When the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, both nations agreed not to place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit around Earth. Specifically, Article IV of the treaty was designed to keep the Cold War's nuclear arms race from extending into space — a goal both superpowers shared.
The problem, then and now, is that neither side has ever had a reliable way to confirm that the other is keeping its word.
After nearly 60 years of uncertainty, a recent feasibility study from MIT physicist Areg Danagoulian proposes a possible solution: a satellite-based sensor that could search for the signature of nuclear material aboard another spacecraft, using high-energy protons trapped by Earth's magnetic field as a probe. The telltale sign of a warhead in space would be a large burst of neutrons Read Entire Article
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