More than half a century has passed since the launch of the Westford project, but there are still discussions - what was it? Some researchers believe that we are talking about a pure scientific experiment, others are sure that it was not without the military.
Half a billion copper needles in orbit
In the fifties, the United States actively explored the Earth's ionosphere, including in the interests of developing radio communications. The outcry of mankind into space gave new opportunities, which scientists took advantage of.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they decided to create an orbital ring around the Earth to amplify radio waves. The ring could not be assembled in orbit - there were no technological capabilities. And the decision was born - to launch 480 million copper needles less than 2 cm long and about 20 microns in diameter into space. The project was named Westford.
Each needle was a dipole antenna that received a signal from the Earth for transmission to neighboring antennas, which generally amplified the signal. A kind of alternative to the satellite constellation. The needles were brought into polar orbit by the Atlas-Agena system. The first start took place in October 1961, the last - in 1963, only 4 starts took place. At an altitude of 3.5–3.8 thousand km, a toroidal cloud was created around the planet about 30 km thick.
A successful radio session took place just four days after the needles were placed in near-earth space, linking California and Massachusetts.
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Pentagon in space
Some researchers are sure that the project was funded and in the interests of the Pentagon. Radio communication in those days was carried out either through underwater cables or through the ionosphere. In the event of a war, especially a nuclear one, the former will be damaged or destroyed, and the ionosphere will be exposed to various radiation, which will impair radio communications. But you need to coordinate the actions of the troops and give orders. In a couple of decades, the solution to the problem will be the creation by the DARPA agency of a prototype of the Internet, in the meantime, they decided to proceed from existing technologies and strengthen the conducting capabilities of the ionosphere by means of a ring of copper needles.
Space debris
According to calculations, the needles in orbit should have held out for about 10 years. In the seventies, they began to fall to Earth without burning up in the dense layers of the atmosphere. First, we decided to find and research them. However, calculations showed that the density in polar snows is 5 needles per kilometer, and the idea was abandoned.
Not all needles have returned to the planet. A significant part remained in orbit, actually laying the foundation for the accumulation of space debris.
Already during the experiment, the USSR protested precisely against the clogging of near space. Pravda has published an article "The US is littering space." TASS said: "The American military completely ignores the dangerous consequences that may arise for humanity in connection with the contamination of near-earth space as a result of such experiments." Even in 2016, 38 clusters of needles could be tracked. This is reported by Rambler.