I like it, we can just move the sun in order to move Jupiter! We’ll work out a delta-v change of the sun that cause Jupiter to eject Europa on a collision course to the moon. That’ll show Clarke and his “ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA”.
Interesting question Incubus.
Unfortunately for you by asking it, should something actually happen to the Moon, you will be the first person the authorities investigate.
Tut, tut.
What I think we could potentially do is move a sizable asteroid with solar sails.
Then over an enormous length of time we could use the asteroid to shepherd the Moon out of orbit so it smashes into the Earth. That should effectively destroy the Moon.
Another idea - use nuclear blasts to steer asteroids into the moon to steer it into the Earth. Sure Earth would be destroyed but it would probably take the moon with it so OP’s goal would be achieved…
see post #99. there are no asteroids massive enough, you’d need to bombard the moon with millions of asteroids to have any effect.
But moving the sun, now that idea has legs, all we need to do is build a Shkadov thruster:
Apparently, after looking at secret NASA plans, the Moon has a trench in its northern hemisphere. Along this run is a thermal vent, no bigger than a whomp rat. If we can bombard it with proton torpedoes, it just might set off a chain reaction that will destroy it.
Of course, the tricky part would be directing the proton torpedoes along the trench, then somehow Force them to make a 90° turn down into the vent at the exact moment.
Just paint it in a non-reflective black.
Oh come on. As a plan for an evil genius, hiding the moon is pretty weak.
“Yeah, on second thoughts I could just wait two weeks - job done!”
This wouldn’t work terribly well. The moon is very dark anyway, and painting it black would reduce it’s brightness by 2/3rds at most. It would still be the second brightest object in the sky, after the sun, and you’d still be able to see it in daylight, let alone at night.
Yeah, but you could freak everybody out by telling them we’re now looking at the dark side.
Surely painting it non-reflective black would, by definition, reduce its albedo to zero. Of course first we’d have to develop such a paint…
But yes, I’ve always found it hard to reconcile looking up at a brilliant full moon with the knowledge that its surface is about as dark as a reasonably well aged asphalt car park. Perhaps a better Evil Genius plan would be to dump a load of chalk on it instead, making it shine extra bright and, I don’t know, mess up people’s sleep patterns.