120
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
3.3.4 Hermann Julius Oberth
Hermann Julius Oberth (1894−1989) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German engineer and physicist, as well as one of the pioneers of modern rocketry and astronautics.
He has made a great contribution to the theory of rocket motion and astronautics.
His works on space flight have influenced the whole of Europe, attracting a large
number of young people to devote themselves to studying rockets and astronautics.
On 25 June 1894, Hermann Oberth was born in Transylvanian town,
Hermannstadt, Austria-Hungary (today Romania), and his father was a prosperous
physician. Around the age of 11 years old, Oberth liked to read science fictions,
especially “From the Earth to the Moon” and “Around the Moon” written by Jules
Verne, re-reading them to the point of memorization. From this time, Oberth became
fascinated within the spaceflight stories while he boldly raised the questions of flying
ways. For example, launching the astronauts by the artillery in Verne’s book, they
would undoubtedly be smashed into pieces due to the action of huge gun-tube acceleration. At the age of 14, he constructed a model rocket as a middle school student,
arriving independently at the concept of the multistage rocket, but he lacked then the
resources to pursue his dream on any except a pencil-and-paper level.
At the age of 18, Oberth moved to Germany where he spent most of his adult life.
In 1913, dutifully following his father’s footsteps, Oberth enrolled at the University
of Munich to major in medicine, but it was not his ambition, and thus he took elective courses like mathematics and astronomy in accordance with his own interest,
exploring the possibility of space flight. Soon after the outbreak of the First World
War, his education was interrupted by service in the Imperial German Army. He was
assigned to an infantry battalion, and sent to the Eastern Front against Russia. Two
years later, he was moved into a medical unit at a hospital in Sighisoara, Transylvania,
in Austria-Hungary. In the meantime, he used his spare time to study spaceflight
theory and weightlessness effect and designed a long-range rocket weapon. In 1917,
he showed how far his studies had reached by firing his rocket with liquid propellant in
a demonstration to the Prussian Minister of War, but it has not attracted official attention. As a medical student, he was more concentrated on space medicine, particularly
the impact of weightlessness on human physiology and psychology. For this reason,
he had conducted a series of experiments of weightlessness, intentionally drowning
or injecting anesthetics when swimming to get the experience of weightlessness.
In 1919, Oberth once again came back to the University of Munich to major in
physics rather than in medicine, and later went to the University of Göttingen to study
scientific fundamental courses like mathematics, physics and astronomy. By 1922, he
had preliminarily established a theoretical frame of rocket motion and space flight and
submitted a doctoral dissertation on rocket science to the University of Heidelberg,
but it was rejected as “utopian”. Meanwhile, he learned from the newspaper that the
U.S. rocket expert Robert Goddard had published the classic paper, “A Method of
Reaching Extreme Altitudes”, and wrote to Goddard for the full text. Concerned with
the German interest in space flight, Goddard sent him a courtesy copy with some
apprehension. Goddard’s paper gave him great confidence, which the principle of his
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
3.3.4 Hermann Julius Oberth
Hermann Julius Oberth (1894−1989) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German engineer and physicist, as well as one of the pioneers of modern rocketry and astronautics.
He has made a great contribution to the theory of rocket motion and astronautics.
His works on space flight have influenced the whole of Europe, attracting a large
number of young people to devote themselves to studying rockets and astronautics.
On 25 June 1894, Hermann Oberth was born in Transylvanian town,
Hermannstadt, Austria-Hungary (today Romania), and his father was a prosperous
physician. Around the age of 11 years old, Oberth liked to read science fictions,
especially “From the Earth to the Moon” and “Around the Moon” written by Jules
Verne, re-reading them to the point of memorization. From this time, Oberth became
fascinated within the spaceflight stories while he boldly raised the questions of flying
ways. For example, launching the astronauts by the artillery in Verne’s book, they
would undoubtedly be smashed into pieces due to the action of huge gun-tube acceleration. At the age of 14, he constructed a model rocket as a middle school student,
arriving independently at the concept of the multistage rocket, but he lacked then the
resources to pursue his dream on any except a pencil-and-paper level.
At the age of 18, Oberth moved to Germany where he spent most of his adult life.
In 1913, dutifully following his father’s footsteps, Oberth enrolled at the University
of Munich to major in medicine, but it was not his ambition, and thus he took elective courses like mathematics and astronomy in accordance with his own interest,
exploring the possibility of space flight. Soon after the outbreak of the First World
War, his education was interrupted by service in the Imperial German Army. He was
assigned to an infantry battalion, and sent to the Eastern Front against Russia. Two
years later, he was moved into a medical unit at a hospital in Sighisoara, Transylvania,
in Austria-Hungary. In the meantime, he used his spare time to study spaceflight
theory and weightlessness effect and designed a long-range rocket weapon. In 1917,
he showed how far his studies had reached by firing his rocket with liquid propellant in
a demonstration to the Prussian Minister of War, but it has not attracted official attention. As a medical student, he was more concentrated on space medicine, particularly
the impact of weightlessness on human physiology and psychology. For this reason,
he had conducted a series of experiments of weightlessness, intentionally drowning
or injecting anesthetics when swimming to get the experience of weightlessness.
In 1919, Oberth once again came back to the University of Munich to major in
physics rather than in medicine, and later went to the University of Göttingen to study
scientific fundamental courses like mathematics, physics and astronomy. By 1922, he
had preliminarily established a theoretical frame of rocket motion and space flight and
submitted a doctoral dissertation on rocket science to the University of Heidelberg,
but it was rejected as “utopian”. Meanwhile, he learned from the newspaper that the
U.S. rocket expert Robert Goddard had published the classic paper, “A Method of
Reaching Extreme Altitudes”, and wrote to Goddard for the full text. Concerned with
the German interest in space flight, Goddard sent him a courtesy copy with some
apprehension. Goddard’s paper gave him great confidence, which the principle of his