Germany 1951 space shuttle

[hesham]

Hi,


http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/334312/enlarge

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

That looks similar to Von Braun's 1948 design, give or take a couple of differences.

http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/vonn1948.htm

 

[Orionblamblam]

I've seen this before. Nothing to do with von Braun... designed by some other feller I've otherwise never heard of.

 

[hesham]

And notice,they said that;


1951 space shuttle design. Plans drawn up in Germany in 1951 for a reusable spacecraft. The idea of a vehicle that could be used more than once for space missions, led to the US and Soviet shuttle programmes that started in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

[bobik]

H.H. Koelle, Learning from the past: Birth, Life and Death of the Saturn Launch Vehicles

The newly founded society [Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung] had a difficult start three years after a terrible war. They had to start from scratch. Some primitive publications and articles in the newspapers were the tools to get the message to space proponents that there is a new beginning. Meetings took place mostly at Stuttgart in the beginning. Within a few years a few hundred members signed up. Some working groups were established to collect information and relevant material in areas of interest. One of the working groups started to make design studies of space launchers.

The author, heading this group, was supported by a former Peenemuender structures engineer Helmut Hoeppner, and assisted by a few other enthusiasts of the German Society for Space Research. This was the only other known activity designing launch vehicles for future manned space travel at that time 2,3.

During the years 1950/53, the author was working towards his masters degree in the field of mechanical engineering, and in this process he performed the preliminary design of a four stage orbital rocket carrier with a launch mass of 872 t and a cargo payload of 3.5 t, or alternatively a manned capsule (figure 2). This activity included also the design of a pump-fed hydrazine/oxygen rocket engine with a thrust of 100 metric tons by the author. 14 engines of this type were clustered in the first stage and four of the same in the second stage of launch vehicle conceived.

This conservative launcher concept had a growth factor of 250! The concepts described above represented the state-of-the-art in launcher vehicle design in the early fifties. Ten years later it was possible to design launch vehicle of this size with a growth factor of 25, which was an improvement by one order of magnitude! This was possible, because the relevant technologies were pushed by the development of intercontinental missiles. This major development effort was initiated in East and West during the years of 1951/53!

[...]

(2) H.H.Koelle, H.Hoeppner: "Die Optimale Lastrakete für einen Satelliten in 1669 km Hoehe", ( The Optimum Cargo Carrier for Satellites in an Altitude of 1669 km) GfW Research Report No.8, Mai 1951, 16 p., (In German), Summary in ZVDI, Bd.94 (1952), No.32, S.1042/48 (On the Feasibility of Spaceflight)
(3) H.H.Koelle: "Verbrennungskammer für ein Raketentriebwerk von 100 Tonnen Schub", (Combustion chamber for a rocket engine with a thrust of 100 t), Design Study, Techn.Hochschule Stuttgart, Feb.1952, 131 S.

 

[bobik]

H.H. Koelle at the drawing board. Please notice the blueprint!

 

[hesham]

H.H. Koelle, Learning from the past: Birth, Life and Death of the Saturn Launch Vehicles

The newly founded society [Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung] had a difficult start three years after a terrible war. They had to start from scratch. Some primitive publications and articles in the newspapers were the tools to get the message to space proponents that there is a new beginning. Meetings took place mostly at Stuttgart in the beginning. Within a few years a few hundred members signed up. Some working groups were established to collect information and relevant material in areas of interest. One of the working groups started to make design studies of space launchers.

The author, heading this group, was supported by a former Peenemuender structures engineer Helmut Hoeppner, and assisted by a few other enthusiasts of the German Society for Space Research. This was the only other known activity designing launch vehicles for future manned space travel at that time 2,3.

During the years 1950/53, the author was working towards his masters degree in the field of mechanical engineering, and in this process he performed the preliminary design of a four stage orbital rocket carrier with a launch mass of 872 t and a cargo payload of 3.5 t, or alternatively a manned capsule (figure 2). This activity included also the design of a pump-fed hydrazine/oxygen rocket engine with a thrust of 100 metric tons by the author. 14 engines of this type were clustered in the first stage and four of the same in the second stage of launch vehicle conceived.

This conservative launcher concept had a growth factor of 250! The concepts described above represented the state-of-the-art in launcher vehicle design in the early fifties. Ten years later it was possible to design launch vehicle of this size with a growth factor of 25, which was an improvement by one order of magnitude! This was possible, because the relevant technologies were pushed by the development of intercontinental missiles. This major development effort was initiated in East and West during the years of 1951/53!

[...]

(2) H.H.Koelle, H.Hoeppner: "Die Optimale Lastrakete für einen Satelliten in 1669 km Hoehe", ( The Optimum Cargo Carrier for Satellites in an Altitude of 1669 km) GfW Research Report No.8, Mai 1951, 16 p., (In German), Summary in ZVDI, Bd.94 (1952), No.32, S.1042/48 (On the Feasibility of Spaceflight)
(3) H.H.Koelle: "Verbrennungskammer für ein Raketentriebwerk von 100 Tonnen Schub", (Combustion chamber for a rocket engine with a thrust of 100 t), Design Study, Techn.Hochschule Stuttgart, Feb.1952, 131 S.

I think you are right Bobik;


thank you very much,and from the same source.

 

[bobik]

It seems that Koelle and Hoeppner planned their "Lastrakete" as an element of a whole space infrastructure.

In 1951, Hans Hermann Koelle proposed a station made from 36 spheres, each one 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter. Similarly as with H. Potočnik Noordung’s “habitation wheel,” they were joined into a ring with the help of eight spokes (transitions). Four of them had built-in elevator shafts, leading all the way to the central part of the nave.81 According to Koelle’s calculations, the station would weigh 150 metric tons on Earth and have room for 65 researchers. The planned program of scientific experiments would include meteorology, research of space, the effects of weightlessness on living organisms and even assistance to space crews, involved in accidents in orbit.

81 Hoeppner, H., Koelle, Hans Hermann, Die optimale Lastrakete zur Außenstation in 1669 km Höhe, and: Forschungsbericht Nr. 8 der Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung. Stuttgart 1951; Koelle, Hans Hermann, Der Einfluss der konstruktiven Gestaltung der Außenstation auf die Gesamtkosten des Projekts, and: Forschungsbericht Nr. 9 der Gesellschaft für Weltraumforschung, Stuttgart 1951.

From the foreword by T.N. Zhelnina to Herman Potočnik Noordung, The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor, Digital edition of english translation, December 2010, p.35

 

[Jemiba]

Two more picture from http://www.retro-futurismus.de/haehnel_astropol.htm
And about the "Lastrakete" some material seems to have been available for some time
at least: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/1782683