I saw similar in the news the other day: "10400 firefighters are fighting the wildfires, 28 of them are the largest." - Stupid, small firefighters!!! lol
Have been designing a test vehicle on ksp similar to this but to be tested on minmus. I'm on xbox one so don't have mods to help. Plan was to try land a "satellite" close to a remote science station to see how much science I could harvest, by land I mean crash at high speed. Not surprised people had already considered this long before I was born but didn't know about it until now.
Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular.
In regards to your mention of how many times we came close, and never knew about it: A story I was told by a former Air Force security policeman that I worked with. He was based at Warren AFB in Cheyenne Wy. One day they got an alert...whatever he called it...with orders for all of the security policeman on duty to head for one of the missile silos. When he arrived at the silo, there was a Peacekeeper...like a big 4WD SUV with armor on it, with a turret in the top, with an M-60 mounted in the turret, and gun ports around the side of it...parked over the silo. There were 4 other Peacekeepers parked around it, with 20 or so security policemen standing around with M-16s. They had orders that if that missile comes out of that silo to fire everything they had at it. For some reason, the powers that be on that base, were concerned that one of the Minuteman missiles would launch.
Sounds like a member of personnel had a mental health crisis. Im going to guess it was an overreaction but at the same time its absolutely not something you take risks about lol
Nobody ever built that or even worked on any actual system though it's all theoretical. Now the SLAM (supersonic low altitude missile) on the other hand, they got to the point of testing the nuclear jet engine before it was cancelled.
@@atomicskull6405 yeah, i heard the canceled it because they feared russians would develop a counterpart for it, and that this weapon was just far too nasty and would be a liability for everyone. I need to look back into them especially due to the allegations of a recent massive detonation in a russian testing site being atributed to a failed SLAM engine test. What i fear is that the SLAM sounds like a weapon system either terrorist suportive states or the CCP would absoluterly love to get their hands on. For terrorists it would be obvious, just the engine part would allow them to contaminate vast swaths of land and hold all their neighbors at gun point (ganted if they are given such weapons, likely either by Russia or China), while such a weapon system fits well into china "unrestricted warfare" strategy against the democraties of the world. That last one is quite problematic, because it can stack on top of the rest of the measures planned or already in use by China. Unrestricted warfare is essentially their policy to undermine western democraties by any means nessesary to ensure the party's survival. Economic warfare, intelectual property theft, cyber warfare, global censorship and ecological warfrare are already being actively used AND working (since none of the wester democraties even realise the extent to which they are attacked) but it also includes terrorism, assasinations, conventional warfare, and biological/chemical/nuclear weapons if they ever have to face NATO directly. The big problem with both SLAM and Kinetic Orbital Weapons is that they can be used to needlessly extrend the devastation of any conflict. Much in the way that a defeated nation could flatten all its suroundings in radiocative ash out of spite, I could see the CCP actually starting a nuclear exchange as they know that they win the pure number game. Unlike NATO they kept stockpiling nuclear weapons and unlike the rest of the planet, they have zero care in respecting international rule as they so often showed. Sadly slams are likely to resurface in the future, as despite our best efforts, the world is still not completly rid of totalitarian rule after the cold war, and we let them get a tremendous legup by pretending otherwise
Indeed, since it would have circumvented the outer space treaty entirely since the "warhead" was just a huge chunk of tungsten. Problem was (and still is) mass. A tungsten telephone pole weighs a lot. Putting them in orbit would require a lot of heavy lift vehicle launches as well as on-orbit assembly.
@@mobiuscoreindustries I have to disagree with your statement that Russia would be the one to start a nuclear exchange. They are FAR more civilized than they are given credit for. During the "hottest" part of the Cold War, they received a nuclear attack warning...and the commander of the nuclear forces refused to retaliate and reset the alarm and attack warning. Minutes later, a more severe alarm and attack warning popped up on the screens. AGAIN, he reset them...he just had a "gut feeling" that something just wasn't right. As it turned out, the Soviet early warning satellites that caused the attack warning/alarm misinterpreted the Sun appearing over the "horizon" and there was (obviously) never an attack to begin with. He literally saved the Earth but was fired for it. Now, CHINA, on the other hand, is a COMPLETELY different story and I truly believe that there WILL be an all-out war with China within my lifetime. I'm 52, so that means I believe it will be happening within the next few years. THEY are the ones to seriously be afraid of. The way they are EXPONENTIALLY expanding their armed forces is FRIGHTENING. And, the weapons systems they are building are designed for ONE REASON...war with the US. There is no other explanation for the weapons systems they are "designing" (actually, it's STEALING) and "creating". MOST of them are DIRECTLY designed to fight and defeat weapons systems that only the US has or that any of the other most advanced nations have an extremely limited supply of such as nuclear aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, stealth aircraft, and so on. If the US would just leave Russia the hell alone and stop provoking them, we would have NO PROBLEMS with Russia whatsoever, militarily. Look at Russia, then look at all the US bases completely surrounding Russia on EVERY point on the compass, a massive amount of those bases being only a hop, skip, and a jump away from Russia's borders. Now, imagine if Russia did the same thing to the US...completely surrounded us all the way across the width of the US in Canadian territory from coast to coast, and Mexico from coast to coast; and bases in the Caribbean, stationing aircraft carrier battle groups off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts just outside US territorial waters, placing bases in the Marshall Islands around Hawaii, placing bases all around Alaska, in the Central American countries, South America, and on and on. Just imagine the way the US government (rightly so) would flip the hell out over it. Hell, all you need to do is look at the Cuban Missile Crisis! They placed a few nukes in Cuba, ONE SMALL COUNTRY, 90 miles away from Florida. We almost went to a nuclear war over it! At THIS time I feel the need to interject here before assumptions are made about me being a communist or Marxist/Leninist, Russian spy, or any other kind of derogatory assumption...I am an AMERICAN, born and raised, and I absolutely and unreservedly LOVE America. I was raised in an EXTREMELY PATRIOTIC family...I grew up just a few miles from Andrews AFB and went to the airshows all the way back to the beginning of my memories. We went to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps band concerts pretty much weekly at the Jefferson Memorial, went to ALL KINDS of military history events like seeing the USS Constitution when it came down from Annapolis into the Potomac, watching the ceremonies at the Marine Corps barracks, going to the Washington Naval Yard, visiting all the Memorials all over D.C., throughout my most formative years, embedding an incredible patriotism in me and my siblings. All the events I mentioned are only a small handful of all the ways in which such a strong patriotism was formed in me and my siblings from the very beginning of our lives until our teenage years when we moved to Ohio from Oxon Hill, Maryland. There was much, much more that my amazing Mom and Dad did to install a true love for America, what America stood for, the US Armed Forces, and a sincere patriotism within us. So much so, in fact, that it was my SOLE GOAL from the age of around 5 years old throughout my elementary school years, junior high years, and finally high school years, to ENLIST in the US Armed Forces, which I did, IMMEDIATELY upon reaching the age of 18, joining the US Air Force in the Delayed Entry Program. I wouldn't doubt that it was decided while I was still in the womb that I was going the ENLIST in the US Armed Forces...which branch was unclear until I spent MANY MANY HOURS researching the USMC and the USAF, finally deciding on the USAF. But, as is usually the case as one ages, one becomes much wiser as the years go by. The TRUE history of our country is revealed bit by bit that often is in direct conflict with what the history text-books and teachers taught during those most formative years; and can quite literally be SHOCKING to learn. One learns that the US is NOT the most perfect nation on the Earth, the US CAN and DOES do wrong (most cases of wrongdoing being the exclusive results of POLITICIANS, NOT necessarily the Armed Forces, which, of course, are not perfect but definitely strive to be...bad apples are everywhere, as anybody with a brain knows...most people in lower levels of government really do try to do the very best they can, and so forth, but are either "slapped down" by the upper levels, or Congressmen and Senators enter the government with such a passion to "do the right thing" and want to make changes that are great for America but are powerless to do so when the senior members of their respective parties disagree or have agendas of their own to serve nobody but themselves and will do absolutely ANYTHING to stay in power. Yes, I am a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT and have sworn to defend the US and the US Constitution from "ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN *AND DOMESTIC*..." (with my life if necessary) when I was sworn in to the US Air Force, and again, when I was sworn in as an Auxiliary Police Officer, and again when I became a part-time police officer, and, finally, once again when I was sworn in as a full-time police officer. I took my oaths EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY, and as far as I am concerned my sworn oaths never