first off some points about story-line.
If the space-NAZIs are more advanced than their adversaries down here on earth (or even other aliens in space), then they will have the most highly advanced weapons imaginable. Otherwise, their technology could be downplayed, although, knowing the NAZIs, it would not be their lowest priority.
So let's assume the NAZIs are the one's firing the bomb, and not the earthlings (or other aliens) for now. We would need to imagine the most efficient space-nukes possible.
To start with, I don't believe the moon-NAZIs would use a space-nuke, because that is the technology they would have left behind with their adversaries on earth, for them to develop a less-capable technology. So, let's also assume that, if the NAZIs use space-nukes, they can defend against them equally well.
now, onto some cosmic pseudo-science...
the NAZIs would not use the "gun method" to trigger fissile compound implosion. The "gun method" is the standard for most existing bombs and missiles to detonate fissile material, and involves, essentially, a drop-down locking mechanism to connect one atom of uranium-238 to an isotope of uranium-235. The "gun method" depends on uranium as its activation-charge. Now, despite there being better technology developed since then, most of the earth's present arsenal of nuclear weapons use the "gun method."
The "implosion method" is based on the "gun method." Therefore, despite its leading to the innovations of a more "land-mine" or "grenade-like" array for the shell's detonation system (a sort of pressure-sensitive detonation method), this method also could easily have been foreseen assuming the NAZIs themselves bestowed on us the "gun method" for a nuclear weapon.
The best defense against the gun method is the very thing at its core: uranium-238, coated in a material such as lead. Uranium-238 emits minor amounts of radioactivity ordinarily, however can absorb much more than it yields as well. Uranium-238 is also found commonly in nature. Uranium-238 is "depleted" uranium, while Uranium-235 (its less common isotope) is "enriched" uranium.
Now, the "implosion method" is essentially identical to the gun-method combined with the scattering of shrapnel alike a standard explosive. Aside from two points, they can both be defended against in the same manner (depleted uranium shielding). 1) "implosion method" nukes (also called "thermo-nukes" or "H-bombs") explode spherically, while the "gun method" weapons explode in more of a column. 2) the "implosion method" nukes also use plutonium-239, which emits less gamma-rays than plutonium 240, although most of the most advanced nuclear rockets still use plutonium-240.
"Implosion-method" fission-fusion-fission nukes and multi-stage thermo-nukes are superior to the "gun method" atomic-bombs of old. However they remain based on the same technology. Whether the fission is compounded by additional fusion(s) or whether it uses plutonium to accomplish this, would make little difference to the space-NAZIs if they were in possession of anti-gravity propulsion technology in the 1940's.
I'd like to point out, also, that the shape of the explosion of a nuclear device in space depends on two things: 1) the shape of the detonator's charge and the direction it is struck by its activating trigger. 2) the chemical-atomic element that is being exploded. Which brings me to my next point, before I address the implications of use of any form of nukes on the surface of the moon.
If the space-NAZIs are using the nuke, it will be much more technologically advanced than if the nuke were based on existing terrestrial technology. Thus, assuming the same desired end is to be accomplished, the desired results can be obtained in some other fashion than the "gun method" or the grenade-like dispersion "implosion method." However, assuming all other things being equal, you could imagine the space-NAZIs using nuclear bombs, rockets or missiles in space or on the moon.
So, what then could we imagine would be the space-NAZI's most efficient form of nuclear weapon? Assuming the single-electron hydrogen atom is used in the standard terrestrial model for initiating nuclear fission, then space-NAZIs would have learned how to maximize this explosive capacity by using ununoctium, element 118, the "heaviest" element on the periodic table. Ununoctium has not yet been discovered on earth (it is a temporary name until it is), and is present as a gas only under conditions of extreme pressure. It is, in point of fact, metallic gas.
Ununoctium experiences natural radioactive decay at a rate of less than one millisecond per atom. However it also (it is predicted) has a very high boiling point, between 320 and 380K. In other words, rendering a single atom of ununoctium inside, say, a lead projectile, would require an explosion of temperatures in excess of 320 - 380K. Ununoctium has seven electron shells with a configuration outward from its neutrino-core of 2,8,18,32,32,18, and 8 electrons per shell. In short if you bond ununoctium with two more electrons, you achieve a super-symmetric element, ie. the particle form of a force for which currently no known particle exists (ie. gravitation). Ununoctium can thus be predicted to be found in the "gas jets" at the poles of black holes in the cores of spiral galaxies such as our own.
Thus, it would actually be simpler for the NAZIs to "reverse-engineer" their nuclear explosions, and not even bother to encase them in a detonation-device. They could, conceivably, possess the capable for laser-guidance targeting systems, and thus be capable of achieving ray-beam technology for the transportation of their destructive energy delivery system.
However, assuming the space-NAZIs are the ones detonating the bomb, and not necessarily some more advanced species of aliens, then they could be using any form of technology in between the simple "gun-array" nuclear fission bomb and the ray-beam of ununoctium iron-gas.
Now, onto the topic of the explosion occurring on the moon. Obviously there would be different effects from an above-ground, surface-level, deep-impact or buried below ground detonated device. Assuming the space-NAZIs have anti-gravity technology to propel their flying saucers, they will undoubtedly understand that the force of gravity is compounded by the density of mass. The moon has less gravity because its mass is less dense. If you had a more dense object the size of the moon, such as a black-hole, it would obviously exert greater amounts of gravity. However, the gravity on and inside the moon is an important factor when considering the physics of an atomic explosion on, in or near it.
1) an above ground explosion. The physics of this are determined according to figuring the effects of the standard nuclear bomb drop, such as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In theory, you could leave one person standing alive beneath such a blast, if you detonated the bomb directly over the head, having dropped it from some height above them. However this would not hold true in lunar micro-gravity, where the concussive force would encounter no air-resistance either.
2) surface level explosion. Again, the physics will change regarding from which direction the projectile is being fired. If it is dropped from directly above, it will obey the falling rate for an object of its weight on the moon, whereas if it is "skipped" across the surface, it would exhibit not only a different dispersion area, but also be effected by the diminished lunar gravity.
3) deep-impact explosion. If the device were impacted into the moon at a high enough velocity it would ordinarily create a crater on the lunar surface anyway, even if it did not have a nuclear warhead attached to it, then the nuke will compound the crater-effect in the following sequence:
A) the impact will occur, marked by a simultaneous "first light" flash from the bomb.
B) the crater will form as the impact and explosion scatter the debris field.
C) the resulting dust cloud will occur which, as I have specified, depends not only on the shape of the charge, or the missile its vessel, but also on the atomic-element being exploded as well. The dust cloud will be bound by the physics of the combination of lunar-gravity on the one-hand, and lack of atmospheric friction on the other, such that the overall plume of dust from the explosion should produce a complete lunar-surface wide "nuclear winter" after one rotation (month) of the moon.
4) buried below ground explosion. Seen from above ground, this would simply look like a ripple on the surface, stirring up a shock-wave of dust that would settle down half the distance the shock itself would travel below the surface. Depending on what we believe is in the core of the moon, it would trigger earthquakes and possibly the dry-well equivalent of a quick-sand pit of a sink-hole.
In ANY of these events, the radiation from atomic energy is no joke. It is based on triggering a chain-reaction of large-particle decay, and it feeds off all the larger particles around it can find just like a virus. Instead of eating them though, it causes them to radioactively-decay, and thus become radioactive themselves. Imagine, at this point, a wave of fire that combusts everything it touches. Now imagine this on a smaller scale, only invisible to the naked eye. Even this amount of radiation can give one "radiation sickness," and direct exposure to an atomic explosion is going to give you cancer.
Also, a little more information on the exact tonnage or megatonnage of the explosion we are talking about would be helpful too. For example, it would probably be possible to destroy a significant enough portion of the moon to ruin the tidal effect here on earth on which life depends using a bomb of the scale of the Tsar Bomba. Also, one would need to consider the long-term effects on earth of a nuclear explosion in our immediate neighborhood of space. Would there be radioactive fallout (moon dust) on earth if a nuke blew up on the moon? Size of the bomb would determine its reach into space counter to the moon's remaining gravity, based on its density. Likewise, if there were an EMP effect from the blast on the moon, what satellites would be effected? Again this depends on the location of the blast on the moon relative to earth, and also on lunar gravity.
Anyway, these are just a few thoughts I wanted to share. I apologise for not being able to be briefer. PEACE.
- Jon
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