1. Moon bases: Project Horizon (1959) planned an outpost of ~12 astronauts with buried cylindrical habitats and on-site nuclear reactors for powerdocuments.theblackvault.com
2. Project Orion (1958–63) pursued a nuclear-pulse spaceship: early Orion designs were 80 m tall with 40 m pusher platesntrs.nasa.gov. Historical summaries note Orion’s bold motto “Mars by 1965, Saturn by 1970,” with an 80‑m ship carrying 150 people and thousands of tonnes of payloadntrs.nasa.gov
3. In 1957–58 the USAF funded Avro Canada’s Project 1794, a supersonic VTOL “flying saucer” interceptor to shoot down Soviet bomberssecretsdeclassified.af.mil. (That saucer was to use ten jet engines facing downwards for lift and was to reach Mach 3+.)
4. Project Pluto (USAF/Atomics, 1961–64) developed a nuclear-powered ramjet cruise missile (SLAM). The design was “as large and heavy as a steam locomotive,” flying at Mach 3–4 at low altitude, with global range and the ability to loiter for monthsfourmilab.ch. It would carry dozens of nuclear warheads to rain destruction on multiple targets. (Testing proved the reactor concept feasible before cancellation.)
5. Exoatmospheric kill vehicles_: nuclear-armed interceptor missiles that would be lofted by rockets to explode near incoming ICBMs
6. In 1960 NASA scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline proposed the term “cyborg” in “Cyborgs in Space.” They suggested engineering human physiology (e.g. blood, respiration) to survive space vacuum and radiation, rather than relying solely on life-support gadgetsspace.com.
7. General Electric’s Hardiman (1965–71) was a famously audacious powered exoskeleton developed for the Army. It used hydraulics and electronics so that a wearer could lift hundreds of kilos with ease – one source noted “250 lb felt like 10” to the operatorimse.iastate.edu. In reality Hardiman itself weighed ~1500 lb and was notoriously uncontrollable: any attempt to actually operate the full suit “resulted in uncontrolled violent motion”imse.iastate.edu, so it never functioned as intended.
8. Other HMI experiments included precise master–slave manipulators for nuclear work, early cockpit head-up displays (even helmet‑mounted sights), and rough telepathic/computer interfaces (some DARPA memos speculated on brain-pattern recognition). The army funded laboratory studies of “augmented soldiers” with implants or biosensors.
9. NASA/AEC’s Project ROVER/NERVA (1955–73) built hydrogen-fueled reactor engines; by 1969 the NRX-A6 reactor ran at 1.1 gigawatts for over an hourntrs.nasa.gov. This proved that fission rockets could conceivably send astronauts to Mars.
10. Project Plowshare (late 1950s–60s) even proposed using hydrogen bombs for civil engineering – e.g. carving a harbor with nuclear blasts.
11. Project Chariot plan of 1962 aimed to blast radioactive bombs in Alaska to create a seaport.
12. MIT’s Lincoln Lab (for the USAF) flew Project West Ford in 1961–63: they orbited ~480 million tiny copper needles (0.7″ long each) around Earth, creating a reflective “ring” antenna beltthecrimson.com. This artificial ionosphere was meant to carry jam-proof, failure-proof global radio links in case terrestrial channels failed. (It worked briefly, but became obsolete with real satellites.)
13. RAND’s Paul Baran modeled how to network computers by “packets” and switches. His 1964 reports introduced a “Distributed Adaptive Message Block Network” and showed that such a large-scale digital network would be both feasible and highly survivable under attackwalden-family.com
14. Project A119 – Nuke the Moon (1958-59): Detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon, which would help in answering some of the mysteries in planetary astronomy and astrogeology. If the explosive device detonated on the surface, and not in a lunar crater, the flash of explosive light would have been faintly visible to people on Earth with their naked eye. This was meant as a show of force resulting in a possible boosting of domestic morale in the capabilities of the United States
15. Project Orion – 4,000-ton nuclear-pulse starship (1958-64): Would ride successive A-bomb blasts off a giant steel “pusher plate”; early models could haul 150 t to Mars in 125 days.
16. NB-36H / X-6 – nuclear-powered bomber (1955-61): Testbed B-36 with a live 1 MW reactor in the bay; 47 flights proved crews could be shielded.
17. Project Iceworm – nukes under Greenland (1959-67): 3,000 mi of rail tunnels in moving ice to hide 600 Minuteman missiles.
18. Project Carryall – 22 nukes to cut I-40 & Santa Fe rail pass (1963-70): Save excavation costs in California’s Bristol Mts.
19. Panatomic Canal – 200 bombs for a sea-level Panama alt-canal (1964 study): Detonate multi-megaton devices through the Darién.
20. Project Mohole – drill to Earth’s mantle from a ship (1958-66): Oceanic rival to the Space Race. Phase-1 worked, then costs ballooned to >$120 M.