expired even though I am no longer employed in those respective positions. That being said, back to the matter being discussed! We had a chance. We really had a phenomenal opportunity when the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union collapsed, to become friends and allies with the Russians. WE *BLEW* IT. BADLY. We promised the Russians that we wouldn't expand NATO on their borders. We lied, and we did. Not only did we expand NATO, we allowed former Soviet countries all over the place from the Balkans to the ...stans to join NATO. We SURROUNDED Russia with bases like a vise. We had to opportunity to help them become a Constitutional Republic but left them to hang out and dry...a freaking nuclear superpower that could've been an EXCELLENT ally, and we betrayed them in so many ways that it's disgusting. Now look where we are. They feel threatened with so many US and NATO bases surrounding them that they felt they needed to sign a treaty with CHINA!! Historically, the USSR and now Russia, have very bad blood between them. Yet, they felt compelled to sign a treaty with CHINA because of the perceived threat that the US and NATO are to them. Had we BEFRIENDED Russia, WE could've been the ones they signed a treaty with and we could have a completely different global landscape with Russia containing China in the WEST, and the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Philippines, and others containing China in the EAST. China *IS* preparing for war with the US. There is simply NO QUESTION and NO DEBATE...it's a FACT. Just think about how different things would be if the US kept its promises, offered true help in leadership toward a Constitutional Republic with economic aid, and just a general warmth toward the Russians during their "hour of need" in the late 80s and early 90s. Had we done that and put the Cold War behind us instead of (in THEIR eyes) becoming even MORE of a threat to them, WE could've been the benefactors of a treaty that would have contained the TRUE threat to the world, CHINA. I DO apologize for the EXTREME length of my post, but I felt it very important to mention these things as well as to defend my own personal stance and feelings about America. To tell the truth, I could probably go on for several more hours and feel I've only touched on what the world situation is, today, as opposed to what "could have been", but I am certain you get the gist of what I am saying as you seem to be very intelligent and able to have a true conversation. Also, if I come across in any way as disrespectful toward you or belligerent, I sincerely apologize as that is not in any way my intent. I only wish to point out what I believe as you pointed out what you believe. I do wish you the best! Oh, and one last thing: I remember reading a document several years ago that a Chinese flag officer (I cannot remember if it was a General or an Admiral...as I said it was years ago) where the flag officer stated, "It is not a question of IF we go to war with the United States, but WHEN..." and also mentioned that nuclear war was inevitable. Try as I might, I have NEVER found that document, again, but I am STILL looking for it. It was an official document on Chinese war policy or something of the sort where the only change to it was that it was translated from Chinese to English. If you are interested and decide to try and find it yourself, I would GREATLY appreciate it if were you to find it that you point me to where it is. I have been trying to find it for years and have had no luck. Take care and best wishes.
It was weird that the KGB told the Politburo that the Space Shuttle was a weapon system. The space shuttle was rather obviously a civil space project and not a weapon system. But the amazing KGB said otherwise. So the Soviets had to build a copy in order to maintain arms parity. The Soviet Shuttle was doomed from the start.
Hey Simon or director/research guy, This reminds me of the “Project Thor” or “rod from god.” It’s similar in that it’s a weapon from space but it’s a satellite that has multiple tungsten rods that when commanded, are dropped from orbit and reach terminal velocity to create a similar destruction to a low yield nuke. Because of treaties that don’t allow nukes in space this was the alternative. I bet it would make a cool follow up.
Do you think you could do a video on the Nevada-Class Battleships as both ships had interesting careers. One of which USS Nevada tried to escape Pearl Harbor, fought at D-Day , Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and survived 2 atomic bombs. I would say that's a mega ship. Awesome video. Hope more videos are coming.
Fun fact: The U.S. wasn't worried about FOBS at all because they were already developing the MIRV system, which allows for pinpoint targeting of multiple nuclear warheads from a single ICBM launcher. Of course once the Russians learned about it they adapted the R36 to use the system.
FOBS is relevant if the other side has a missile defence/early warning system biased to to one side, towards the expected threat. FOBS can come up from behind.
Simon is definitely the best personality I have found on RUclips, he can do the serious videos like this but my favorite is The my boy with the blaze ALLEGEDLY
The development of this system reminds me of... “So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.”
“After the death of her father” “He’s not dead” “After the near fatal wounding of her father” “he’s getting better” “Just when it seems her father would pull through he felt the icy cold touch of death” “Uhhh” “He’s dead” lmfao 🤣
Next up: the kinetic bombardment, or kinetic orbital strike system, aka Project Thor, or "rods from God". Because that was an outlandish Cold war idea too.
Great video as always, I'm also a huge space and sci-fi junkie. But you mentioned NORAD in there, that might be a cool subject for a video. I'm assuming some of the numbers involved would certainly be large.
There was actually a Star Trek TOS episode that used this as a plot point. It was called Gary 7. The crew goes back in time and stops these weapons from being developed.
"There will be an assassination today", but on the show the nuclear missile is launched from the ground (US) as a test rather than already being in orbit.
Some projects are fascinating, and terrifying at the same time. Or in this case absolutely horrifying. Project Pluto is just a smidge scarier...well okay it's a whole lot scarier.
@@tehbonehead I almost imagine the airforce going" Can we have the non doomsay version? I only want to kill half the planet...that half over there..." "Sorry, only comes in "everybody dies". "We'll get back to you...umm we'll call you."
Hi Simon and company. Would be interesting to see the evolution of ICBMs to Star Wars to Russia hypersonic long range missile. Or separate episodes on each one. Keep up the great work !!!!
Tom Clancy wrote of a concern about The Enemy launching a FOBS (it wasn't, but there was a moment of concern) in his novel Red Storm Rising. I think that was the first I had heard of it.
I hardly ever got to use nuclear strikes in _Command & Conquer,_ mostly because I would end up missing one of the necessary pickups in an previous mission. Also, I prefer to steal buildings and vehicles from the AI rather than destroy them, and box-in the harvesters while they are out harvesting.
Actually that's backwards. The Hubble telescope was actually a backup "Keyhole" spy satellite that the CIA donated to NASA. They always build more than they need in case of failures and they had one left over at the end of that program. The lens, on the other hand, was new, because you need different optics to look at a wide field of stars than at a small field of ground. And the contractor making the new lens messed up, so astronauts had to perform maintenance on it after the launch.
Lest I'm sadly mistaken, things were even more scary than this. When Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, it didn't simply detonate when it hit the ground. It was detonated at about 1960 feet above the city. There is a reason for this. This was the calculated 'altitude of Maximum destruction.' But by current standards, Little Boy was a pretty small bomb. With bigger bombs, the 'altitude of Maximum destruction' would be much higher. With devices in the order of 50 to 100 megatons, this 'altitude of Maximum destruction' is similar to a low Earth orbit. And so, I recall serious discussions about satellites potentially being parked in orbit, where none of this complicated re-entry stuff was even necessary. Nor would anyone likely suspect a satellite which had possibly been in orbit for years. One needed only to push the button when the device was over its target. Massive destructive power, with no warning what-so-ever. Possibly this is the real reason for banning weapons in space.
Even the "ground burst" for taking our hardened target (bunker busting with nukes) is designed to be detonate somewhat above the ground (but not by much) - the reason being for harder targets it's better to be closer but still best to not be on the ground. There really was no point worrying about this though - no matter where you were dead away.
Most of these more advanced nuclear weapons are wastes of money and effort anyways. Conventional ICMBs are so powerfully destructive that making them even more destructive doesn't accomplish anything. A single ICBM MIRV will wipe out a city and millions of people and is pretty much impossible to stop. It would be like using a regular hammer to smash ants and then deciding to spend a few thousand dollars on a a tungsten and titanium hammer to increase the smashing power.
Interesting concept. Some speculated that the warhead would be 10-15 megatons but US analysts preferred to put the fractional orbit yield at around 3 megatons. I wonder if this was due to some bias, either that the preferred size for US warheads was 3 megatons, or they had intelligence that the normal size of a Soviet warhead was 3 megatons. 3 megatons seems to be a useful size, big enough to wipe out a city but not a ridiculous waste of power as in a 50 megaton bomb. Nowadays nuclear weapons can be impedance matched to their target, whether air, land, water, stone, etc. That got to me to thinking about the nukes dropped on Japan. They just wanted something to explode and weren't interested in fine tuning. So looking at the design and the effects and so on, it looks to me that the first nukes were more or less tuned for max output in infra-red heat energy. With the fact that the circular target error is now down to one or two meters, the Soviets do well to rely on mobile missiles for their land forces rather than fixed silos.
