VISIONARIES

The opening decades of the Twentieth Century were years yet carried by the visionary winds of a previous new awakening. Accompanied by forty years of the most intense auroral demonstrations ever observed in this millennium, the “Victorian” storm first penetrated the social mind with new and thrilling advancements in consciousness. The subsequent effects of this new awareness took the form of extraordinary and unexpected developments in technology. Primarily transacted as a new awareness of visionary potentials, working class persons found themselves receiving imagery and means for achieving their dreams. Representing an eidetic upheaval of long forgotten archane power, visionary writers and experimenters suddenly provided new future dreamlines; into which society could and would move. Those who have no power might at least have vision. Recall that technology, especially technology of a biodynamic nature, represents a conundrum to the rulership.

Technology of the kind to which we refer, has great power. It is not easily eliminated. It generates power at a working class level. Primary technological discovery caimot be “poised” within the superstructure by bureaucrats, regulated by decree, or employed by aristocrats. The conundrum which this kind of technology poses to the whole pyramidal gantry disturbs the structure, bringing the geopolitical structure and all of its synthetic authorities into proper proportion and poise within the natural hierarchy. To see the weak points in rulership and in the bureaucratic superstructure is to know exactly where to direct specific kinds of technological conundrums. Recall that the flow of power which best serves civilization is that which flows firom the base to the point

Jules Verne wrote extensively on the topic of space travel, his great adventure tales fulfilling part of the powerful Victorian tide which was then sweeping the world of the Northern Hemisphere. “From The Earth To The Moon” (1865), and “Around The Moon” (1870)) each stimulated such a degree of excitement, that experimenters everywhere immediately began seeking means for imitating the space travel theme. In 1869, E. E. Hale described an artificial moon which could be used as a maimed military base, a story entitled “The Brick Moon” which appeared in Atlantic Monthly. The idea was taken with the seriousness usually ascribed to dreamers and their dreams. But the imagery of space and space travel was so strong, so compelling, that a great number of practical researchers began seeking the means to accomplish the objective.

Hermann Ganswindt (1891) lectured in Berlin on rocket-propelled vessels for interplanetary travel.

Konstantin Ziolkovsky wrote a great number of aeronautical works which included “The Theory of Dirigibles” (1885), a 480 page tome containing over 800 formulas and descriptions of lighter than air craft. This was followed by “The Possibility of Constructing A Metal Dirigible” (1890), and “Maneuver-able Dirigibles” (1892). Turning his mind toward greater heights, Ziolkovsky wrote the first technical treatises on space travel. “Dreams About Earth and Skies”, “On The Moon”, and “Gravitation As a Source of Cosmic Energy”, were all written in 1894. These were followed by his classic “Investigation of Cosmic Reactive Machines” (1898), which engages a detailed description of propellants such as liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. In these works, Ziolkovsky also discussed the problems of life support in long space journeys, offering possible solutions in closed reservoir systems. In each of these engineering areas, Ziolkovsky opened the realistic engineering dialogues which yet remain the foundation of rocketry and life support as we know it. His wonderful model crafts illustrate the use of external sensors and signal lights, as well as the detailed design of both cabin and engine structures. This he achieved with neither the benefit of formal education nor the much needed funding which would have taken his theoretics into the realm of physical reality. Besides later having suffered the loss of his small basement workshop by fire, Ziolkovsky the pure researcher, was beset by many personal handicaps and fhrstrating resistances. Completely deaf, often hungry and ill, deprived of personal necessities, and never encouraged or supported by colleagues, he remained enthralled by transcendent realms of vision and revelation imtil death; the resolution of genius to limitations whenever encountered.

Victorian science-based fantasy stories written by H. G. Wells (“War of The Worlds and “First Men In The Moon”, 1898 and 1901 respectively) and sagas written Edgar Rice Burroughs (“The Princess Of Mars”, 1917) voiced the strong mythical themes associated with space travel and the discovery of alien civilizations of the day. Fueled with these themes of wonder, society began seeking the means for achieving the dreams. This preoccupation suddenly reemerged as an engineering proposal. In 1913 Rene Lorin patented a ramjet powerplant. The next major work on space travel was a technical description “On A Means For Reaching High Altitudes”, published in the Smithsonian by Robert H. Goddard (1920). Professor Hermann Oberth (1922) wrote a thesis dealing with chemical rockets and their potential use as engines for travelling into interplanetary space. In his “Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen” (“The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space”) Professor Oberth wrote of multi-staged “step-rockets”, instrument-carrying probes, orbital manned stations, and interplanetary vessels for carrying research crews. His wonderful and visionary descriptions told of permanent space stations, manned space satellites. Serviced by a continual stream of shutde rockets, whose regular visits would bring supplies and fresh space crew members, such a manned station would be but one step closer to achieving a lunar landing.

