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| Most major achievements, be they personal or collective, arrive after rehearsals. Some unfold as flights of the imagination. The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing provides a great opportunity to examine how an entire branch of speculative fiction — novels, short stories and also feature films — lies behind the first human footprints on another world. | Most major achievements, be they personal or collective, arrive after rehearsals. Some unfold as flights of the imagination. The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing provides a great opportunity to examine how an entire branch of speculative fiction — novels, short stories and also feature films — lies behind the first human footprints on another world. |
| Works of fiction aren’t particularly known for having influenced historical events. Yet some foundational early rocket science, embedded deep within the developmental history of the Saturn 5 — the towering, five-stage rocket that took Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon 50 years ago this week — was paid for by the budget of the first science fiction film to envision just such a voyage in realistic terms. | |
| Spaceflight as we know it today wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for three extraordinary figures: the borderline-crazy Russian spaceflight visionary Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the hard-right nationalist German-Transylvanian rocketry pioneer Hermann Oberth and the idiosyncratic American rocketeer Robert Goddard. All devised their distinctive strains of rocket science in response to speculative novels, specifically the stories of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells — founders of a nascent genre later to be known as science fiction. Tsiolkovsky and Oberth also had important roles to play in early 20th century film projects depicting trips to the Moon. | Spaceflight as we know it today wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for three extraordinary figures: the borderline-crazy Russian spaceflight visionary Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the hard-right nationalist German-Transylvanian rocketry pioneer Hermann Oberth and the idiosyncratic American rocketeer Robert Goddard. All devised their distinctive strains of rocket science in response to speculative novels, specifically the stories of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells — founders of a nascent genre later to be known as science fiction. Tsiolkovsky and Oberth also had important roles to play in early 20th century film projects depicting trips to the Moon. |
| Tsiolkovsky, the earliest, read Verne’s 1865 novel “From the Earth to the Moon” soon after its publication, and the prospect of spaceflight captured his imagination. But he immediately saw that Verne’s lunar voyagers, depicted blasting moonward in a cannon shell fired from a giant space gun (positioned, prophetically, in Central Florida), would have turned into tomato juice at the moment of launch. Seeking an alternative, he reasoned that multistage, chemically fueled rockets could produce the incremental acceleration required to keep his space travelers alive. Tsiolkovsky calculated the correct formula for escape velocity — effectively the E=mc² of spaceflight — and drew detailed schematics of airlocks and spacesuits virtually indistinguishable from those in use today. His first such designs saw print in 1903, the year the Wright brothers achieved powered flight. | Tsiolkovsky, the earliest, read Verne’s 1865 novel “From the Earth to the Moon” soon after its publication, and the prospect of spaceflight captured his imagination. But he immediately saw that Verne’s lunar voyagers, depicted blasting moonward in a cannon shell fired from a giant space gun (positioned, prophetically, in Central Florida), would have turned into tomato juice at the moment of launch. Seeking an alternative, he reasoned that multistage, chemically fueled rockets could produce the incremental acceleration required to keep his space travelers alive. Tsiolkovsky calculated the correct formula for escape velocity — effectively the E=mc² of spaceflight — and drew detailed schematics of airlocks and spacesuits virtually indistinguishable from those in use today. His first such designs saw print in 1903, the year the Wright brothers achieved powered flight. |
| Working in his native Germanic Transylvania — today’s Romania — as well as Munich and Göttingen, Oberth independently arrived at multistage rocketry and chemical propellants over a decade later. His ideas, too, were influenced by Verne’s book, and his initial work was theoretical. In contrast, by the mid-1920s Robert Goddard was conducting actual launches of crude but functional liquid-fueled rockets near his home in Massachusetts. On reading H.G. Wells’s novel “The War of the Worlds” in 1899, he dedicated his life to spaceflight. | Working in his native Germanic Transylvania — today’s Romania — as well as Munich and Göttingen, Oberth independently arrived at multistage rocketry and chemical propellants over a decade later. His ideas, too, were influenced by Verne’s book, and his initial work was theoretical. In contrast, by the mid-1920s Robert Goddard was conducting actual launches of crude but functional liquid-fueled rockets near his home in Massachusetts. On reading H.G. Wells’s novel “The War of the Worlds” in 1899, he dedicated his life to spaceflight. |