Can you do the Boeing super factory in Everett Washington,USA. It can fit Disney worlds magic Kingdom. Plus in order to paint planes it drives over a highway.
I was a boarding schoolboy during the Cold War, and especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was at school while the tensions heated up to boiling point, and the whole school was suddenly stopped in mid - class and assembled to hear the headmaster inform us, that in the event of a nuclear attack, we were all to go, in an orderly fashion, into the vast basement of the school and wait for the attack to pass. The headmaster, and a lot of the staff were ex-Royal Navy ( it was a naval college) and had not yet grasped that nuclear attacks did not “pass”like WWII bombing raids. We all spent the best part of two years dreading the onset of WWIII. It was a very frightening time.
In the 1960s the US was looking for a reliable way to communicate with its ballistic missile submarines so that it could insure they were under the command and control authority. They hit upon long wave communications system whereby there are two 200 ft long antennas impeded in granite in the continental US and twice a day ballistic subs trail a cable the same length. With long wave its possible to send coded signals through the Earth's core. In the 1970s the US fearing the lack of command and control in the Soviets extensive ballistic missile fleet shared the system with the USSR. It's probably what directly led to the early detente regarding nuclear weapons reductions.
@Skunk Ape Oh Horseshit. We were both going to do that regardless. America because we thought the Soviets would try and occupy some of our allies( we ALSO formed NATO to look after our near defenseless friends), and the Soviets because they thought we would try and attack them(Stalin being all paranoid as he was). And those countries we fought in having resources, means what exactly? Also, there's not that many countries that don't have a decent amount of at least several types of resources.....
@Skunk Ape That's 3rd grade simple. No one wants the other side to start a nuclear war just because they couldn't communicate with a submerged nuclear armed sub. Do you have anything other than sharing tech that helps reduce the odds of an accidental nuclear war???? We also had economic trade with Germany for most of WW2. You going to claim that means they weren't our enemies??? Save your conspiracy crap for real conspiracies. The Kennedy assassination is a good one, and it's not even that hard to prove. The Zapruder film and a single newspaper article is all that's needed.
@Skunk Ape Oh, and I love the idiotic "if you look past" bullshit. It's a line used to "prove" a point, when there's absolutely no real evidence..... So, where's that information that's missing from the "whole picture" at exactly. You must have seen it online, so how about those links.....
@Skunk Ape No, it hasn't remotely been debunked. I assume you're mainly talking about that Fetzer dude. He taught a philosophy of science course...... He didn't actually do science. And when did we secretly share GPS with the Soviets?
Oh the Cold War was very real but the Rules of Engagement were strict in terms of command and control. We shared the technology I mentioned because it was in our interest to do so but other technologies were usually stolen by one side or the other. Sometimes we recovered technology as the US did with K119 ballistic sub or the Soviets did with our Sidewinder air to air missile. Our military behaved professionally and so did the Soviets.
simon. my boy. you gotta do the Great Lakes for Geographics. The midwest that sprung from the Great Lakes created many interesting geographic areas and its cool. Plus, it was all because of beaver.
If you want to meet the REAL Simon Whistler, look up his Business Blaze channel. I am still convinced he does every BB video with a real good buzz going.
I had an uncle that work on such a project for US in the 1960s, he told me they were going to put them in orbit via Gemini and later Apollo missiles. The US was going to be much higher because they though the USSR would hit them with a nuke. The Satellites were going to be manned and carry a crew of 2. The USSR had similar plans in the works. They US was building all kinds of infrastructure to support it under the Air Force umbrella. Fortunately, after the Russian disasters and a US one, they both decided it was just too risky to launch them. The other problem and it was the biggest problem is that satellite in orbit around earth has to wait until it is in the right position, it just does not hover over the target, so the actual de-orbit was going to take long than just an ICBM and it was going to come from a predictable orbit and window. What China has done, is just make an ICBM a little more maneuverable but they missed their targets by miles. The Russians missiles you talked about probably had a 50/50 chance of hitting US at all.
Simon, how old are you? Being I’m almost 70, and my father served in in U.S. Navy for 24 years, I am familiar with all of these weapons of mass destruction. I grew up reading about these devices and living with them. My father completed a nuclear weapons delivery course, being a F-4 Phantom pilot. Those were scary times, worse than today.
The Zwentendorf nuclear power plant is Austria would be a good megaproject. It is the only nuclear power plant in the world to be fully built, tested and then mothballed before going online. It still exists as a film set and research institute. Austria held a referendum on nuclear power and it was opposed by 50.4%, so the plant never started up
Topic suggestion: Australia's Snowy Mountains Scheme. Sufficiently mega, ran for over 20 years, established huge inland agriculture areas and incidentally started snow sports in Australia. Now being reviewed for pumped hydro to provide stabilization of green power grids.
And just to make everyone even more nervous about it all, there's the concept of dropping a 100 to 1000 kg tungsten core rod with a ceramic ablative coating so it reaches the ground intact.. Launched from a variety of orbital paths from LEO to Geosynchronous global coverage could be total. With a small rocket engine or vanes to provide terminal guidance direction such a system could drop a "crowbar" within half a meter or less of the aim point. A purely kinetic round could cause significant local damage with out that nasty radioactive cloud and fall out. A small one could remove a single building, a cluster of large ones could erase a city.
The correct answer to this if the telephone pole size is 20 ft. And made out of tungsten weighing 4020lbs, traveling at mach 20 would be a astounding! 42,905.2 megajoules of energy!!!
More difficult that you think. The higher up you drop a weapon, the less accurate it becomes. Sure, we can stick fins on it, and gyroscopic stabilizers inside, but it's still subject to the whims of the atmosphere, and any other variable that would randomly throw its accuracy off. Precision impractical.
Hi Simon, enjoy your content, on all your channels. One suggestion I’ve been wanting to make for a while. More graphics and illustrations to augment your descriptions. Thanks and keep up the good work!
I'd like to recommend the relocation of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Absecon Lighthouse, Gay Head Lighthouse, or Cape Cod Lighthouse. Or maybe the construction of the St. George Reef Lighthouse, the most expensive lighthouse in America.
@Skunk Ape You wouldn't happen to know the flash characteristic of the black and white one, would you? I'm trying to make a replica of it for my train simulator, but I can't find any info on its flash characteristic. The U.S. Coast Guard site just says, "flashing red and white," but doesn't mention anything about duration between the flashes.
I don´t understand, how they are not subscribed to your channels... They are really interesting with awesome projects in so many scientific fields. You are doing a great job presenting these topics to us, very informativ and at the same time, quite entertaining and funny. I hope, this generation and also future generations will never be so stupid to use such frightening weapons against eachother. Let it happen in television, in series and movies...but never again in reality!
The "nuclear option" isn't an option. I grew up with that threat hanging over my head. To tell the truth, I don't know which was more frightening: the ideas and attitudes of popular media of the 60's, 70's and into the early 80's that this was a viable option; or the fact that this was an actual reality with real nukes and real people involved. So here we are in the 21st century and the problem has not gone away
I already knew about FOBS, but I still enjoyed the video. Since you hadn't heard of FOBS, I'm guessing you also haven't of ERCS either. It was an American satellite based doomsday weapon that was only deactivated in 1991. Basically it was a satellite that would be launched during the opening salvos of a nuclear war. It would then fire all remaining US ICMBS if it was not given a stand down order within three days. Russia possessed a similar doomsday weapon system known as "Dead Hand" in the west. Both system were designed to ensure the destruction of the other country in the event of a successful decapitation first strike by the other. Even in the world of nuclear weapons, those two doomsday weapon systems stand out as the most terrifying and horrible weapons man has ever created. If either of them were ever triggered it would likely kill every person, if not every living thing, on this planet. I think they would make for a good video for this channel since you seem to be in a cold war groove these days.
Megaprojects ideas 1. The Cape Cod channel 2. Containing the worlds largest forest fires. 3. The Eisenhower interstate system/ the Glenwood canyon section of I70.
