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Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

Episode 113 – Rocket Pioneer Hermann Oberth

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Hermann Oberth around 1950s. Public Domain
Hermann Ober 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 Nurnberg 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 amount of the exhibits that exist. Museum expansion planned the for 100th of the publication of his second book in 1929. With plans to make lots 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.

Listen here or click the three dots to download
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 Oberth 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 lived through tough times. He was making his living in part as a farmer.

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

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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 in to 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 vido for episode 110 below. Episode 25 has more on science and religion.

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Episode 108 – NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission

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The Europa Clipper mission, due for launch in 2024, will arrive and orbit Jupiter in 2030. The third spacecraft to do so after Galileo (in 1995) and Juno (in 2016). The Pioneer and Voyager missions were flybys. The primary objective, as the mission name suggests, is the investigation of Jupiter’s Moon, Europa. Called Europa-Clipper after the 19th-century merchant ships that shuttled between ports at the high-speed then available.

Europa-Clipper will orbit Jupiter, not Europa. This is one of Jupiter’s moons that shows strong evidence of a sub-surface water ocean. During its four-year mission lifetime it will flyby Europa dozens of times looking for conditions suitable for life.

Dr Steven Vance talks about the mission’s goals and current state of readiness. This was recorded in Athens during Cospar 2022. He was the scientific advisor to the 2013 film Europa Report.

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Episode 104 – William Leitch. The forgotten Scottish Rocket Pioneer

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When it comes to the pioneers of rocketry, tradition has it that it was Tsilokosky, Goddard and Oberth. in this episode, author Rob Godwin talks about William Leitch from Scotland. Leitch was writing about the principles of rocket propulsion and space travel in 1861. Decades before Tsiolkovsy. Over the last few years, Rob has been researching Leitch’s story and published a book – William Leitch Presbyterian Scientist & The Concept of Rocket Space Flight 1854-1864

In this interview recorded via Zoom, Rob Godwin recalls how he came across Leitch’s work and the research activity that eventually led him to uncover this remarkable story.

The following 19th-century publications, that Rob refers to are now available online, and pdf versions can be downloaded. Links are available on the episode page

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