12/03/2018
Science historian Wolverton (The Twilight Years: The Final Years of J. Robert Oppenheimer) constructs a well-researched and fast-paced history of U.S. nuclear testing in space, particularly Operation Argus in 1958 and Operation Fishbowl in 1962. Operation Argus tested the feasibility of using space radiation generated by nuclear detonations as a defense against a nuclear missile attack; Fishbowl was designed to test the effects of electromagnetic pulses (EMP) created by nuclear detonations. Wolverton highlights the two main drivers of the tests: the world-famous astronomer James Van Allen, who discovered highly charged particle belts circling the earth, and self-taught nuclear engineer Nicholas Christofilos, who wondered whether artificial versions of these fields could be created to shield a region from nuclear attacks. As Wolverton recounts, both tests were scientifically challenging and extremely dangerous: while Fishbowl involved launching nuclear missiles from an island, in Argus the live warheads had to be launched using unreliable rockets from a ship in stormy winter seas. False steps in either could have resulted in nuclear catastrophe and permanent environmental damage to the planet. Wolverton keeps the book from bogging down by balancing science with the personalities involved, the Cold War context, and the drama of risky experiments. This is an appealing and informative history. (Nov.)
"Last September the United States drew a thin curtain of radiation around the earth...The feat was regarded by some of its leading participants as the greatest scientific experiment of all time." -Walter Sullivan, The New York Times, March 19, 1959
After the Soviet Union proved to the United States that it possessed an operational intercontinental ballistic missile with the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, the world watched anxiously as the two superpowers engaged in a game of nuclear one-upmanship. Amid this rising tension, Nicholas Christofilos, an eccentric Greek American physicist, brought forth an outlandish, albeit ingenious, idea to defend the United States from a Soviet attack: launching nuclear warheads to detonate in outer space, creating an artificial radiation belt that would fry incoming Soviet ICBMs. Known as Operation Argus, this plan is the most secret and riskiest scientific experiment in history, and classified details of these nuclear tests have been long obscured.
In Burning the Sky, Mark Wolverton tells the unknown and controversial story of this scheme to reveal a fascinating narrative that still has powerful resonances today. He chronicles Christofilos' unconventional idea from its inception to execution, when he persuaded the military to carry out the dangerous test-using the entire Earth's atmosphere as a laboratory. Combining his investigation of recently declassified military documents with more than a decade of experience in researching and writing about the science of the Cold War, Wolverton examines the scientific, political, and environmental implications of Argus, as well as that of the atmospheric tests that followed. He also discusses the roles played by physicist James Van Allen and President Eisenhower in the scheme, and how the whistle-blowing journalists at The New York Times blew the lid off what was supposed to be America's ultimate nuclear secret.
Burning the Sky is an engrossing read that will intrigue any lover of scientific or military history and will remind readers why Project Argus remains frighteningly relevant nearly sixty years later.
"Last September the United States drew a thin curtain of radiation around the earth...The feat was regarded by some of its leading participants as the greatest scientific experiment of all time." -Walter Sullivan, The New York Times, March 19, 1959
After the Soviet Union proved to the United States that it possessed an operational intercontinental ballistic missile with the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, the world watched anxiously as the two superpowers engaged in a game of nuclear one-upmanship. Amid this rising tension, Nicholas Christofilos, an eccentric Greek American physicist, brought forth an outlandish, albeit ingenious, idea to defend the United States from a Soviet attack: launching nuclear warheads to detonate in outer space, creating an artificial radiation belt that would fry incoming Soviet ICBMs. Known as Operation Argus, this plan is the most secret and riskiest scientific experiment in history, and classified details of these nuclear tests have been long obscured.
In Burning the Sky, Mark Wolverton tells the unknown and controversial story of this scheme to reveal a fascinating narrative that still has powerful resonances today. He chronicles Christofilos' unconventional idea from its inception to execution, when he persuaded the military to carry out the dangerous test-using the entire Earth's atmosphere as a laboratory. Combining his investigation of recently declassified military documents with more than a decade of experience in researching and writing about the science of the Cold War, Wolverton examines the scientific, political, and environmental implications of Argus, as well as that of the atmospheric tests that followed. He also discusses the roles played by physicist James Van Allen and President Eisenhower in the scheme, and how the whistle-blowing journalists at The New York Times blew the lid off what was supposed to be America's ultimate nuclear secret.
Burning the Sky is an engrossing read that will intrigue any lover of scientific or military history and will remind readers why Project Argus remains frighteningly relevant nearly sixty years later.
Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space
Burning the Sky: Operation Argus and the Untold Story of the Cold War Nuclear Tests in Outer Space
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169869699 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 12/11/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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