@@billrhodes5603 Because it would be quite large and easily trackable. Any developed country could easily ascertain what it is. If you put something that large in orbit, other countries will pick up on it and figure out what it is in less than a week. It would become public knowledge a few days after that.
Simon, did you ever hear of the story about the Soviet Embassy in Washington having a 1 megaton warhead in the basement? I heard it enough times to make me think there might have been something to it. Might make a good episode.
Considering we have radiation detectors all over the highways and every port in America, that would have been incredibly difficult to accomplish, especially in (I'm assuming) Washington D.C.? Where a huge portion of our government does business.
I have actually always wondered if that ever happened, that has just confirmed how close it actually was to a realistic type of attack during the cold war. It would be good to see a megaprojects done about the "atomic tank used during the British nuclear testing"
Gosh, I thought I'd heard of all the kooky Cold War nuclear delivery systems, but I hadn't heard of this one! That was cool. You should do a Megaprojects video on Chain Home and the Dowding system!
Really enjoying the channel! I think since you did the "bullet trains" of Japan, why not do the US interstate system started by president Eisenhower. Keep it up!
Who's here after the news that China tested their FOBS system with hypersonic glide vehicles? Seems like they improved on Soviet concept with Chinese characteristics. lol
Do the Sagrada Familia. It's been under construction for 137 years, is completely funded by donations, and was originally designed with string before computers were a thing.
OK clearly I’m missing something. But what is the difference between this system and the typical ballistic missile if that also exits the atmosphere into space? Since this system does not truly go into orbit like a satellite
Normally, ICBMs fly on a purely ballistic trajectory after launch, which means their trajectory goes much higher above the earth. The idea behind this system is to slow down once space is reached and make it remain at low orbit height until the target is reached. This makes it slower, but it also means that the horizon blocks view to it for much longer than a normal ICBM.
Thank you Mega Projects for yet another WELL made, Interesting, and Entertaining!!! You keep making them I will keep watching, Liking, and Sharing them!!! #megaprojectsrocks!
It's RUclips who control the advertisements. I get it's frustrating, but hardly Simon's fault. As already pointed out, Premium removes ads, but I had no idea about the skip and rewind thing (I have premium)
If you want to do a video about yet another nasty proposed weapons system during the Cold War, you should look into Project Pluto. This system would be a cruise missile propelled using a nuclear ramjet, which would fly low over the target country while dropping nuclear bombs. It was intended to fly low enough that the shockwave from the sonic boom would cause destruction on the ground before the nuclear bombs it carried were even dropped. Oh, and the exhaust of the nuclear ramjet would be radioactive. This system would have the best of everything! They got as far as testing the nuclear power plant for the propulsion system, but they fortunately never built a working model of the cruise missile itself... that we know of.
I did a pretty thorough paper on orbital ground attack. Its a pipe dream. ICBMs are multiple orders of magnitude more practical. Among a plethora of technical challenges, LEO deorbit, requires the same burn as a suborbital ICBM delivery but, is far easier to detect and intercept, than a ground launch.
Fantastic Videos, keep em coming.. Any chance you can do something on Formula 1 and the Megaproject that goes into each car each year. Also another interesting megaproject Hyperloop or the railway in Jungfraujoch or even Hitlers Eagles Nest
I first thought this would be about Project Thor of the US (kinetic bombardment with Tungsten poles from space). Could also be an interesting video idea, if you didn't one about it yet. It got around that treaty because it doesn't use atomic warheads, it's just the force of something solid dropped from orbit hitting the ground.
I had a chance to visit Prague a couple of times. It was my first visit to Europe and I have to admit I was surprised by the quality of life there. I have never been to the UK but I can see how someone might prefer to live in Prague.
"Over 2000 people took part in the tests, 6 of which were complete failures." Absolutely savage. So the other 1,994 were cool people? Hahaha
🤣
I saw similar in the news the other day: "10400 firefighters are fighting the wildfires, 28 of them are the largest." - Stupid, small firefighters!!! lol
I see what you did there 😏
@@saevars5199 😂
I have no doubt those 6 people were from Corry, PA.
“It’s like sneaking in through the back door but you’ve got a nuclear bomb on you” love the one liners Simon
Who doesn't like a nuke being sneaked into their backdoor eh?
Sounds like sex metaphor from the film, _Dr. Strangelove._
@@Christopher-N Let's ride that bomb all the way down, deep, deep down.
@@Christopher-N That would be George C Scott telling Tracy Reed to "get ready to blast off."
“In a war of ideas, it is people who get killed.”
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966
"At Superposition all life is the same life." -I win.
"I'm going to have to test this in KSP to believe it"
Lol, i am already loading ksp.
The UR 200 (and the rest of it's family) were the most Kerbal rockets ever. Some of the UR series even having asparagus staging.
"I'm going to have to have people I know test this in Simple Rockets 2 to see its UNLIMITED POWER!".
Have been designing a test vehicle on ksp similar to this but to be tested on minmus. I'm on xbox one so don't have mods to help. Plan was to try land a "satellite" close to a remote science station to see how much science I could harvest, by land I mean crash at high speed. Not surprised people had already considered this long before I was born but didn't know about it until now.
fascinating eggskull
What's a common, everyday unit of measure people relate to? Ah yes, the T. Rex.
Keep in mind the ISS is 450 tons.
The T-Rex is how I measure everything except temperature.
2CAWKS wdym the Rexsius is unit of temperature
But is it an African T.Rex, or a European T.Rex?
Wouldn’t even be surprised if it is an imperial unit.
Megaproject Suggestion. Longest deep bore ice core in Antarctica. Took years, loads of drama with it and they found some cool stuff like a fresh water lake under the ice containing previously unknown lifeforms. Would go Well with the other hole projects that are popular.
In regards to your mention of how many times we came close, and never knew about it: A story I was told by a former Air Force security policeman that I worked with. He was based at Warren AFB in Cheyenne Wy. One day they got an alert...whatever he called it...with orders for all of the security policeman on duty to head for one of the missile silos. When he arrived at the silo, there was a Peacekeeper...like a big 4WD SUV with armor on it, with a turret in the top, with an M-60 mounted in the turret, and gun ports around the side of it...parked over the silo. There were 4 other Peacekeepers parked around it, with 20 or so security policemen standing around with M-16s. They had orders that if that missile comes out of that silo to fire everything they had at it. For some reason, the powers that be on that base, were concerned that one of the Minuteman missiles would launch.
Sounds like a member of personnel had a mental health crisis. Im going to guess it was an overreaction but at the same time its absolutely not something you take risks about lol
“Rods from god” would make an interesting episode
Nobody ever built that or even worked on any actual system though it's all theoretical. Now the SLAM (supersonic low altitude missile) on the other hand, they got to the point of testing the nuclear jet engine before it was cancelled.
@@atomicskull6405 yeah, i heard the canceled it because they feared russians would develop a counterpart for it, and that this weapon was just far too nasty and would be a liability for everyone. I need to look back into them especially due to the allegations of a recent massive detonation in a russian testing site being atributed to a failed SLAM engine test. What i fear is that the SLAM sounds like a weapon system either terrorist suportive states or the CCP would absoluterly love to get their hands on.
For terrorists it would be obvious, just the engine part would allow them to contaminate vast swaths of land and hold all their neighbors at gun point (ganted if they are given such weapons, likely either by Russia or China), while such a weapon system fits well into china "unrestricted warfare" strategy against the democraties of the world.
That last one is quite problematic, because it can stack on top of the rest of the measures planned or already in use by China. Unrestricted warfare is essentially their policy to undermine western democraties by any means nessesary to ensure the party's survival. Economic warfare, intelectual property theft, cyber warfare, global censorship and ecological warfrare are already being actively used AND working (since none of the wester democraties even realise the extent to which they are attacked) but it also includes terrorism, assasinations, conventional warfare, and biological/chemical/nuclear weapons if they ever have to face NATO directly. The big problem with both SLAM and Kinetic Orbital Weapons is that they can be used to needlessly extrend the devastation of any conflict. Much in the way that a defeated nation could flatten all its suroundings in radiocative ash out of spite, I could see the CCP actually starting a nuclear exchange as they know that they win the pure number game. Unlike NATO they kept stockpiling nuclear weapons and unlike the rest of the planet, they have zero care in respecting international rule as they so often showed.
