Oberth hermann biography of william hamilton

German Pioneer of. Although the age of space travel and exploration has been with mankind but a few short years, the foresight and genius of Professor Hermann Oberth championed flight for half a century. Professor Hermann Oberth received his initial stimulus toward astronautics by reading the great science fiction writers of the 19th century.

Although he found school lacking in challenge, he delved deep into science and produced, for his Doctoral Degree at Heidelberg University, a comprehensive thesis on rocket development. It was rejected as farfetched.

When was the first rocket launched into space

His dissertation became the now celebrated book The Rocket into Planetary Space published in , in which he recognized and proposed solutions to a very wide spectrum of rocketry and space travel problems. He addressed enormous fuel consumption, the hazards of solid propellants, handling of volatile fuels, and the effects upon the human body. All of this was more than 40 years before space flight became a reality.

Like his proposals for rocket weapons in , his plans for space flight in fell on deaf ears, forcing his return to teaching and research. This legendary pioneer figure of astronautics, after more than six decades as an advocate of space travel, remains active in writing and consulting on exploration of the Universe, still charting the course of future space conquest.