement between three countries, including Great Britain. This document prohibited all further tests of nuclear weapons both in space and in the Earth’s atmosphere, as well as under water.
American experiments
The nuclear explosion in space, launched by the Americans, incidentally, more than once or twice, on the one hand, was of a scientific nature, on the other - it was destroying everything. After all, no one knew how the radiation background would behave after the explosion. Scientists could only speculate, but no one expected such shocking material that they eventually received. Below we will talk about the impact of a nuclear explosion in space on ordinary earthly life and their inhabitants.
The first and most famous was the operation called Argus, which was carried out on a September day in 1958. Moreover, the area for the preparation of a nuclear bomb explosion in space was selected very carefully.
Details of Operation Argus
So, in the early fall of 1958, the South Atlantic turned into a real testing ground. The operation consisted of testing a nuclear explosion in space within the radiation zones of Van Allen. The designated goal was to clarify all the consequences for communications, as well as the electronic filling of satellite "bodies" and ballistic missiles.
A secondary goal was no less interesting: scientists had to confirm or deny the fact of the formation of an artificial radiation belt within our planet through a nuclear explosion in space. Therefore, the Americans chose a very predictable place in which there is a special anomaly: it is in the south of the Atlantic region that the radiation belts approach the closest to the earth's surface.
For such a global operation, the American leadership created a special unit from the country's second fleet, calling it the number 88. It consisted of nine ships with more than four thousand employees. Such an amount was necessary because of the scale of the project itself, because after a nuclear explosion in space, the Americans had to collect the data. For these purposes, ships had special missiles designed for geodetic launches.
At the same time, the Explorer-4 satellite was launched into outer space. His task was to isolate from the general space information data on the radiation background in the Van Allen belt. There was also his brother - Explorer-5, whose launch failed.
How was the test of a nuclear bomb explosion in space? The first launch was carried out on August 27th. The rocket was delivered to an altitude of 161 km. The second was on August 30, when the rocket rose to 292 km, but the third, carried out on September 6, went down in history as the highest and largest nuclear explosion in space. The September launch was marked by a height of 467 km.
The power of the explosion was determined at one 1.7 kilotons, and one warhead had a weight of almost 99 kg. To find out what will happen from a nuclear explosion in space, the Americans sent warheads using an X-17A ballistic missile, previously modified. It had a length of 13 m and a diameter of 2 m.
As a result, after collecting all the research data, Operation Argus proved that due to the electromagnetic pulse received as a result of the explosion, the equipment and communications can not only be damaged, but also finally fail. True, in addition to this information, sensational news was revealed confirming the appearance of artificial radiation belts on our planet. An American newspaper, using a photo of a nuclear explosion from space, described Argus as the largest-scale scientific experience in the history of modern mankind.
And the very compound 88, which fell into the immediate thick of events, was disbanded and, according to reliable sources, there were more people who died from cancer among them than in the groups involved in monitoring and recording data.
Soviet secret operations
The Soviet Union was also interested in the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion in space, therefore, according to unconfirmed reports, a series of experiments was carried out under the code name "Operation K". Tests were conducted after the American. Experiments to clarify the question of whether a nuclear explosion in space is possible, Soviet scientists conducted at the rocket range, which is located in the settlement of Kapustin Yar.
A total of five tests were conducted. The first two were in 1961, in the fall, and a year later almost at the same time - the other three. All of them were marked with the letter "K" with the ordinal number of the launch. In order to understand what a nuclear explosion from space looks like, two ballistic missiles were launched. One was equipped with a charge, and the other had special sensors that monitored the process.
During the first two operations, the charges reached 300 and 150 km, respectively, and the other three had similar data, except for “K-5” - it exploded at an altitude of 80 km. According to testament Boris Chertok, who wrote the book “Rockets and People,” the flash from the explosion glowed for only a fraction of a second, it looked like the second sun. The USSR found out the same information as the Americans - all the radio devices worked with noticeable violations, and the radio communication was generally interrupted for a while in the radius of the nearest area.
Explosions in space
But in addition to the tests mentioned above, in the interval between American and Soviet operations, the United States managed to carry out two more nuclear explosions in space, the consequences of which were much more tragic.
One of the launches, made in 1962, was called Fishball, but was known as the Starfish among the military. The explosion was supposed to happen at a 400-kilometer height, and its power was supposed to be equal to 1.4 megatons. However, this operation was unsuccessful. On June 20, 1962, a ballistic missile with a technical malfunction, of which it was not known, was sent from a rocket range located on the Johnston Pacific Atoll. Thus, 59 seconds after the start, her engine simply turned off.
Then, to prevent a global catastrophe, the security officer ordered the rocket to self-destruct. The rocket was blown up at an altitude of only 11 km, this altitude is cruising for many civilian aircraft. As a result, fortunately for the Americans, the explosive destroyed the rocket, which made it possible to protect the islands from a nuclear explosion. True, part of the wreckage that fell on the nearby atoll Sand was able to infect the area with radiation.
