ON THE EVE OF SPACE TRAVEL

Press, Volume C, Issue 29518, 20 May 1961, Page 8

ON THE EVE OF SPACE TRAVEL

Scientists Were Not Easily Convinced PART n [By Prof error HERMAN OBERTH! LONDON, May 12. IT was a long time before I had an opportun- * ity to make rocket experiments, and in the meantime I studied all the theoretical problems involved in rocket engineering and space travel. Before me, no-one had made a thorough study of these problems and I had made an advance into no-man’s land, as I soon found.

My studies were conducted independently of Professor R. H. Goddard’s in the United States. Goddard, for instance, in his book, “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes,” published in 1919, described a rocket with a reloading mechanism, in principle much like the mechanism of a machine-gun in so far as the charges were released in a series.

In his introduction Professor Goddard remarked that the operating manner and performance of rockets could not be summarised in mathematical formulae, that their effect could not be calculated by dividing the distance into stages and calculating the effect stage by stage and then adding the several results. In contrast to Professor Goddard, in my book, “By Rocket Into Interplanetary Space,” I published the formulae and deduced the requirements that a rocket would have to fill. My first work on rocket theory was a proposal made in 1917 to the German Ministry of Defence, where I described the principles of what was later called the V-2, I described a rocket using alcohol mixed with water and liquid air for fuel, and I also described a method for regenerative cooling; this is the term used for that type of cooling where the fuel is led through pipes around the combustion chamber, so that the walls of the chamber are cooled and protected from melting while at the same time the fuel is pre-heated before it enters the combustion chamber. This brings the advantage that the fuel will bum better, the flame will be hotter, the gas lighter, and it will leave the combustion chamber at a greater velocity.

Design In 1917 In my 1917 design I also featured a steering device by means of a gyro-compass actuating the air vanes or rudders via electrical relays, and finally a speedometer and fuel feed adjustment with the aid of a weight suspended in a spiral spring. If such a weight is connected to a relay the current may be made to correspond to the acceleration, and if the current is made to pass an electric current meter, it will indicate the speed. In my proposal I also set down the essential results of my rocket theory and demonstrated why rockets built so far had not reached farther and higher than they did. There is for every rocket an optimal speed. Up to the time I was writing, the rockets had been much too small and they flew much too fast One might say that they remained sticking in the air like a bird’s feather which you wish to throw away. Looking back, we can easily realise that the time was not propitious for such a proposal, nor were the resources available to Germany and Austria during the First World War sufficient to make efficient use of such a weapon. All the same, my suggestion ought not to have received such a scathingly negative answer as it actually did receive. The man who reported on my proposal to his superiors said simply that it had been proved that rockets could not fly a greater distance than seven kilometres, and Prussian thoroughness being what it is, he said, one should not expect any great improvement on that figure! Obviously he had read only the brief historical summary which formed the introduction to my document. After the end of the 191418 war I studied nathematics and physics, trying to win adherents for my ideas among leading scientists and officers Regrettably, my efforts were largely in vain, and this may have had a deeper reason.

Difficult Task The profession of a scientist and professor is in itself a difficult one, and it was at that time and lone after made even more difficult by the fact that it was expected of him to be five persons in one, or at least do the work of five persons! He should be a researcher, which requires a talent of seeing the causes of things, but he should also have the power of remembering everything he read, and reed everything published in his special subject. He must also be a writer writing many books even if he had nothing much new to say, and finally, he must be a teacher whether he could teaeh or not

Actually all these activities require widely different talents seldom combined in one person. The ideal, of course, is to split up the five talents: let the readers and writers compile all known facts in handbooks and leave the other men to publish when they have something to say. This would give the researchers time to research. With the old svstem the average “scientist" would react to science as a fattened goose to food: “For God's sake, no more of this!” All interest had of course long since been lost, though the “scientist" may on suitable occasions, have made a hypocritical effort to affect an Interest. But his ml efforts would be directed toward emphasising the neces-

sity of not splitting the energy, and he would be irritated by all colleagues who took an interest in anything outside their narrow specialty, for if their example should be generally adopted, he would also have to study more. He rejected all new ideas by principle, particularly if they were presented by outsiders. As if this were not enough, he must read everything published by his colleagues! If the public began to take an interest in the matter asking him why he was not doing the same, his most convenient answer would be: “Because I db not think highly of it at all.” Thus he would take the least risk.

