"At the time scientists still believed there might be
   microbial life on the moon and Sagan had suggested a 
   nuclear explosion might be used to detect organisms."

Somebody in charge must have finally realized nuking the moon would have made the U.S. look insane, not strong. However, the most surprising thing to me is that Carl Sagan managed to find a scientific silver lining in this turd of a plan. Does anyone have more info on how a nuclear explosion might have been used to detect life on the moon? Would it have involved spectroscopic analysis of the debris cloud?