Dr. Oberth adveuiced the notion that a trip to the moon could be well achieved by the establishment of successive high orbital and interorbital manned stations. Short shuttle jumps between each station, journeys well supplied and sufficiently prepared, could bridge the relatively long distance to the moon with ease. Dr. Walter Hohmann published “The Attainment of the Celestial Bodies” (1925), a discussion of interplanetary vehicles and interplanetary ventures. He detailed the engineering calculations required in fueling proposed ventures from Earth to Venus. He provided remarkable instructions on life support systems and materials required for such journeys. Dr. Hohmann devoted much of his writings to a consideration of various orbits, their characteristics, and the probable best selection of interplanetary pathways. All of these technically oriented books provided an inestimable stimulus to designers and engineers. Dr. Goddard began designing and testing small chemical rocket engines in 1926. These first launches rarely achieved altitudes exceeding the height of rooftops, but did serve as validation of the essential notion concerning liquid fuel propellants and valved rocket engines. Working afterhours in his self-funded machine shop, his later designs would form the basis of all future rocket technologies.

The German Society for Space Travel (1927) was comprised of engineering students whose passion for space travel reached heights far greater than their actual achievements. Building their own rockets from private funds, launching these, and following each launch with wonderful picnics of wine, women and song, formed the heart of these largely visionary journeys. Nevertheless, there were a few member for whom the desire to reach for space was much more than a personal afterhours hobby, a pursuit of dreams with only picnics and dancing as their reward. Friedrich Stamer piloted the first German-made rocketplane to 4000 feet in 70 seconds (1928). Dr. Oberth published his “Means for Space Travel” (1929), and Hermann Noordung described artificial satellite and space station designs (1929).

By now, the challenge to create bigger and better rockets became a decision which a few now demanded. The perfection of this craft was their goal, a serious step into professional rocket engineering. Indeed these demands became realities, with greater precision in designs. More thrilling results were the outcome of this pursuit of excellence. The craft of rocket making was rapidly losing its visionary lure, and becoming ?in engineering theme. This lunge forward marked a defined line between those who wished the preservation of a hobby, from those who wished the development of cui engineering profession. Some members of the German Rocket Society who wished more serious outcomes began seeking more serious funding. This small group of engineers, whose passion for space travel reached wonderful experimental perfections, decided to approach various governmental agencies. Seeking funds through patents and royalties, the notion of utilizing rocketry in the delivery of mail was proposed; a system which worked, but found no utihty at the time.

But these wonderful dreams also stimulated some toward the use of rocketry in the art of devastations. Next in line of governmental contacts was the military, a very obvious application of their rocket technology in national defense. German military officers, who early discerned the use of rocket systems in weapons delivery application, were surprised to discover that the Berlin Rocket Club had advanced to such a degree on personal funding alone. Receiving an enthused reception, the military hierarchy ultimately rejected the rocket system in favor of large and more dependable field artillery. This original introduction of their research work, an endeavor with visionary objectives, was a contact with peacetime mifitary leaders; a contact which later proved disastrous when the totalitarian Nazi rule had rooted itself in the nation. Those same military figures who now feared the ravings of Adolph Hitler, sought to fulfill his demands for “vengeance weapons”. Recalling every strange and curious system developed in the previous decade by arduous experimenters, these officers began reaching into the civilian population to find those weapons. In 1929, the German Army became more than interested in the rocket developments of the Rocket Club, but considered having the more serious work more fully developed through established Industrial groups. This consideration soon lost its appeal, when the high security risk of such an Industrial imdertaking was realized.

Nazi forces recruited members of the Rocket Club, conscripting their service toward those vengeful objectives. In this single sweep of the rich German community of experimenters, the world was acquainted with yet a new source of fear and woes. In 1931 their Office of Weapons Development organized a private research group, largely taken from members of the little Club whose merits were well approved. Friedrich Schmiedl, an Austrian, conducted commercial rocket mail shots between 1931 and March 1933, when his work was unexpectedly destroyed. By 1935, the American Dr. Goddard regularly launched rockets which attained altitudes of 7500 feet In the very same year, Russian rockets reached an unparalleled 6 miles, a truly amazing technical demonstration. Each of these developments were viewed by the Nazi regime as dangerous foreign military potentials requiring ready answer.

Then Captain Walter R. Dornberger (later General), Wemher von Braun and Heinrich Grunow formed the core of this rocket research team. Somewhere in all the threats, the screaming, the pressures, the fear, these visionaries were coerced into perverting their work for the now “inevitable” war. By 1939, the Peenemunde Research Institute was designing, building, and launching tactical weapons. Rockets, originally known by the engineers as the A-4 and the A-5, later became weapons of mass destruction. How easy it was to press the launch trigger and forget the fate of those whose lives lingered under the Damocles Sword of the V-2. The early V-2 designs dwarfed all the previous records set by rocket research teams around the Northern World. Each successful V-2 launch reached as much as 118 miles (1942). Having devastating consequences for their English neighbors, ramjet powered V-1 cruise missUes, and V-2 ballistic missiles, brought down a rain of death.