Main points
- In the 1960s, the US launched Project West Ford to improve military communications by scattering hundreds of millions of copper dipoles into orbit.
- The experiment created space debris, some of which still orbits Earth, but the technology quickly became obsolete due to the development of communications satellites.
A ring of copper needles around the Earth – a Cold War experiment / Collage 24 Channel
In the 1960s, the US attempted to create its own artificial ionosphere by spraying hundreds of millions of copper dipoles into orbit. The experiment, known as Project West Ford, was intended to improve military communications, but left behind space debris, some of which still orbits Earth.
At the height of the Cold War, the US military was looking for reliable ways to communicate over long distances . At the time, the main channels were underwater cables and the reflection of signals from the natural ionosphere, a charged layer in the upper atmosphere. Both options were considered vulnerable: the cables could be cut, and the ionosphere could be disrupted, including by nuclear explosions in low orbit. IFLscience writes about this.
Why did the US launch millions of copper needles into space?
In 1961, the U.S. Air Force, along with scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, proposed a radical solution: to create its own ionosphere. The project was called Project West Ford .
The idea was to launch a huge number of tiny copper dipoles – essentially thin needles – into orbit, forming an artificial belt around the planet that would reflect radio signals, providing a backup communication channel.
The project was immediately controversial . Astronomers feared that the cloud of needles would interfere with sky observations, while others feared that the objects would pose a danger to satellites. To reduce the risks, it was assumed that the dipoles would quickly deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere.
The first launch attempt in 1961 failed because the needles did not deploy properly. Engineers created a new container with naphthalene gel that would quickly evaporate in a vacuum, releasing the payload. In 1963, the experiment was a success, placing an estimated 120–215 million copper dipoles into orbit.
According to Gunter Space Page , the plan was for them to gradually disperse and form a belt through which signals could be transmitted between ground stations. The system was tested and was able to transmit voice, text, and data between stations in Massachusetts and California.
However, the technology had its challenges. Stable communication required narrowly directional antennas with high gain, powerful transmitters, and a sufficient number of dipoles in the beam intersection zone. In addition, the signals had undesirable characteristics – frequency stretching and delay due to the different speeds and positions of the needles in orbit.
Most of the dipoles eventually entered the atmosphere and burned up. However, some clumped together and remained in orbit. According to NASA, as of 2013 , dozens of such objects were being tracked. Today, more than 40 clusters remain in orbit, nine of which have perigees below 2,000 km. Above this altitude, there is also a moderate amount of debris, some of which is associated with this experiment.
Despite this, they did not pose a large-scale threat – a significant part of the needles were too small to cause serious problems. In the end, the very concept of an artificial ionosphere quickly lost relevance. It was replaced by communications satellites, which provided a more reliable and easier way to transmit signals.
Thus, the Earth briefly received an artificial belt of copper dipoles – an ambitious and controversial experiment of the Cold War era, the consequences of which partially remain in orbit today.