TIL that the U.S. Department of Energy accidentally invented an orbit cannon in 1957
TIL that the U.S. Department of Energy accidentally invented an orbit cannon in 1957
Operation Plumbbob - Wikipedia
During the Pascal-B nuclear test of August 1957 a 900-kilogram (2,000 lb) steel lid was welded over the borehole to contain the nuclear blast, despite Brownlee predicting that it would not work. When Pascal-B was detonated, the blast went straight up the test shaft, launching the cap into the atmosphere. The plate was never found. Scientists believe compression heating caused the cap to vaporize as it sped through the atmosphere. A high-speed camera, which took one frame per millisecond, was focused on the borehole because studying the velocity of the plate was deemed scientifically interesting. After the detonation, the plate appeared in only one frame. Regarding its speed Brownlee reckoned that "a lower limit could be calculated by considering the time between frames (and I don't remember what that was)", and joked that the best estimate was it was "going like a bat!". Brownlee estimated that the explosion, combined with the specific design of the shaft, could accelerate the plate to approximately six times Earth's escape velocity (approximately 240,000 km/h or 150,000 mph).
This is one of my favorite stories about petty malicious compliance. Brownlee knew that welding the cover in place was a fools errand and a waste of time, but a superior insisted it be done to contain the blast. Brownlee acquiesced but also installed a high-speed camera pointed at the cap to capture exactly how stupid the idea was. Turns out, the high-speed camera was not high speed enough, because the cap vanished between frames, meaning it was either blown off at a speed that would escape Earth orbit, or it was instantaneously vaporized.
I like imagining the meeting where Brownlee presented the findings on the cap experiment.
Like imagine if you could get away with that at your job. Some pompous middle manager insists on a stupid idea, and you're like "OK, we'll do it, but we're also going to set up instruments to detect precisely how badly this will fail, just so we have it on record."