A Rocket Voyage to the Moon (Sep, 1929)
A Rocket Voyage to the Moon
NO LONGER a fantasy, a rocket to the moon may be fired before another 12 months have passed. Discussion of interplanetary navigation reached a climax recently in a meeting of European scientists in the convention of the Societie Astronomique of France where the Hirach-Pelterie prize of 5,000 francs was awarded to Professor Herman Oberth for researches in this field.
Professor Oberth has developed what is considered to be an entirely feasible plan for sending a rocket to the moon. The problem up to this time has been how to escape the terrestrial attraction of gravity and yet not make the experiment prohibitive by an excess load of fuel. This has been solved by constructing a double-tubed rocket emitting gases at a speed of 2,500 miles a second.
2,500 meters per second.
500 times orbital velocity.
1.3% the speed of light.
Yeah, that would do it.
Comment by jayessell — July 20, 2010 @ 10:02 am
Well we eventually did it July 13, 1969. However the leading researcher (for the rockets) was a German!
Comment by Kosher Ham — July 20, 2010 @ 10:03 am
KH: It happened a lot sooner than that! Try 12 September 1959 by the Russians with Luna 2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2
Soft landing was by Surveyor 1 on 2 June 1966
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_1
Comment by Firebrand38 — July 20, 2010 @ 10:29 am
It was solved in 1929…but apparently it didn’t work and was never reported on.
Comment by r peltier — July 20, 2010 @ 11:25 am
That’s what the nazis wanted us to think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeAfoiN5SDw
Comment by Charlie — July 20, 2010 @ 11:45 am
Of course with unmanned programs we got there sooner.
Comment by Kosher Ham — July 20, 2010 @ 1:16 pm
Dang!
#1 Should have said ‘miles per second’ like the article did!
It was obviously a typo for ‘meters per second’.
If only there WERE rockets with an exhaust velocity of
2500 miles per second!
Comment by jayessell — July 20, 2010 @ 7:52 pm
2500 Miles/Sec=9,000,000 miles per hour!
That there is one fast rocket!
The hard part would be stopping in time so’s you don’t punch on through the moon.
Comment by Tim — July 21, 2010 @ 3:23 pm