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Episode 113: Rocket Pioneer Hermann Oberth

By Gurbir Dated: April 5, 2024 Leave a Comment

Hermann Oberth around 1950s. Public Domain
Hermann Oberth. Around 1950s

The idea of using rockets for transport had been well-established before the first flights of heavier-than-air aeroplanes in 1903. When it comes to turning that idea into reality, three names are considered as fathers of rocketry: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard and Hermann Oberth.

For this episode, I visited the Hermann Oberth Space Travel Museum in the German Town of Feucht, near Nuremberg and spoke with its director, Karl-Heinz Rohrwild. A summary of the interview is below, along with some pictures from the museum.

The museum is run entirely by volunteers in the interest of science. The exhibits on display are a tiny fraction of the total. Museum expansion was planned for the 100th anniversary of the publication of his second book in 1929, with plans to make many of the documents available online.I found Karl-Heinz very helpful, opening the museum for my visit during a public holiday. He and his colleagues extend that welcome to anyone wishing to visit. Contact details here.


Hermann Oberth Spaceflight Museum

Summary

  • His father had been a surgeon. He wanted Hermann to have a career in Medicine.
  • Brilliant at maths, but likely he was autistic at some level.
  • Lost his brother Adolf in WW1 and became anit-war.
  • Considered using a massive bomb delivered by rocket to destroy the senior people who decided to start and maintain the war.
  • Wrote two key books in rocketry in the 1920s
  • Fritz Lang, director of the early sci-fi Metropolis, followed by Frau im Mond. Oberth worked on that film as an advisor.
  • 1929: Winner of the International Award for Astronautics (Robert Esnault-Pelterie-Hirsch-Award)
  • Envisaged the use of solar energy in orbit and designed the first gyroscopes.
  • Also envisaged a huge space-based mirror that would beam power down to Earth for terrestrial use.
  • 1927 A member of the first and most successful space/rocketry society – Verien for Rsumshifffhart (Society of Space Travel)
  • Oberth championed the use of rocket staging, liquid engine propulsion and the use of rocket engines in the near vicinity of space (not in the atmosphere)
  • The RAF bombing raid on August 26, 1943, nearly killed both Oberth and Wernher von Braun, who were working there.
  • Post WW2 interrogated by Theodore von Karman and it was decided Oberth was not taken to the USA. In part, Oberth did not want to go.
  • 1951 was a tough year. He was making his living in part as a farmer.

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Episode 110: Humanity’s spiritual destiny and the 100 year starship

By Gurbir Dated: November 10, 2023 Leave a Comment

Nasa astronaut Dr Mae Jemison
Nasa astronaut Dr Mae Jemison. Credit NASA

NASA has dared and accomplished many “mighty things”. Not a NASA project but to reach the stars in 100 years is just as mighty.

The 100 year starship project aims to get humanity to travel to the stars in one hundred years time. It started in 2012, headed by Dr Mae Jemison, the first woman of colour to fly into space in STS 47 in 1992.

Jason Batt has several eclectic interests he is also the Creative and Editorial Manager for the www.100yss.org project. In a wide-ranging discussion in BAKU during the IAC2023, we discussed the role of science fiction, mysticism and spirituality in humanity’s distant future.

Listen (or watch if on YouTube) to the end for a clip of Dr Mae Jemison talking about the 100 Year Starship Manifesto. You can see it in its entirety here.

Audio and video for episode 110 below. Episode 25 has more on science and religion.

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Black Friday discounts – 33% and 66% discount

By Gurbir Dated: November 17, 2022 Leave a Comment

Use the voucher codes below

BF2022_virtual for 66% discount on all ebooks
BF2022_physical for 33% discount on all paperback and hardback

1. Select the appropriate format (ebook or hard/paperback) or Ebook.
2. Add to basket
3. View the basket and enter one of the two voucher codes

Valid until midnight on 3oth November 2022. Only via the links below


Yuri Gagarin in London and Manchester
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Hardback1-100x150.jpg
The Indian Space Programme

India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer

Leslie Johnson – My Personal History of The British Interplanetary Society 1933 – 1937 Liverpool

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New Book – Atlas of Space Rocket Launch Sites

By Gurbir Dated: September 13, 2022 Leave a Comment

ISBN 978-3-86922-758-0
Size 240 x 300 mm
272 pages
500 images
Index
Glossary
Hardcover

** Description and look-inside below **

Available from: dom-publishers.com, www.amazon.com, www.freytagberndt.com, www.mondadoristore.it, www.lehmanns.de and www.abebooks.co.uk – a variety of suppliers at many lower prices.

Learn more from podcasts: New Space India, The Spaceshow and Aviation-Xtended

Book Reviews: www.wallpaper.com, www.raumfahrer.net, flugundzeit.blog, www.ivorypress.com and collectspace.com

To purchase signed copies directly from the authors contact Brian Harvey or Gurbir Singh


The book describes primary launch sites around the world including some that are historically significant but no longer operating (e.g Peenamunde) as well as the new kids on the block (e.g Kodiak).

The book is edited by Paul Meuser who has written the foreword and sourced most of the 500 or so majestic photos of launch sites and their environments. The majority of the text is authored by Dublin-based author Brian Harvey. A prodigious writer who has been writing on space programs of numerous countries since the 1970s. Katrin Soschinski designed stunning maps, the foundation of any atlas.

Copy of the back text page and a few sample pages from the book in the slide show below. These sample pages can be downloaded here albeit the quality is way inferior to the original.


Back page text

The machines that orbit our planet live in a void environment–
however, space travel itself does not exist in a vacuum. Traveling
to space is an immense effort of humans and machines, taking
not just ‘a small step for a man’ but leaving a huge carbon
footprint in the process. We are in the midst of a paradigm shift
in which private companies and leadership figures in the form of
Billionaires are re-popularizing space travel to an extent not seen
since the space race of the USSR and USA. Space exists isolated
from the place that births its mechanical and a few select human
inhabitants. Thus we tend to forget that every single thing that
exits our atmosphere takes with it more than just its own weight
of materials when it departs our fragile blue marble.

This book offers a unique look at the physical footprints of earth’s
launch sites. With most places hidden away in jungles, deserts, or
amidst the Central Asian steppes, these places exist for the most
part out of the eye of the general public. With satellites facilitating
our modern society and a modern space age ever-present in today’s
news cycle, it is now more important than ever to think about the
imprint these undertakings leave on earth. To begin to answer
the new socio-economic questions raised by our rapid expansion
into the void, we need to look no further than follow the cracks in
the concrete of our planetary launch sites. The rusty train tracks
leading to the pad break the pristine and sterile looks of space, and
reopen our eyes to the realities of space exploration.

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