Public memory is short, and if the new idea should prove right, most likely everyone would have forgotten that at one time he was against it. And if not, he must be allowed to make a mistake like everyone else, and a repentant sinner is always more liked than 99 who are always right. And certainly an expert should be judged by what he knows now and not by what he may have thought 20 or 30 years ago! On the other hand, if he should take up a novel idea he must at least busy himself with it which most often he cannot do because he has already much too much to do

This explains why official science is, by principle, against all new ideas in their first stages. I shall only recall the steamer, the railroad, bacteriology, local anesthesia

with cocaine and physiological saline solution, Schliemann’s archeological excavations at Troy, the automobile, electric light, air navigation, and in late years parapsychology. My own space travel research was no exception. When I began to realise that the experts would remain unresponsive, I tried to wake public interest in my ideas. I wrote my book, ’The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space.” Originally I had no intention but to prove the possibility of space flights, and to give a summary of rocket theory. But I also wanted to rebut at once any rejoinder that my theories might be correct but that the engineers would never be able to build such vehicles. I therefore included suggestions how to solve practically all the problems which were not at the time already practically realised. This was not so much to bind myself to certain solutions as to demonstrate that the problems could be solved. I am really surprised that so many of the suggestions I made then have been adopted in modern rocket engineering. Soon there was lively experimenting. It is true that many of these attempts served only publicity and sensationalism. For instance, when I visited Fritz von Opel in 1928 he met me with the following words: “Professor, do not judge me by the rocket automobile, I am also doing serious work!” His calculation was as follows: “If I advertise it will cost 100,000 marks and my advertisement will be lost in the multitude of other advertisements. If instead I Build a rocket automobile, it will only cost 20,000 marks, and the news will hit the first page.”

Invention Of Space Travel The Russians like to present Tsiolkovsky as the inventor of space travel, and I will in no way diminish his merits; he was in every sense a man worthy of respect. I must remark, however, that in point of time Ganswindt in Germany, even before Tsiolkovsky, presented the idea of reaction-propelled space ships, and that Tsiolkovsky may not have found any attention for his work even in Russia, had not the events in Germany directed the public eye upon his work. What Russia is building today is based on von Braun and myself, not on Tsiolkovsky.

"Must we then.” says the editor of Tsiolkovsky’s works, “take everything the long way from abroad even when it was born in the depths of our immense fatherland and was lost for lack of attention?” When I published my “The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space,” I knew nothing of Tsiolkovsky or Ganswindt.

My book drew attention because—in contrast to Professor Goddard’s work—it also touched upon the question of human flights into space Authors of popular scientific works like Max Valier and Gail took up the idea and brought it before a wider public. A number of engineers and inventors followed suit. They had had similar ideas but had not dared to publish them. I shall mention only the names of Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Walter Hohmann and Professor Eugen Sanger, the most prominent scientist in the rocket field. Everywhere associations and societies were formed to promote rocket research, and in this connexion earlier works were brought to light, such as those of Ganswindt, Tsiolkovsky and Kibaltschitsch. (To Be Continued)

In this exclusive series of articles. Professor Hermann Oberth summarises the past and present of rocket engineering, including his own first steps in this field, and he finishes by setting down what in his belief will be the nearest future of space travel.

Professor Oberth was born in 1894 in what was then Austro • Hungarian (later Rumanian) Transylvania, and in 1923 he laid the foundation of modern rocket research by his book, “The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space.” In 1930 he designed the first rocket engine for liquid oxygen, and the German V-2 rocket of World War II was based on his principles. Since the war he has participated in rocket research in the United States.