On Sat, May 19, 2018 at 12:40 AM, Tim <xxxxxx@little-possums.net> wrote:
> On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 11:26:17PM -0400, Cheng Tseng wrote:
>> Now back to determining how powerful a nuclear weapon has to be so
>> that the detonation on the Moon (And any after effects.) can be seen
>> from Earth...
>
> The first part is trivial.  Pretty much any nuclear detonation above
> the surface on the near side will be visible from Earth by anyone
> looking in the right direction at night.  A large one would likely be
> visible during the day.  It would require an enormously larger weapon
> than anything we have now to leave a crater visible from Earth with
> even good telescopes, though.  Perhaps one detonating well above the
> surface might discolour it over a wide enough area to be visible.
>

I wonder what would happen if you had some Claymore-mine style thing
on the front of a drone heading at the Moon at 12KPS...
Set the mine off several miles above the surface, and spread the
pellets over a larger area, then let them hit and churn up the dust.

Would the churned up area be large enough to be noticed?