| Of the three, only Tsiolkovsky actually wrote science fiction, which he used as a scratch pad for his revolutionary ideas. Living in near-poverty 100 miles southwest of Moscow, he also issued a stream of theoretical papers. In articles published in 1911-12, he came up with the great utopian credo of the space age: “Earth is the cradle of the mind, but humanity can’t live in its cradle forever.” | Of the three, only Tsiolkovsky actually wrote science fiction, which he used as a scratch pad for his revolutionary ideas. Living in near-poverty 100 miles southwest of Moscow, he also issued a stream of theoretical papers. In articles published in 1911-12, he came up with the great utopian credo of the space age: “Earth is the cradle of the mind, but humanity can’t live in its cradle forever.” |
| It wasn’t until the late 1920s that depictions of space travel based on actual rocket science appeared in big-budget feature films. In Germany, the director Fritz Lang, looking to follow up his dystopian masterpiece “Metropolis,” settled on a novel, “Frau im Mond,” or “Woman in the Moon,” as the basis. He approached Oberth, by then the author of two books on rocketry, to serve as adviser. | It wasn’t until the late 1920s that depictions of space travel based on actual rocket science appeared in big-budget feature films. In Germany, the director Fritz Lang, looking to follow up his dystopian masterpiece “Metropolis,” settled on a novel, “Frau im Mond,” or “Woman in the Moon,” as the basis. He approached Oberth, by then the author of two books on rocketry, to serve as adviser. |
| Oberth took the job, but his overriding goal was to turn his theories into practice. He proposed that Lang use some of his UFA studio budget to fund an experimental liquid-fueled rocket, to be launched as a publicity stunt for the film’s premiere. The director agreed and kicked in some personal funds. But Oberth’s engineering wasn’t as advanced as his theoretical expertise, and during a test firing in 1929 his prototype rocket blew up, rupturing his eardrum and threatening his left eye. Humiliated, he fled Berlin back to Transylvania. | Oberth took the job, but his overriding goal was to turn his theories into practice. He proposed that Lang use some of his UFA studio budget to fund an experimental liquid-fueled rocket, to be launched as a publicity stunt for the film’s premiere. The director agreed and kicked in some personal funds. But Oberth’s engineering wasn’t as advanced as his theoretical expertise, and during a test firing in 1929 his prototype rocket blew up, rupturing his eardrum and threatening his left eye. Humiliated, he fled Berlin back to Transylvania. |
| Even absent a launch, “Woman in the Moon” helped popularize the new science of rocketry. Under Oberth’s tutelage, it marked the first time multistage rocket flight was depicted in film, and other details also served as harbingers of the Cold War space race. For example, the countdown to zero, which Lang used to heighten the tension of launch, was depicted there for the first time. American rockets use it at liftoff to this day. | |
| Although aware of Tsiolkovsky, Oberth and his followers in the prewar German spaceflight society Verein für Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) were more interested in Goddard’s work, particularly his patents. Following the premiere of Lang’s film, the remaining members of the society obtained from UFA the materials Oberth had left in his workshop and used them as the basis for a new rocket they called Minimum Rakete, or Mirak. The group included a talented young engineer, Wernher von Braun, whose own conversion came after reading the 19th-century science fiction author Kurd Lasswitz. | Although aware of Tsiolkovsky, Oberth and his followers in the prewar German spaceflight society Verein für Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) were more interested in Goddard’s work, particularly his patents. Following the premiere of Lang’s film, the remaining members of the society obtained from UFA the materials Oberth had left in his workshop and used them as the basis for a new rocket they called Minimum Rakete, or Mirak. The group included a talented young engineer, Wernher von Braun, whose own conversion came after reading the 19th-century science fiction author Kurd Lasswitz. |
| Incorporating Oberth’s thrust chamber and using a modified version of his conical motor, the Miraks flew more than 100 times between 1931 and 1932, usually under von Braun’s supervision. In August 1932, a Mirak demonstration helped convince the German Army that rockets could be practical weapons, and when Hitler became Germany’s chancellor five months later, the Society for Space Travel was ordered to cease all experiments. Screenings of “Woman in the Moon” were banned, with all prints impounded. The film simply gave too much away. | Incorporating Oberth’s thrust chamber and using a modified version of his conical motor, the Miraks flew more than 100 times between 1931 and 1932, usually under von Braun’s supervision. In August 1932, a Mirak demonstration helped convince the German Army that rockets could be practical weapons, and when Hitler became Germany’s chancellor five months later, the Society for Space Travel was ordered to cease all experiments. Screenings of “Woman in the Moon” were banned, with all prints impounded. The film simply gave too much away. |