Sadly slams are likely to resurface in the future, as despite our best efforts, the world is still not completly rid of totalitarian rule after the cold war, and we let them get a tremendous legup by pretending otherwise
Indeed, since it would have circumvented the outer space treaty entirely since the "warhead" was just a huge chunk of tungsten. Problem was (and still is) mass. A tungsten telephone pole weighs a lot. Putting them in orbit would require a lot of heavy lift vehicle launches as well as on-orbit assembly.
Also, it’s an epic band name.
@@mobiuscoreindustries I have to disagree with your statement that Russia would be the one to start a nuclear exchange. They are FAR more civilized than they are given credit for. During the "hottest" part of the Cold War, they received a nuclear attack warning...and the commander of the nuclear forces refused to retaliate and reset the alarm and attack warning. Minutes later, a more severe alarm and attack warning popped up on the screens. AGAIN, he reset them...he just had a "gut feeling" that something just wasn't right. As it turned out, the Soviet early warning satellites that caused the attack warning/alarm misinterpreted the Sun appearing over the "horizon" and there was (obviously) never an attack to begin with. He literally saved the Earth but was fired for it. Now, CHINA, on the other hand, is a COMPLETELY different story and I truly believe that there WILL be an all-out war with China within my lifetime. I'm 52, so that means I believe it will be happening within the next few years. THEY are the ones to seriously be afraid of. The way they are EXPONENTIALLY expanding their armed forces is FRIGHTENING. And, the weapons systems they are building are designed for ONE REASON...war with the US. There is no other explanation for the weapons systems they are "designing" (actually, it's STEALING) and "creating". MOST of them are DIRECTLY designed to fight and defeat weapons systems that only the US has or that any of the other most advanced nations have an extremely limited supply of such as nuclear aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, stealth aircraft, and so on. If the US would just leave Russia the hell alone and stop provoking them, we would have NO PROBLEMS with Russia whatsoever, militarily. Look at Russia, then look at all the US bases completely surrounding Russia on EVERY point on the compass, a massive amount of those bases being only a hop, skip, and a jump away from Russia's borders. Now, imagine if Russia did the same thing to the US...completely surrounded us all the way across the width of the US in Canadian territory from coast to coast, and Mexico from coast to coast; and bases in the Caribbean, stationing aircraft carrier battle groups off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts just outside US territorial waters, placing bases in the Marshall Islands around Hawaii, placing bases all around Alaska, in the Central American countries, South America, and on and on. Just imagine the way the US government (rightly so) would flip the hell out over it. Hell, all you need to do is look at the Cuban Missile Crisis! They placed a few nukes in Cuba, ONE SMALL COUNTRY, 90 miles away from Florida. We almost went to a nuclear war over it!
At THIS time I feel the need to interject here before assumptions are made about me being a communist or Marxist/Leninist, Russian spy, or any other kind of derogatory assumption...I am an AMERICAN, born and raised, and I absolutely and unreservedly LOVE America. I was raised in an EXTREMELY PATRIOTIC family...I grew up just a few miles from Andrews AFB and went to the airshows all the way back to the beginning of my memories. We went to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps band concerts pretty much weekly at the Jefferson Memorial, went to ALL KINDS of military history events like seeing the USS Constitution when it came down from Annapolis into the Potomac, watching the ceremonies at the Marine Corps barracks, going to the Washington Naval Yard, visiting all the Memorials all over D.C., throughout my most formative years, embedding an incredible patriotism in me and my siblings. All the events I mentioned are only a small handful of all the ways in which such a strong patriotism was formed in me and my siblings from the very beginning of our lives until our teenage years when we moved to Ohio from Oxon Hill, Maryland. There was much, much more that my amazing Mom and Dad did to install a true love for America, what America stood for, the US Armed Forces, and a sincere patriotism within us. So much so, in fact, that it was my SOLE GOAL from the age of around 5 years old throughout my elementary school years, junior high years, and finally high school years, to ENLIST in the US Armed Forces, which I did, IMMEDIATELY upon reaching the age of 18, joining the US Air Force in the Delayed Entry Program. I wouldn't doubt that it was decided while I was still in the womb that I was going the ENLIST in the US Armed Forces...which branch was unclear until I spent MANY MANY HOURS researching the USMC and the USAF, finally deciding on the USAF. But, as is usually the case as one ages, one becomes much wiser as the years go by. The TRUE history of our country is revealed bit by bit that often is in direct conflict with what the history text-books and teachers taught during those most formative years; and can quite literally be SHOCKING to learn. One learns that the US is NOT the most perfect nation on the Earth, the US CAN and DOES do wrong (most cases of wrongdoing being the exclusive results of POLITICIANS, NOT necessarily the Armed Forces, which, of course, are not perfect but definitely strive to be...bad apples are everywhere, as anybody with a brain knows...most people in lower levels of government really do try to do the very best they can, and so forth, but are either "slapped down" by the upper levels, or Congressmen and Senators enter the government with such a passion to "do the right thing" and want to make changes that are great for America but are powerless to do so when the senior members of their respective parties disagree or have agendas of their own to serve nobody but themselves and will do absolutely ANYTHING to stay in power. Yes, I am a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT and have sworn to defend the US and the US Constitution from "ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN *AND DOMESTIC*..." (with my life if necessary) when I was sworn in to the US Air Force, and again, when I was sworn in as an Auxiliary Police Officer, and again when I became a part-time police officer, and, finally, once again when I was sworn in as a full-time police officer. I took my oaths EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY, and as far as I am concerned my sworn oaths never expired even though I am no longer employed in those respective positions. That being said, back to the matter being discussed!
We had a chance. We really had a phenomenal opportunity when the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union collapsed, to become friends and allies with the Russians. WE *BLEW* IT. BADLY. We promised the Russians that we wouldn't expand NATO on their borders. We lied, and we did. Not only did we expand NATO, we allowed former Soviet countries all over the place from the Balkans to the ...stans to join NATO. We SURROUNDED Russia with bases like a vise. We had to opportunity to help them become a Constitutional Republic but left them to hang out and dry...a freaking nuclear superpower that could've been an EXCELLENT ally, and we betrayed them in so many ways that it's disgusting. Now look where we are. They feel threatened with so many US and NATO bases surrounding them that they felt they needed to sign a treaty with CHINA!! Historically, the USSR and now Russia, have very bad blood between them. Yet, they felt compelled to sign a treaty with CHINA because of the perceived threat that the US and NATO are to them. Had we BEFRIENDED Russia, WE could've been the ones they signed a treaty with and we could have a completely different global landscape with Russia containing China in the WEST, and the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Philippines, and others containing China in the EAST. China *IS* preparing for war with the US. There is simply NO QUESTION and NO DEBATE...it's a FACT. Just think about how different things would be if the US kept its promises, offered true help in leadership toward a Constitutional Republic with economic aid, and just a general warmth toward the Russians during their "hour of need" in the late 80s and early 90s. Had we done that and put the Cold War behind us instead of (in THEIR eyes) becoming even MORE of a threat to them, WE could've been the benefactors of a treaty that would have contained the TRUE threat to the world, CHINA.
I DO apologize for the EXTREME length of my post, but I felt it very important to mention these things as well as to defend my own personal stance and feelings about America. To tell the truth, I could probably go on for several more hours and feel I've only touched on what the world situation is, today, as opposed to what "could have been", but I am certain you get the gist of what I am saying as you seem to be very intelligent and able to have a true conversation. Also, if I come across in any way as disrespectful toward you or belligerent, I sincerely apologize as that is not in any way my intent. I only wish to point out what I believe as you pointed out what you believe. I do wish you the best!
Oh, and one last thing: I remember reading a document several years ago that a Chinese flag officer (I cannot remember if it was a General or an Admiral...as I said it was years ago) where the flag officer stated, "It is not a question of IF we go to war with the United States, but WHEN..." and also mentioned that nuclear war was inevitable. Try as I might, I have NEVER found that document, again, but I am STILL looking for it. It was an official document on Chinese war policy or something of the sort where the only change to it was that it was translated from Chinese to English. If you are interested and decide to try and find it yourself, I would GREATLY appreciate it if were you to find it that you point me to where it is. I have been trying to find it for years and have had no luck. Take care and best wishes.
I've never heard the phrase "Doomed from the start" more in my life than when Simon is talking about Soviet plans/weaponry.
