US Planned To Build Weapons System On The Moon To Attack Earth | HuffPost

US Planned Weapons System On The Moon To Attack Earth

The Huffington Post UK

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The United States planned to build a weapons system on the Moon to attack the Earth.

The plan, known as Project Horizon, was part of a 100-page document produced in 1959 before President Kennedy launched the US to the Lunar surface. It is not to be confused with the Dorking-based road maintenance project of the same name). Elements of the project have been public for decades, but new info was released to mark the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11.

The Dr Evil-style project would have also seen the US create a Moon-to-Earth surveillance system to "facilitate communications with and observation of the Earth".

Elements of that vision have since come true - the US does have satellites in near-permanent orbit around the Moon, and has successfully trialled laser-based communications with those spacecraft.

Needless to say the recommendations of the report were in the main ignored. The US did eventually launch itself to the Moon, successfully landing on its surface 45 years ago. It sent a total of 12 astronauts there over four years of exploration.

But since 1972 it has not been back to the Lunar surface, and several plans drawn up to build bases on the Moon have stalled in favour of continued expansion of the International Space Station, and remote exploration of other worlds.

There are plenty of other crazy conspiracies about the Moon that have turned out to not be true after all. Can you sort the truth from the fiction? The answers are below.

23 Badass Images Of The Apollo Astronauts

(01 of23)

Neil Armstrong in 1966, three years before Apollo 11, in preparation for the Gemini 8 flight. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(02 of23)

This is Buzz Aldrin arriving for work six days before Apollo 11 lifted off. That is his Corvette.

(03 of23)

Apollo 11 astronauts stand next to their spacecraft in 1969, from left to right: Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, lunar module pilot; Neil Armstrong, flight commander; and Lt. Michael Collins. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(04 of23)

The crew of Apollo 11 eating breakfast, three days before lift-off. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)

(05 of23)

Neil Armstrong leads Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins out of the space centre on the Apollo 11 space mission. (credit:Keystone via Getty Images)

(06 of23)

Neil Armstrong, just after walking on the mother freaking Moon. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(07 of23)

The Apollo 11 crew made Nixon laugh -- while they were still in the quarantine chamber! (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(08 of23)

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)

(09 of23)

One of the astronauts of the Apollo 12 space mission on the Moon with a camera. An other astronaut is reflected in his helmet. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)

(10 of23)

The Apollo 11 astronauts, with shotguns, after a grouse hunt in Oslo, Norway, Oct. 12, 1969. From left to right are Michael Collins and his wife Pat, Neil Armstrong and his wife Janet, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and his wife Joan. (AP Photo) (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(11 of23)

The crew of Apollo I, from left to right, Roger Chaffee, Edward White II, and Virgil Grissom, who were killed Jan. 27, 1967, when a flash fire swept their space capsule cabin during a simulated launch. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(12 of23)

Apollo 14 astronauts, (L-R) Stuart Roosa, Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Edgar Mitchell, speak to personnel aboard the prime recovery vessel through the window of the Mobile Quarantine Facility following their recovery from the Pacific Ocean Feburary 9, 1971. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)

(13 of23)

Apollo 13 commander James A. Lovell Jr., foreground, speaks during a news conference in Cape Kennedy, Fla. before the spacecraft launched on its ill-fated journey to the moon. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(14 of23)

NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan, Commander of the Apollo 17 lunar mission, is welcomed back to Earth by a US Navy Pararescueman, after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, 19th December 1972. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)

(15 of23)

US astronauts Neil Armstrong (R), Edwin aldrin (C) and Michael Collins chat 30 July 1969 inside the quarantine room in Houston shortly after their arrival after the Apollo 11 space mission to the moon. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)

(16 of23)

U.S. Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, gets an embrace by unidentified woman who also presented him a bouquet of flowers in Mexico City. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(17 of23)

US astronaut, Commander of Apollo 15, David Scott driving on the mother freaking Moon. (credit:NASA via Getty Images)

(18 of23)

President Lyndon Johnson salutes the three Apollo 8 astronauts as they left the White House for a parade to the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 9, 1969. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(19 of23)

Apollo 13 astronaut James Lovell holds up two fingers as he checks out his plane in Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, April 8, 1970, ahead of the ill-fated mission. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(20 of23)

Astronaut Michael Collins wears the space helmet for the Apollo 11 moon mission, on July 20, 1969. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

(21 of23)

A footprint left by one of the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission shows in the soft, powder surface of the moon (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)

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U.S. President Richard Nixon (R), 15 August 1969 in Los Angeles, U.S astronauts of the Apollo 11 lunar mission. (credit:AFP via Getty Images)

(23 of23)

Still awesome: Buzz Aldrin (L), Apollo 11 astronaut, and Walt Cunningham, Apollo 7 astronaut, in front of the Apollo 14 capsule in 2009. (credit:Matt Stroshane via Getty Images)

Here are the answers

1) True -- the US planned to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon in 1959.
2) True -- Nasa tested a laser which is capable of 622 megabits a second - faster in practice than most home broadband.
3) True
4) True
5) True -- in some opinions.
6) True -- though it was an unmanned probe.
7) True - on the equator, sometimes.

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