| Dropping from sight, von Braun joined a secret military rocketry program, where he developed the Mirak into a series of launchers designated “Aggregat.” It was the Aggregat-4, also known as the V-2, that became the world’s first ballistic missile. It was also the first manufactured object to reach outer space when, in June 1944, a test-fired V-2 reached an altitude of 108.5 miles before falling back to Earth. (By international treaty, “space” begins at 62 miles above sea level.) | Dropping from sight, von Braun joined a secret military rocketry program, where he developed the Mirak into a series of launchers designated “Aggregat.” It was the Aggregat-4, also known as the V-2, that became the world’s first ballistic missile. It was also the first manufactured object to reach outer space when, in June 1944, a test-fired V-2 reached an altitude of 108.5 miles before falling back to Earth. (By international treaty, “space” begins at 62 miles above sea level.) |
| Of course, the V-2 had another purpose and killed more than 4,000 civilians in London, Antwerp and other Allied cities. An estimated 20,000 Jews imprisoned as slaves died as well from beatings, hangings and illness at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where the V-2 was produced in squalid subterranean production lines. The history of rocketry presents a clear illustration of the German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin’s dictum: “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” At the fall of the Third Reich in 1945, von Braun threw away his SS uniform, surrendered to the Americans and was brought to America with most of his fellow engineers under Operation Paperclip, with very few questions asked. | Of course, the V-2 had another purpose and killed more than 4,000 civilians in London, Antwerp and other Allied cities. An estimated 20,000 Jews imprisoned as slaves died as well from beatings, hangings and illness at the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where the V-2 was produced in squalid subterranean production lines. The history of rocketry presents a clear illustration of the German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin’s dictum: “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” At the fall of the Third Reich in 1945, von Braun threw away his SS uniform, surrendered to the Americans and was brought to America with most of his fellow engineers under Operation Paperclip, with very few questions asked. |
| He proceeded to develop the Redstone for the United States Army. Based on the V-2, it was the first American missile to carry live nuclear warheads, which were detonated high above the Pacific in 1958 in a series of tests. An augmented version of the Redstone launched the first American satellite, Explorer I, and later carried the first American astronaut, Alan Shepard, in May 1961 — a brief suborbital flight just three weeks after Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth. | He proceeded to develop the Redstone for the United States Army. Based on the V-2, it was the first American missile to carry live nuclear warheads, which were detonated high above the Pacific in 1958 in a series of tests. An augmented version of the Redstone launched the first American satellite, Explorer I, and later carried the first American astronaut, Alan Shepard, in May 1961 — a brief suborbital flight just three weeks after Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth. |
| Spurred by the space race, von Braun’s five-stage Saturn 5 moon rocket followed not long after, and in July 1969 it took astronauts to another world for the first time. The mighty Saturn remains the only rocket to have transported human beings beyond Earth orbit, fulfilling the goals of Tsiolkovsky, Oberth and Goddard. As for Oberth’s six-foot-long liquid-fueled rocket, developed in 1929 from the budget of Fritz Lang’s “Woman in the Moon,” it served as a kind of acorn to the 363-foot-tall Saturn 5, directly linking the first big-budget science fiction film to depict a lunar voyage to the actual landing four decades later. | Spurred by the space race, von Braun’s five-stage Saturn 5 moon rocket followed not long after, and in July 1969 it took astronauts to another world for the first time. The mighty Saturn remains the only rocket to have transported human beings beyond Earth orbit, fulfilling the goals of Tsiolkovsky, Oberth and Goddard. As for Oberth’s six-foot-long liquid-fueled rocket, developed in 1929 from the budget of Fritz Lang’s “Woman in the Moon,” it served as a kind of acorn to the 363-foot-tall Saturn 5, directly linking the first big-budget science fiction film to depict a lunar voyage to the actual landing four decades later. |
| Readers, we want to hear from you: We got to the moon. Where should we go next? What’s the next big space race? What types of projects, planets or technologies should we be investing in? Tell us in the comments. | Readers, we want to hear from you: We got to the moon. Where should we go next? What’s the next big space race? What types of projects, planets or technologies should we be investing in? Tell us in the comments. |
| Michael Benson, an artist and writer, is the author, most recently, of “Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece.” | Michael Benson, an artist and writer, is the author, most recently, of “Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece.” |
| The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com. | The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com. |
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