'cuz he is biased ^.^
and german
It was weird that the KGB told the Politburo that the Space Shuttle was a weapon system. The space shuttle was rather obviously a civil space project and not a weapon system. But the amazing KGB said otherwise. So the Soviets had to build a copy in order to maintain arms parity. The Soviet Shuttle was doomed from the start.
Hey Simon or director/research guy,
This reminds me of the “Project Thor” or “rod from god.” It’s similar in that it’s a weapon from space but it’s a satellite that has multiple tungsten rods that when commanded, are dropped from orbit and reach terminal velocity to create a similar destruction to a low yield nuke. Because of treaties that don’t allow nukes in space this was the alternative. I bet it would make a cool follow up.
It did!
Do you think you could do a video on the Nevada-Class Battleships as both ships had interesting careers. One of which USS Nevada tried to escape Pearl Harbor, fought at D-Day , Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and survived 2 atomic bombs. I would say that's a mega ship. Awesome video. Hope more videos are coming.
You've heard of Hell's Bells, now get ready for God's Rods
Now for the AC/DC references...
Fun fact: The U.S. wasn't worried about FOBS at all because they were already developing the MIRV system, which allows for pinpoint targeting of multiple nuclear warheads from a single ICBM launcher. Of course once the Russians learned about it they adapted the R36 to use the system.
FOBS is relevant if the other side has a missile defence/early warning system biased to to one side, towards the expected threat. FOBS can come up from behind.
They were also looking into the Rods from the Gods with tungsten piles dropping on Russia.
Simon is definitely the best personality I have found on RUclips, he can do the serious videos like this but my favorite is The my boy with the blaze ALLEGEDLY
The development of this system reminds me of... “So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.”
_"She has such HUUUUGE...tracts of land!"_
😆😆😆
" Listen I want you two to stay here and make sure he doesn't leave Ok?
@@chrislockhart2941 >>> 😆😆😆😆
“After the death of her father” “He’s not dead” “After the near fatal wounding of her father” “he’s getting better” “Just when it seems her father would pull through he felt the icy cold touch of death” “Uhhh” “He’s dead” lmfao 🤣
how about USAs Project Thor or "Rods from God "....destruction with zero fallout!
I was going to post the same thing!
Yes. Call of duty ghost
Its called kenitec bombardment.
@@hawk6111 kinetic
Good one!
Next up: the kinetic bombardment, or kinetic orbital strike system, aka Project Thor, or "rods from God". Because that was an outlandish Cold war idea too.
Sounds like a good way to wipe out an ICBM in the silo without going nuclear.
I'm a simple man. I see *ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT* and I click
China just successfully tested FOBS weapon yesterday
Please continue to use ancient fauna as a unit of measurement, that made my day. Love your channels, keep it up homie!
Great video as always, I'm also a huge space and sci-fi junkie. But you mentioned NORAD in there, that might be a cool subject for a video. I'm assuming some of the numbers involved would certainly be large.
I think Korolev would make an interesting video for Biographics.
There was actually a Star Trek TOS episode that used this as a plot point. It was called Gary 7. The crew goes back in time and stops these weapons from being developed.
"Assignment Earth", last show of ST-OS season 2.
Intended to be the Pilot of a spin-off series with Gary 7 (Robert Lansing) as the protagonist
"There will be an assassination today", but on the show the nuclear missile is launched from the ground (US) as a test rather than already being in orbit.
Some projects are fascinating, and terrifying at the same time. Or in this case absolutely horrifying. Project Pluto is just a smidge scarier...well okay it's a whole lot scarier.
Lol. Irradiating everything it flies over isn't a bug... it's a FEATURE!
@@tehbonehead I almost imagine the airforce going" Can we have the non doomsay version? I only want to kill half the planet...that half over there..."
"Sorry, only comes in "everybody dies".
"We'll get back to you...umm we'll call you."
Hi Simon and company. Would be interesting to see the evolution of ICBMs to Star Wars to Russia hypersonic long range missile. Or separate episodes on each one. Keep up the great work !!!!
Do a episode of the distant early warning line, massive radar stations on the greenland ice and canadian arctic.
Tom Clancy wrote of a concern about The Enemy launching a FOBS (it wasn't, but there was a moment of concern) in his novel Red Storm Rising. I think that was the first I had heard of it.
He also mentioned it in Sum of All Fears as the possible cause for nuclear attack on the Superbowl.
*"ORBITAL STRIKE INBOUND!"*
I hardly ever got to use nuclear strikes in _Command & Conquer,_ mostly because I would end up missing one of the necessary pickups in an previous mission. Also, I prefer to steal buildings and vehicles from the AI rather than destroy them, and box-in the harvesters while they are out harvesting.
Can we get a video on the Hubble Space Telescope 🔭
I know it was created using lens technology based on previous designs that were pointed the other way (back towards Earth for surveillance purposes)
And they fucked it up, had to give it glasses go fix
Actually that's backwards. The Hubble telescope was actually a backup "Keyhole" spy satellite that the CIA donated to NASA. They always build more than they need in case of failures and they had one left over at the end of that program. The lens, on the other hand, was new, because you need different optics to look at a wide field of stars than at a small field of ground. And the contractor making the new lens messed up, so astronauts had to perform maintenance on it after the launch.
@@JohnDoe-420 you're mixing up Hubble with two spy sattelites donated to NASA by a different intelligence agency, the NRO, about 8 years ago.
That blaze personality coming out at the star was awesome.
Lest I'm sadly mistaken, things were even more scary than this.
When Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, it didn't simply detonate when it hit the ground. It was detonated at about 1960 feet above the city. There is a reason for this. This was the calculated 'altitude of Maximum destruction.' But by current standards, Little Boy was a pretty small bomb. With bigger bombs, the 'altitude of Maximum destruction' would be much higher. With devices in the order of 50 to 100 megatons, this 'altitude of Maximum destruction' is similar to a low Earth orbit. And so, I recall serious discussions about satellites potentially being parked in orbit, where none of this complicated re-entry stuff was even necessary. Nor would anyone likely suspect a satellite which had possibly been in orbit for years. One needed only to push the button when the device was over its target. Massive destructive power, with no warning what-so-ever. Possibly this is the real reason for banning weapons in space.
Even the "ground burst" for taking our hardened target (bunker busting with nukes) is designed to be detonate somewhat above the ground (but not by much) - the reason being for harder targets it's better to be closer but still best to not be on the ground.
There really was no point worrying about this though - no matter where you were dead away.
Was this sun of star wars
Most of these more advanced nuclear weapons are wastes of money and effort anyways. Conventional ICMBs are so powerfully destructive that making them even more destructive doesn't accomplish anything. A single ICBM MIRV will wipe out a city and millions of people and is pretty much impossible to stop. It would be like using a regular hammer to smash ants and then deciding to spend a few thousand dollars on a a tungsten and titanium hammer to increase the smashing power.
Interesting concept. Some speculated that the warhead would be 10-15 megatons but US analysts preferred to put the fractional orbit yield at around 3 megatons. I wonder if this was due to some bias, either that the preferred size for US warheads was 3 megatons, or they had intelligence that the normal size of a Soviet warhead was 3 megatons. 3 megatons seems to be a useful size, big enough to wipe out a city but not a ridiculous waste of power as in a 50 megaton bomb. Nowadays nuclear weapons can be impedance matched to their target, whether air, land, water, stone, etc. That got to me to thinking about the nukes dropped on Japan. They just wanted something to explode and weren't interested in fine tuning. So looking at the design and the effects and so on, it looks to me that the first nukes were more or less tuned for max output in infra-red heat energy. With the fact that the circular target error is now down to one or two meters, the Soviets do well to rely on mobile missiles for their land forces rather than fixed silos.
Did someone say GoldenEye?
Yaaay! Another wonderful show Simon! Thanks to you and all your team!
Can you do the Boeing super factory in Everett Washington,USA. It can fit Disney worlds magic Kingdom. Plus in order to paint planes it drives over a highway.
I was a boarding schoolboy during the Cold War, and especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was at school while the tensions heated up to boiling point, and the whole school was suddenly stopped in mid - class and assembled to hear the headmaster inform us, that in the event of a nuclear attack, we were all to go, in an orderly fashion, into the vast basement of the school and wait for the attack to pass. The headmaster, and a lot of the staff were ex-Royal Navy ( it was a naval college) and had not yet grasped that nuclear attacks did not “pass”like WWII bombing raids. We all spent the best part of two years dreading the onset of WWIII. It was a very frightening time.
