Posted on 06/27/2009 11:13:51 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
A question on the letters page of the September 2002 issue of Fortean Times -- a British magazine which covers fringe science or "Fortean" subjects -- piqued my interest. Was it true that a manhole cover, accidentally blasted upwards at escape velocity during the American nuclear tests in the 1950s, was in fact the first manmade object in space, beating Sputnik 1 by a long way? Or was it just an urban myth?
The Internet is the natural home of the urban myth: the two could have been made for each other. The question therefore was: could it find room for the truth as well?
It's often thought necessary to give dire warnings about not trusting anything you see or read online. I would go further -- don't trust ANY source implicitly. The advice my history teacher gave me all those years ago seems to me to apply as well to the net as to anything else: When considering the validity of a source, ask yourself these questions: who created it, when (especially in relation to the events described), and why? With this in mind, and convinced that the story had to be nonsense, I nonetheless made some enquiries on the Internet, using Google as my base.
Here's what I found out.
"The first man-made object sent into space was a manhole cover which by now has travelled well past Pluto!" (SAAO). Sadly, the link promising the 'full story' is broken. Isn't it always the way?
(Excerpt) Read more at strangehorizons.com ...
It looks like the project started in the late 1970s.
The CISN uses different types of sensors (short-period, broadband, and strong-motion) in different environments (surface and/or free field, structures, boreholes) with different recording and communications systems.
The tables figures below illustrate the range and distribution of seismic instrumentation in California and western Nevada deployed by CISN partners and collaborators. These numbers and maps were put together by David Oppenheimer, of the USGS Menlo Park, as part of a planning meeting for future CISN instrumentation held in June 2002.
California and western Nevada by the numbers (as of June 2002):
•614 short-period sensors
•198 broadband sensors
•1563 strong-motion sensors (~460 without communications)
•708 instrumented structures (lifelines, dams, buildings)
•38 borehole installations
I am sure the government had stations(both nuclear and seismic) up.In addition, the government would have that information. They were always taking measurements of ground movements and fallout of nuclear explosions. EG and G were contracted for those things and they would have the data too.
manhole covers?
I just call ‘em boxers
And what was it's speed as it hit approx. 100,000 ft. altitude?
So, what you are trying to say is that because they didn’t hear it fall, it must be on it’s way to Pluto?
Have you heard of Nellis AFB, Groom Lake Facility,DOE Nevada,Naval Air Station Fallon,Indian Springs,Tonopah AFB Naval Air Station Fallon? DOE Nevada formerly known as the Nevada Proving Ground, the site, established on January 11, 1951, for the testing of nuclear devices, is composed of approximately 1,350 square miles (3,500 km²) of desert and mountainous terrain.At Nellis AFB, according to the United States Census Bureau, the base has a total area of 3.1 sq mi (8.0 km2), all of it land.
[url]http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/statefacts/blnv.htm[/url]
All these areas are monitored by the bases I mentioned. Especially, DOE Nevada Test Site. You cannot go in there with out a pass.
Bu the way the government owns 85 percent of the land in Nevada. So even if something came down you would not know about it because you would be on Federal land.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/914109
Enough to keep going. Honestly, its been 20 years since I took physics, so I'm not going to attempt it here. I'm taking their word that an initial speed of 25,000mph at the surface is the speed required to escape the Earth's gravity for this object. Drag coefficient would of course matter, but the object would be through 50% of the atmosphere in .27 seconds.
Shooting objects into space with big cannons isn't rocket science ;-) Anyone who has placed a tin can on top of a firecracker can imagine what several kilotons focused up an air shaft might do.
The object in question was made of steel, 4" thick and about 6' across. I am unsure whether it was round or square. It was welded to the end of the shaft, which would certainly help acceleration. Inertia would prevent it from flopping around too much, it would be very heavy and would resist fluttering. In any event, it would be through 99% of the atmosphere in ~3 seconds.
That was my thought, too. It would have burned going up at that speed and if it didn't reach escape velocity it would have burned more (maybe completely) on the way down again.
If it’s on earth then someone could potentially find it (Note to self, “relic mode” or “All Metal” hunting in area :-) ).
It might also have distictive ablation patterns and/or mild residual radioactivity from the nutron flux...
I doubt there was 1/5th of those there in the 50’s...
I think we had much more due to the testing at DOE Nevada. We detected the North Korean tests through seismology. I am willing to bet that EG&G had developed the technology. Here is some reading for you:
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