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60 Years Later: The V2 And The Space Race
securitas writes "In a two-part feature written sixty years after the V2 rocket was first launched on London, BBC News Online's Paul Rincon describes the Soviet-American space race, German V2 rocket technology and how the USSR and USA divided Germany's best scientists between them. The second part addresses the technological lineage of both space programs, the creation of NASA, intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) development and the V2's legacy. Another feature provides some context, following the history of the development of the V2 rocket from its precursors that began with space flight enthusiasts like Wernher von Braun and Walter Riedel, through its use as a terrifying weapon in the London Blitz, to the recruitment drive by the Americans and Soviets. Today the V2 rocket is being used as the basis for the Canadian Arrow X Prize team. The Arrow team has some pages on V2 history and the main engine thrust chamber. For those interested you can read more at the A4 / V2 Rocket Resource site."
If this is your cup of tea then please read "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon. [google].
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
But it was ALSO supersonic even after burnout till impact because of its ballistics.
Ever heard a mortar shell hitting something? It hasnt ANY kind of engine, but you can hear the whine of the projectile 10-20 seconds before impact
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
PBD:Frontline coverage of Iraqi scud missile variants
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
In the early 1940's, he wrote a letter to president Franklin D. Roosevelt urging him to start a project to build an atomic bomb because the German government had already started a little atomic bomb project of their own. Einstein believed that a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of the United States would not only end the war, but ensure safety to the rest of the world after the war as well. Roosevelt, being a believer in Einstein, became thrilled at this letter and took the plea into deep consideration. Soon, the project was underway.
While the A4/V2 information may be of limited use to countries that don't already have a ballistic program, North Korea already has an advanced ballistic missile program, and builds missles based on Russian SCUD technology, itself loosely evolved from the original A4/V2 designs.
Further information on North Korean missile programs here
Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
close, but backwards (bottom of page)
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Correction:
"I aim at the stars, but sometimes I hit London."
-- Mort Sahl, who, incidentally, happens to be Jewish.
Some people think that Von Braun actually said 'But sometimes I hit London, but it is an old joke popularized by Mort Sahl.
Von Braun did say
'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department'.
It was even put into a 1965 song by Tom Lehrer:
Gather 'round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun,
A man whose allegiance
Is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown,
'Ha, Nazi, Schmazi,' says Wernher von Braun.
Don't say that he's hypocritical,
Say rather that he's apolitical.
'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun.
Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town,
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.
You too may be a big hero,
Once you've learned to count backwards to zero.
"In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I'm learning Chinese!" says Wernher von Braun.
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.
Encryption technology (only comprimised due to physical reasons, i.e. someone stole one)
Sorry ,but your last statement is utter Bullshit.Either you dont know about encryption or are trolling.The inventor of Enigma assumed that a working Enigma would be available to the enemy and therefore,attempted to build the security around the Algorithm.
In fact ,when the machine's blueprints reached the french they considered the enigma to be unbreakable and thats why they passed the details to the Polish.A young Mathematician named Marion Rewjyski(sp?) set to work on cracking enigma.
For details read the book by
Simon Singh.
It was the poles who first broke the enigma and Bletchley park,which came in later, decoded the intercepts
The Enigma was the most advanced encryption system at its time in the world but to say it was broken only because a machine was captured is utter fallacy.
P.S I didnt mean to be rude but most /. ers have read enough articles on Encryption to know that the security of a cipher is in its algorithm and nowhere else.
Wanted : A Signature.
The reason why the Soviets managed to get the first satellite into space is simple: a brilliant Russian rocket designer named Sergei P. Korolev, who passed away in 1966.
People forget that the Soviet rocket program in a very secret group called RNII was very underestimated by everyone else, because in the 1930's before the Yezhovchina Great Purge the Russians probably had some of the most advanced rocket development programs in the world--in some cases more advanced than the German programs at the time! Despite the Great Purge, Korolev managed to keep the majority of his development team at RNII together, and Korolev was actually working for SMERSH (Soviet counterintelligence) in the latter half of the 1940's studying German developments in rocket technology. That's why by the early 1950's the Soviet rocket program was probably more advanced than the US program, and that's why they were able to build the R-7 rocket designed by Korolev's team (which was far larger than any US equivalent rocket at the time) that carried the large-sized Soviet nuclear bombs with the side benefit of being able to launch payloads into orbit. The sheer size of the R-7 was also the reason why the Russians were able to launch unmanned probes around the Moon and launch the first manned flights. Because the R-7 was designed as an ICBM, it meant the ability to launch in a fairly short countdown sequence and used launch pads that could erect the rocket into firing position fairly quickly, too; that's why the Russians were able to launch reconnaissance satellites so quickly and had a pretty advanced space weapons program.
nonsense.
being a member of the "master race" was inherited by "blood".
there were tests based on physical characteristics to determine the percentage of "purity".
a quick search on him revealed that he tried to differ between "jewish physics" (theroretical) and "arayan physics" (experimental).
he also referred to heisenberg and planck as "white jews".
i'm also pretty sure he would have spelled "Nationalsozialismus" with a "z".
Sputnik made no scientific discoveries, it was pretty much just a simple relay, a propaganda machine. On the other hand, Explorer 1 was packed with scientific equipment and among others discovered the van Allen belts! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1
You can brew whatever you want, you just can't call it beer if it dosn't fit certain critiria.
google for Reinheitsgebot, IIRC it is the oldst set of ruls of consumer protection.
BTW, during my days in university I studied in the same building that German scientists worked in after the ww2 on designing soviet jets and rockets in Himki near Moscow . These were the buildings of Lavochkin Association company ( the one which built famous La-5 during ww2 then the company developed first russian jets and later produced russian space vehicles which flew to Moon Mars and Venus).
why doesn't Korolev get the same political backslash von Braun does
maybe because Korolev himself spent years in Gulag.
The name was Marian Rejewski, but he didn't work alone. He worked in team, with Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Rozycki. All of them graduated from Adam Mickewicz University in Poznan.
And it's definately not an American thing - most of the scientists responsible for these incredible achievments were not Americans (Bohr, Einstein, von Braun, Fermi, etc) and a large portion of the work was accomplished in England.
"Trying is only the first step towards failure." - Homer
Not sure why he didn't use it, but it may have to do with his own personal experience from WWI. Hitler was the victim of a gas attack during WWI.
The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy