Monday, July 09, 2012

A Little Piece of Sunshine


Last weekend we visited missile control and the missile silos of South Dakota. The area was active from '63-'93 during which time there were always 11 guys on duty in case we needed to blow up the world. Above is a decomissioned Minuteman 2 missile. It gets its nickname, "a little piece of sunshine", from the hydrogen reaction that would have occured in the missile which is the same as the one that occurs in the sun. Below is the two foot thick door of the missile lauch capsule which itself is made of four foot thick concrete. The painting on the door refers to the fact that the minuteman missile could reach anywhere in the world in under 30 minutes, it would have taken just 20 to reach moscow by flying over the north pole.