CHAPTER I TESTS PRECEDING MANNED SAMPLING Perhaps the biggest thing to come out of the Second World War was the development of nuclear energy. The intensive program which resulted in making this energy available was climaxed by the detonation of the world's first atomic explosion near Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945. Compared with later programs, the Alamogordo test was a very primitive affair, Although the cloud itself was a factor in planning the test and several B-29 bomber aircraft were airborne, on this first test no samples were taken from the atomic cloud, Crater samples were taken instead, / Operation TRINITY By mid-1945 the Manhattan Project scientists, working at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, developed LITTLE BOY and FAT MAN, The latter was chosen for the TRINITY test.” During the dramatic preparations for the explosio, the Manhattan Project people had their theories pretty well worked out? but there were a number of areas where speculation on the possible results of the TRINITY were made. Some of the scientists considered the possibility of setting off a chain reaction with the bomb which could not be controlled. What if the chain reaction did not stop withthe material in the bomb, but continued on through the surrounding atmos phere?" At the same time, the expected cloud from the TRINITY shot was the subject of some attention. Hirschfielder, of the Laboratory, wrote: Professor J. 0. "Calculations which Ihave made on the smoke coluwmwould indicate that the radius of our smoke SWEH-2-003h AFWL/HC Ho