On July 9, they decided to repeat the experiment. But this time, the launch was successful and, judging by the photos of the nuclear explosion in space, the red glow was visible even from the side of New Zealand, located 7,000 km from Johnson. This test was quickly made public, unlike the first experimental experiments.
Spacecraft of the USSR and the USA watched the successful launch. The Union, thanks to the Cosmos-5 satellite, was able to record an increase in gamma radiation by a decent number of orders. But the satellite sailed in outer space 1,200 m below the explosion. After that, the appearance of a powerful radiation belt was noted, and the three satellites that passed through his “body” practically failed due to damage to the solar panels. Therefore, in 1962, the USSR checked with the coordinates of the location of this belt when launching the Vostok-3 and Vostok-4 missiles. Nuclear pollution of the magnetosphere has been observed over the next several years.
The next American launch was made on October 20 of that year. Its code name was "Chicmate." The warhead exploded at an altitude of 147 km, and the test site was outer space itself.
How is a nuclear explosion in space?
We familiarized ourselves with all the tests, since no other country in the world supported such Soviet-American experiments. Now let's look at what a nuclear explosion has a view from space, according to a scientific explanation. What sequence of events occurs after a nuclear warhead is delivered into outer space?
The first tens of nanoseconds gamma quanta are emitted from it with high speed. At an altitude of 30 km in the earth's atmosphere, gamma rays collide with neutral molecules, subsequently form electrons endowed with high energy. Developing tremendous speed, already charged particles give rise to powerful electromagnetic radiation, which destroys absolutely any sensitive electronic devices located in the radiation zone on the ground.
For the next couple of seconds, the energy ejected from the warhead will work like X-ray radiation. True, such an x-ray consists of very powerful waves and electromagnetic fluxes. It is they who create the voltage inside the satellite, because of which all of its electronic filling simply burns out.
What happens to weapons in space after an explosion?
But the explosion does not end there, its final part looks like scattered ionized remains from a warhead. They travel hundreds of kilometers until they interact with the Earth’s magnetic field. After such a contact, a low-frequency electric field is created, the waves of which gradually propagate around the entire planet and are reflected from the lower edges of the ionosphere, as well as from the earth's surface.
But even low frequencies can be devastating for electrical circuits and lines located under water far from the place of the explosion. The following months, the electrons in the magnetic field gradually remove from the working state all the electronics and avionics of terrestrial satellites.
US missile defense system
Thanks to the presence of a photo from space with a nuclear explosion and all the attached information on the study of launches, America began to form a missile defense system. However, to create something opposing long-range missiles is quite difficult and, rather, impossible. That is, if a missile from a missile defense is used against a flying missile with a nuclear warhead, then you get a real high-altitude explosion of a nuclear nature.
At the beginning of the XXI century, experts from the Pentagon conducted evaluative work related to the consequences of nuclear space tests. According to their report, even a small nuclear charge, for example, equal to 20 kilotons (a bomb in Hiroshima had just such a figure) and detonated at an altitude of up to 300 km, in just a couple of weeks, it will destroy absolutely all satellite systems that are not protected from radiation background. Thus, for about a month, countries that have satellite "bodies" in low orbit will be left without their help.
Effects
According to the Pentagon’s same report, because of a high-altitude nuclear explosion, many points of near-Earth space absorb radiation increased by several orders of magnitude and maintain this level over the next two to three years. Despite the initial anti-radiation protection assumed in the design of the satellite system, the accumulation of radiation occurs much faster than expected.
In this case, orientation devices and communication will initially stop working. It follows that the lifetime of the satellite will be reduced significantly. In addition, the increased radiation background will make it impossible to send a team to carry out repair work. The standby time will be from a year or more until the radiation level decreases. With the re-launch of a nuclear warhead into space, the replacement of all the devices will result in one hundred billion dollars, and this does not take into account the damage done to the economic sphere.
What protection can be from radiation?
For many years, the Pentagon has been trying to develop the right program to create protection for its satellite devices. Most military satellites were transferred to higher orbits, which are considered the safest with respect to the emitted radiation in a nuclear explosion. Some satellites have equipped with special screens that can protect electronic devices from radiation waves. In general, this is something like Faraday cells: a kind of metal shell that does not have access from the outside, and also does not allow the ingress of an external electromagnetic field. The shell is made of aluminum up to one centimeter thick.
But the head of the project being developed in the laboratories of the US Air Force, Greg Dzhinet, argues that if now American spacecraft are not completely protected from radiation, then in the future it will be possible to eliminate it much faster than nature itself can cope with it. A group of scientists are examining the step-by-step possibility of blowing radiation background from low orbits due to the artificial creation of low-frequency radio waves.
What is HAARP
If we consider the aforementioned moment in theoretical terms, it is possible to create entire flotillas of special satellites whose work would be to produce these very low-frequency radio waves in the vicinity with radiation belts. The project is called HAARP or the “High Frequency Active Auroral Region Research Program”. Work is ongoing in Alaska in the Gakona settlement.
They are engaged in research of active places arising in the ionosphere. Scientists are trying to achieve results in the management of their properties. In addition to outer space, this project is also aimed at researching the latest communication technologies with submarines, as well as other vehicles and objects located underground.