In the 1960s the US was looking for a reliable way to communicate with its ballistic missile submarines so that it could insure they were under the command and control authority. They hit upon long wave communications system whereby there are two 200 ft long antennas impeded in granite in the continental US and twice a day ballistic subs trail a cable the same length. With long wave its possible to send coded signals through the Earth's core. In the 1970s the US fearing the lack of command and control in the Soviets extensive ballistic missile fleet shared the system with the USSR. It's probably what directly led to the early detente regarding nuclear weapons reductions.
@Skunk Ape
Oh Horseshit.
We were both going to do that regardless.
America because we thought the Soviets would try and occupy some of our allies( we ALSO formed NATO to look after our near defenseless friends), and the Soviets because they thought we would try and attack them(Stalin being all paranoid as he was).
And those countries we fought in having resources, means what exactly?
Also, there's not that many countries that don't have a decent amount of at least several types of resources.....
@Skunk Ape
That's 3rd grade simple.
No one wants the other side to start a nuclear war just because they couldn't communicate with a submerged nuclear armed sub.
Do you have anything other than sharing tech that helps reduce the odds of an accidental nuclear war????
We also had economic trade with Germany for most of WW2. You going to claim that means they weren't our enemies???
Save your conspiracy crap for real conspiracies.
The Kennedy assassination is a good one, and it's not even that hard to prove. The Zapruder film and a single newspaper article is all that's needed.
@Skunk Ape
Oh, and I love the idiotic "if you look past" bullshit.
It's a line used to "prove" a point, when there's absolutely no real evidence.....
So, where's that information that's missing from the "whole picture" at exactly.
You must have seen it online, so how about those links.....
@Skunk Ape
No, it hasn't remotely been debunked.
I assume you're mainly talking about that Fetzer dude. He taught a philosophy of science course......
He didn't actually do science.
And when did we secretly share GPS with the Soviets?
Oh the Cold War was very real but the Rules of Engagement were strict in terms of command and control. We shared the technology I mentioned because it was in our interest to do so but other technologies were usually stolen by one side or the other. Sometimes we recovered technology as the US did with K119 ballistic sub or the Soviets did with our Sidewinder air to air missile. Our military behaved professionally and so did the Soviets.
simon. my boy. you gotta do the Great Lakes for Geographics. The midwest that sprung from the Great Lakes created many interesting geographic areas and its cool. Plus, it was all because of beaver.
@Skunk Ape as i have remarked before, glaciers are just larger beavers.
Can we have a megaprojects episode on the new Gerald R Ford class carriers as they boast so much new military technology?
It doesn’t work yet.
@@TheBooban well it is a Ford, fix-or-repair-daily
@@AsbestosMuffins .. in this case Found on River-side Dead
@@AsbestosMuffins F-ed over rebuilt Datsun
Sounds like a topic for the *Drachinifel* channel.
How can anyone Not Like Simon Whistler?
If you want to meet the REAL Simon Whistler, look up his Business Blaze channel. I am still convinced he does every BB video with a real good buzz going.
@@joedufour8188 I watch all of his channels. we've even messaged back and forth a few time.
@@lynnmccurdythehdmmrc2561 He is basically the king of youtube.
I had an uncle that work on such a project for US in the 1960s, he told me they were going to put them in orbit via Gemini and later Apollo missiles. The US was going to be much higher because they though the USSR would hit them with a nuke. The Satellites were going to be manned and carry a crew of 2. The USSR had similar plans in the works. They US was building all kinds of infrastructure to support it under the Air Force umbrella. Fortunately, after the Russian disasters and a US one, they both decided it was just too risky to launch them. The other problem and it was the biggest problem is that satellite in orbit around earth has to wait until it is in the right position, it just does not hover over the target, so the actual de-orbit was going to take long than just an ICBM and it was going to come from a predictable orbit and window. What China has done, is just make an ICBM a little more maneuverable but they missed their targets by miles. The Russians missiles you talked about probably had a 50/50 chance of hitting US at all.
I think it's really great that as I'm learning about this, Simon is learning about it too!
8:57 "Over 2,000 people took part in these tests, 6 of which were thought to be complete failures."
Simon, how old are you? Being I’m almost 70, and my father served in in U.S. Navy for 24 years, I am familiar with all of these weapons of mass destruction. I grew up reading about these devices and living with them. My father completed a nuclear weapons delivery course, being a F-4 Phantom pilot. Those were scary times, worse than today.
Might be related to this one called Dead Hand "Perimetr"
The Zwentendorf nuclear power plant is Austria would be a good megaproject. It is the only nuclear power plant in the world to be fully built, tested and then mothballed before going online. It still exists as a film set and research institute. Austria held a referendum on nuclear power and it was opposed by 50.4%, so the plant never started up
Amsterdam defense line? Amsterdam-Rijn kanaal, the canals of Amsterdam? Just about anything Amsterdam related?
Totally not from Amsterdam btw.
Tell me there aren't nuclear dijks...
Maybe a combination? How to make a city a glass paved parking lot?
He did The Delta Works.
Topic suggestion: Australia's Snowy Mountains Scheme. Sufficiently mega, ran for over 20 years, established huge inland agriculture areas and incidentally started snow sports in Australia. Now being reviewed for pumped hydro to provide stabilization of green power grids.
And just to make everyone even more nervous about it all, there's the concept of dropping a 100 to 1000 kg tungsten core rod with a ceramic ablative coating so it reaches the ground intact.. Launched from a variety of orbital paths from LEO to Geosynchronous global coverage could be total. With a small rocket engine or vanes to provide terminal guidance direction such a system could drop a "crowbar" within half a meter or less of the aim point. A purely kinetic round could cause significant local damage with out that nasty radioactive cloud and fall out. A small one could remove a single building, a cluster of large ones could erase a city.
You mean the Rods from the Gods. Downside was too heavy and costly to get it up there.
The correct answer to this if the telephone pole size is 20 ft. And made out of tungsten weighing 4020lbs, traveling at mach 20 would be a astounding! 42,905.2 megajoules of energy!!!
More difficult that you think. The higher up you drop a weapon, the less accurate it becomes. Sure, we can stick fins on it, and gyroscopic stabilizers inside, but it's still subject to the whims of the atmosphere, and any other variable that would randomly throw its accuracy off. Precision impractical.
Lol. “Costly.” Why build one when you could build two for double the price? We have these and they have already been used and will be used again soon.
Hi Simon, enjoy your content, on all your channels. One suggestion I’ve been wanting to make for a while. More graphics and illustrations to augment your descriptions. Thanks and keep up the good work!
U.S: Built NORAD
U.S.S.R: FOBS?
U.S: Wait, thats illegal
U.S.: Wait, nvm, it's not illegal. We don't care.
USSR: We will make it legal
Kerbals: Remain calm and crash nuclear weapon.
Please do a video about the Titan 1 underground missile bases! They were insanely huge and complex!
I'd like to recommend the relocation of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Absecon Lighthouse, Gay Head Lighthouse, or Cape Cod Lighthouse.
Or maybe the construction of the St. George Reef Lighthouse, the most expensive lighthouse in America.
dont forget ponce inlet, but I might be biased because I live near there.
Cape Hatteras! I love the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Based on your name I didn’t expect you to be a lighthouse fan
@Skunk Ape Virginia Beach? Did you see the Cape Henry Lighthouses while you were there?
@Skunk Ape You wouldn't happen to know the flash characteristic of the black and white one, would you? I'm trying to make a replica of it for my train simulator, but I can't find any info on its flash characteristic. The U.S. Coast Guard site just says, "flashing red and white," but doesn't mention anything about duration between the flashes.
I don´t understand, how they are not subscribed to your channels...
They are really interesting with awesome projects in so many scientific fields. You are doing a great job presenting these topics to us, very informativ and at the same time, quite entertaining and funny.
I hope, this generation and also future generations will never be so stupid to use such frightening weapons against eachother. Let it happen in television, in series and movies...but never again in reality!
you dont need to subscribe to someone with so many videos and channels that the whole suggested video part is just more of their videos
The only thing capable of freeing Danny, Sam and E.T.A from Simon's basement.
Allegedly.
