About the Book
Fateful decisions, like creating and using the atomic bomb, were made with a scientific hubris by those who believed they could assess the risks. While not all decisions can be made democratically, humanity should consider the risks of extinction. A lesser-known event involved detonating atomic weapons in space during the late 1950s and early 1960s to study their electromagnetic pulse effects on communications, conducted without public knowledge. A witness recalled seeing a deep red glow in the night sky at MIT in 1958.
The Author
Claude Phipps
Claude Phipps holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. in plasma physics from Stanford, where he conducted the first laser-plasma interaction experiment in 1972. He founded Photonic Associates, LLC in 1995 to advance laser space propulsion and invented "ORION" and "L'ADROIT" concepts for laser space debris re-entry. He collaborated with Christophe Bonnal on the Just-in-time Collision Avoidance concept. Phipps has published 150 refereed articles and presented at 172 international conferences.
