MOON ROCKET PLANS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 822, 16 November 1929, Page 27

MOON ROCKET PLANS

GERMAN EXPERT HARD AT WORK BACKED BY FILM COMPANY if Germany fails to “win a place .in the moon*' ahead of other contenders, ii will not bo the fault of her servants or amateur scientists, for the “space rocket” which is to show us ihe way to the moon is again , in the foreground of German scien--1 tific speculation, says a Berlin correI spondent. '.This time it is Professor Herman Oberth. the Austro-German j scientist, who is planning in Berlin a series of experiments with highpowered rockets which are intended to reflect the results of his 20 years of study of the problem, ahd which j i will b» staged at some point oil the ! I North Sea or the. Baltic seacoasts in ; j the course of the next few weeks. , Fritz von Opel, amateur sportsman * ■ is still toying with the problem, while Kurt C. Volkhart j ! and * Max Valler, engineers by pro- j fessiun, continue to keep their imag- j ; inations whetted with an undiminishing faith in the ultimate triumph of a j self-propelling missle which shall i pent rate space, and then surely return j to earth, possibly with snapshots taken j ou the fly of some planet encountered i en route. 1 “Of course, 1 am not yet thinking i moon.” said Herr Oberth. “These initial experiments have a purely scientific character and j ! are primarily intended to demonstrate j ; the usability of a propulsion fluid ! which I have worked out.** Herr Oberth made the statement in j ; an enthusiastic talk with the cones- ! ! pondent oil the scope and purpose ; of his experiments here. He then j ! proceeded to overwhelm his iuterro* , gator with maps, charts, diagrams. Euclidean tables, chemical formulae and much other mystifying data which ruthlessly shattered an earlier faith in the empiric knowledge of one Jules Verne. Herr Oberth cheerfully admits that for almost 15 years lie was oliliged j to devote himself to study of the } theory of the rocket principle, as he j j had no money to carry on practical j ! experiments. After studying in j , Munich, Goettingen and Heidelberg | he migrated to Transylvania, which j ; is now his home. He is 36 years ' ) old. man-led, has four children, and | i served four years in the Austrian j i army during the World War. His i j appearance is modest, but when lie ; | launches forth on his favourite sub- j I ject he makes no attempt to conceal i his joy at now being able, through j the enterprise of a well-known Gcri man film concern, to carry out active experiments. Tests of Fuel First “My first rockets will have the pri- . mary purpose of testing the uctV j liquid fuel and of determining to i what extent rockets can be con- • structed so they will be able to j manoeuvre and strike out iu the de- j sired direction so their course can be followed with powerful lenses," he said. His first rocket intended to penetrate into space will be a ‘‘registration rocket,” which will not be j equipped with any recording instruments but which, he hopes, will attain an altitude of 50 kilometres (about 31 miles), or more than 180,000 feet, which is four times as high as the present airplane altitude record. He even hopes to be able to designate the spot at which the rocket will return to earth, although such a computation has only a theoretical value, as it is uot yet certain whether a rocket can be touched off so that it j will ascend perpendicularly, although j jit will be' equipped with a steering: device. On the other hand, if the rocket j lands in the ocean Herr Oberth hopes j !to recover it. German naval autliori- j I ties, with whom Herr Oberth is negotiating for a suitable location along j the seacoast for the forthcoming trials j object to having the rocket go straight ' up, as they fear it will land at some j interior point and injure some one. The navy men want it touched off at ! an angle of about 85 degrees. ; The rocket releases itself automatij tally from a mortar and is equipped ’ with a parachute which automatiI cally unfolds when the supply of fuel i is exhausted, enabling it to descend j gently. It is on the results of his labora- ■ tory combination liquid fuel that flerr I Oberth largely bases his hopes of j | reaching the stratosphere with his j i missile. He has abandoned the use j of powder in favour of liquid oxygen, j j which he later intends to combine i j with benzine, alcohol and other energy j producing fluid agencies. In this i (connection Herr Oberth has not yet! j arrived at a final judgment, although j | he believes he has hit upon a tem- j j porary formula which will materially | j help clarify the fuel problem. Running through a chamber in his j ! first trial rocket, which is about ten j j meters long (roughly 33ft). and ten ’ centimeters in diameter, are four j j shafts of lightly galvanised carbon j which, when brought into contact with j the liquid, are gradually consumed, j ! thus generating a gas that is dis- j charged through the head of the j rocket at a speed of 1.500 meters a ' second, forcing the rocket forward, j Safety Valve Speed Control In order to maintain a uniform ! pressure of 30 atmospheres, the dis- : l charge pipes are equipped with safety ; valves. When loaded the rocket will weigh j about 70 kilograms (1541 b). To its ! | head are attached a set of fins which i permit its regulation in flight. Herr Oberth admits that it probably j 1 will be necessary to construct three or four trial rockets before the ex- ; periments warrant construction of i I more pretentious missiles or the fuel j problem is definitely settled, j There are three possible causes oi . | failure, Herr Oberth admits, the first j i being that the carbons might fail to j ignite, in which case the rocket would | not rise. If. on the other band, the : I carbons become saturated with oxygen ! there is danger of an explosion, whereas if they should be extinguished I after a brief time the rocket would ' only rise to a moderate height. Xo. present failure would induehim to abandon bis project, Herr Oberth declared, reiterating his faith in the ultimate conquest of space, lie refuses to be rushed in his present tests and will devote six months to try-outs if early results do not meet his expectations. He even proposes to attach two minor rockets to the main one. which would give it a lift for six or seven kilometers before

they detach themselves and it begins moving on its own power. With the optimism born of the zeal of the iiivei) >r. Herr Oberth clings fast to the belief that the not too distant future may <ee a “long-distance rocket" equipped with an aerial camera enabling ir to take snapshots of unknown regions en route. Once this stage of development has been reached, the next phase, the “geographic rocket.” would bo the. obvious step forward, for then it would be possible to determine the rocket's landing place in advance, thus converting it into a mail carrier. Such a vehicle. Herr Oberth predicts. would drop European mails in New York in 3<> minutes. Once these problems are disposed of, Herr Oberth conceives as an ultimate achievement the construction of the “space rocket ship" about 42 metres (about 136 ft) in length going at a rate of 11.2 kilometers a second. Its load of burnedout. rockets would be discharged in flight, so that, the “space ship” would be considerably smaller when and if it landed on the moon.