The "nuclear option" isn't an option. I grew up with that threat hanging over my head. To tell the truth, I don't know which was more frightening: the ideas and attitudes of popular media of the 60's, 70's and into the early 80's that this was a viable option; or the fact that this was an actual reality with real nukes and real people involved. So here we are in the 21st century and the problem has not gone away
I already knew about FOBS, but I still enjoyed the video. Since you hadn't heard of FOBS, I'm guessing you also haven't of ERCS either. It was an American satellite based doomsday weapon that was only deactivated in 1991. Basically it was a satellite that would be launched during the opening salvos of a nuclear war. It would then fire all remaining US ICMBS if it was not given a stand down order within three days. Russia possessed a similar doomsday weapon system known as "Dead Hand" in the west. Both system were designed to ensure the destruction of the other country in the event of a successful decapitation first strike by the other. Even in the world of nuclear weapons, those two doomsday weapon systems stand out as the most terrifying and horrible weapons man has ever created. If either of them were ever triggered it would likely kill every person, if not every living thing, on this planet. I think they would make for a good video for this channel since you seem to be in a cold war groove these days.
Megaprojects ideas
1. The Cape Cod channel
2. Containing the worlds largest forest fires.
3. The Eisenhower interstate system/ the Glenwood canyon section of I70.
Do a show on the "Rods of God"
Yes! Do a Megaprojects video on a project that never happened!
@@joedufour8188 fair point...but how do you know that system isn't in orbit right now?
@@billrhodes5603 Because it would be quite large and easily trackable. Any developed country could easily ascertain what it is. If you put something that large in orbit, other countries will pick up on it and figure out what it is in less than a week. It would become public knowledge a few days after that.
Watching this from Minot ND. Crazy how often I hear about places in ND being or having been huge military target areas.
Simon, did you ever hear of the story about the Soviet Embassy in Washington having a 1 megaton warhead in the basement? I heard it enough times to make me think there might have been something to it. Might make a good episode.
Considering we have radiation detectors all over the highways and every port in America, that would have been incredibly difficult to accomplish, especially in (I'm assuming) Washington D.C.? Where a huge portion of our government does business.
@@jonhall2274 This was allegedly back in the early 70s. Detectors back then were hand held only.
Just because a lie enough times, doesn't make it true. Food for thought.
A bigger than usual like on this one! I hadn't heard about this project at all.
And for fun, China just demonstrated a working FOBS
I have actually always wondered if that ever happened, that has just confirmed how close it actually was to a realistic type of attack during the cold war. It would be good to see a megaprojects done about the "atomic tank used during the British nuclear testing"
Space-related stuff is the best.
Nice thumbnail, just a weird smile next to a picture of orbiting nukes 🤣
Megaprojects topic suggestions:
Deep underground military bases
Duga Array aka The Woodpecker
Kapustin Yar - Russian area 51
that oil island city in the caspian sea
Gosh, I thought I'd heard of all the kooky Cold War nuclear delivery systems, but I hadn't heard of this one! That was cool.
You should do a Megaprojects video on Chain Home and the Dowding system!
Next megaproject suggestion: How does Ollie produces so much content?
Really enjoying the channel! I think since you did the "bullet trains" of Japan, why not do the US interstate system started by president Eisenhower. Keep it up!
Don’t know why america was worried. According to flat earth believers. The missile would just fall off the edge of the earth.
Unless it hits the edge of the Flat Earth and tips the whole thing over and we all fall off the giant turtles back!
@@mainepants lol
Who's here after the news that China tested their FOBS system with hypersonic glide vehicles?
Seems like they improved on Soviet concept with Chinese characteristics. lol
Simon, do the Snowy Hydro scheme in Australia!
Yess
That would be awesome
Yes please, my late grandfather worked on it
Do the Sagrada Familia. It's been under construction for 137 years, is completely funded by donations, and was originally designed with string before computers were a thing.
OK clearly I’m missing something. But what is the difference between this system and the typical ballistic missile if that also exits the atmosphere into space? Since this system does not truly go into orbit like a satellite
Normally, ICBMs fly on a purely ballistic trajectory after launch, which means their trajectory goes much higher above the earth. The idea behind this system is to slow down once space is reached and make it remain at low orbit height until the target is reached. This makes it slower, but it also means that the horizon blocks view to it for much longer than a normal ICBM.
Can you do an episode about the SOSUS submarine detection system?
Cold war projects are always something to behold...
So, does Ollie have his own radiator, or is he chained up to the same one with Danny? :P
With all the Cold War videos, and now that you've mentioned NORAD, you should do a video on NORAD's old base, the Cheyenne Mountain complex.
In Soviet Russia, dislike button clicks you!
Comrade!:-)💜
Allegedly
Also, are we talking about communism again?
From mother Russia 👎
Smash that dislike button
Thank you Mega Projects for yet another WELL made, Interesting, and Entertaining!!! You keep making them I will keep watching, Liking, and Sharing them!!! #megaprojectsrocks!
Too many commercials. Back off just a little.
Terry. you tube premium or fast forward to end then tap rewind, it gets rid of the ads.
It's RUclips who control the advertisements. I get it's frustrating, but hardly Simon's fault. As already pointed out, Premium removes ads, but I had no idea about the skip and rewind thing (I have premium)
@@machogrande5502 Thanks brother! I've been doing it since I read your post. Super simple fix!
Just use uBLock Origin you rube. If you're on mobile just suffer.
@@LiamNI or the FREE "AdBlock Plus"
If you want to do a video about yet another nasty proposed weapons system during the Cold War, you should look into Project Pluto. This system would be a cruise missile propelled using a nuclear ramjet, which would fly low over the target country while dropping nuclear bombs. It was intended to fly low enough that the shockwave from the sonic boom would cause destruction on the ground before the nuclear bombs it carried were even dropped. Oh, and the exhaust of the nuclear ramjet would be radioactive. This system would have the best of everything!
They got as far as testing the nuclear power plant for the propulsion system, but they fortunately never built a working model of the cruise missile itself... that we know of.
Mega projects nose and respects that we Americans will measure in anything but metrics.
They know we love our freedom per moonshine
Nose? Bruh I dont mean to be a spelling night but come on 😂😂
@@Arirezz Who am I to argue with autocorrect? It nose best, plus everyone nose what I meant.
I hope @@Arirezz won't be a night, he nose better! 😁
Are those reuploads or is this madlad literally making a full video every two or three days?
Suscribed to every channel. Never "smashed that dislike yet"
You know you want to hate watch....
@@anarchyantz1564 i would love to, but he is such a weirdo it makes it impossible.
I did a pretty thorough paper on orbital ground attack. Its a pipe dream. ICBMs are multiple orders of magnitude more practical. Among a plethora of technical challenges, LEO deorbit, requires the same burn as a suborbital ICBM delivery but, is far easier to detect and intercept, than a ground launch.
Aaaaand China just built one
Fantastic Videos, keep em coming.. Any chance you can do something on Formula 1 and the Megaproject that goes into each car each year. Also another interesting megaproject Hyperloop or the railway in Jungfraujoch or even Hitlers Eagles Nest
I heard, "SMASH that dislike button!" Allegedly!:-)💜
I first thought this would be about Project Thor of the US (kinetic bombardment with Tungsten poles from space). Could also be an interesting video idea, if you didn't one about it yet.
It got around that treaty because it doesn't use atomic warheads, it's just the force of something solid dropped from orbit hitting the ground.
*The same thumbnail again -_-*
15:00
"Hello darkness my old friend...."
"I've come to talk with you again"
You should do a video on the Antarctic snow cruiser.
How about one of your vids on Project Pluto, the nuclear cruise missile?
The man the myth Simon whistler consistently pumping out content across an insane amount of channels! My respect for you is unwavering 😎
I had a chance to visit Prague a couple of times. It was my first visit to Europe and I have to admit I was surprised by the quality of life there. I have never been to the UK but I can see how someone might prefer to live in Prague.
Please do a video on the Sea-Wolf class attack submarine and the MX Peacekeeper missle, love your videos btw.
Right up there with the Perimeter/Dead Hand and SLAM system in terms of "what the hell were they thinking?".
That was a great one I had never heard of fobs and I have been studying history for 31 years
Read about it in June 1968. "MIRV and FOBS Spell Death" - Reader's Digest.
Always wondered what had happened to it. Thanks!
FOBS were scary, but Dr Manhattan had it covered. Yes boi. 👌🏼
I’ve subscribed now 😅 This whole time I thought i already had.
The russian made kharkovchanka polar exploration vehicles might be worth a video.