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Mike Gruntman From Astronautics to Cosmonautics ISBN-10:  1-4196-7085-5 ISBN-13:  978-1-4196-7085-5 84 pages with 24 photos Bibliography: 75 references     This book on Amazon.com Amazon's SEARCH INSIDE THE BOOK   Book preview

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Books on history of rocketry and space

Space:  From Firecrackers to Interstellar Flight (webcast)

Mike Gruntman
From Astronautics to Cosmonautics, 2007

Preface

Chapter 1. Astronautics Was the First

Chapter 2. Dreams about Space and Communism

Chapter 3. REP-Hirsch Encouragement Award - this web site

Chapter 4. Cosmonautics

Chapter 5. Socialism Bites Back

Chapter 6. In the Spotlight

Chapter 7. In His Adopted Homeland

Appendix: Bibliography

Index

Chapter 3.  REP-Hirsch Encouragement Award  (text boxes are shown with the gray background)

From Moscow Sternfeld returned to the home of his parents in Lodz in Poland. It was August 1932. Ary stayed there for one year and a half in seclusion working on a manuscript, collecting his ideas about spaceflight. Sternfeld wrote in French, with his sister typing for him and his wife editing the manuscript.

Ary recalled very difficult conditions,

… there was not even enough paper: I was writing on pieces of wrapping paper … which I first cut to the same size. Besides, there was very little light in the room, with direct sunlight never reaching it. Breathing was difficult because it was impossible to open the window — there was a communal latrine next to it [the window] in the yard, without a sewage line. Under such conditions I worked days and nights, bringing myself to exhaustion. (Shternfel’d 2005, 97)

The 490-page manuscript titled “Initiation à la Cosmonautique” (“Introduction to Cosmonautics”) was finally ready in November 1933. Sternfeld thus firmly chose the new word cosmonautique (cosmonautics) instead of the already accepted astronautique (astronautics). A local Lodz artist, Ch. Hiller, designed a cover for the manuscript. It showed a trajectory, suggested by Sternfeld, for efficient transfer to an orbit approaching the central body and three characteristic spaceflight velocities (velocity in a circular Earth orbit; escape velocity from the Earth; and escape velocity from the solar system). These velocities would become known later in the Soviet technical literature as the first, second, and third cosmic velocities, respectively. This manuscript cover was first published, as frontispiece, in a later Russian translation of the manuscript (Shternfel’d 1937).

Fig. 3.1. Cover of the manuscript “ Initiation à la Cosmonautique” first published as frontispiece in a Russian translation of the manuscript in 1937. The cover shows Sternfeld transfer to a point near the central body, three “cosmic velocities,” and equations relating rocket velocity and mass. The name of the artist, Ch. Hiller, who designed the cover shows in the right upper corner. Photo courtesy of Maya A. Shternfel’d and Polytechnic Museum, Moscow. Figures and photographs are not shown here. Please see the print version of the book.

With little hope of publishing the manuscript in his native Poland (Shternfel’d 1981), Sternfeld went again to Paris in December 1933. Following the advice of well-known French physicist Paul Langevin, he promptly submitted his manuscript for the REP-Hirsch Award.

Interestingly, this truly astronautical treatise submitted by Sternfeld did not bring any response from Esnault-Pelterie. In a letter to Alexandre Ananoff dated 6 May 1934, André Hirsch wrote “... you know without any doubt Ary Sternfeld, who will be, I think, our next prize [REP-Hirsch Award] winner, if he [Sternfeld] shows some insistence. Robert Esnault-Pelterie considers that his [Sternfeld’s] treatise can bring nothing constructive. But what do you want? One cannot always get the works of [the quality of] Oberth!” (Ananoff 1978, 27). Space enthusiast Alexandre Ananoff, 1907–1992, would become later a leading popularizer of spaceflight in France (e.g., Ananoff 1950) and the key organizer of the first International Astronautical Congress (Gruntman 2004).

Cosmic Velocities

Russian (and Soviet) technical literature commonly uses three so called kosmicheskie skorosti (singular kosmicheskaya skorost’) or cosmic velocities. The term characteristic spaceflight velocities would better render the meaning of kosmicheskie skorosti.

The first cosmic velocity V1 is the velocity of a spacecraft in a geocentric circular orbit at a given altitude. For a spacecraft near the Earth surface (a hypothetical orbit with zero altitude), V1 ≈ 7.9 km/sec.

The second cosmic velocity V2 is the escape velocity, the minimal spacecraft velocity at a given altitude allowing the spacecraft to escape the Earth gravitational field. For a hypothetical spacecraft near the Earth surface, V2 ≈ 11.2 km/sec.

The third cosmic velocity V3 is the minimal velocity of a spacecraft at a given altitude allowing the spacecraft to escape the solar system. For a hypothetical spacecraft near the Earth surface, V3 ≈ 16.6 km/sec.

Sternfeld made two presentations of his results at the meetings of the prestigious French Academy of Sciences (Paris), with the written versions appearing in Academy’s Comptes rendus, or Reports. Making presentations required endorsement by the members of the Academy of Sciences, which was done by Jean Perrin and Ernest Esclangon.

At the 22 January 1934 meeting of the Academy of Sciences, Sternfeld outlined a technique for establishing positions and velocities of interplanetary spaceships (Sternfeld 1934a). The concept was based on determining the distance to the Sun by measuring the equilibrium temperature of a vehicle body. A gyroscopic system with the axes fixed in inertial space provided the direction toward the Sun. While the concept introduced new elements, the problem of orbit estimation “had been already discussed notably by Oberth and Esnault-Pelterie” [Sternfeld 1934a; Astronomie April 1934, 202].

In Paris in 1934

In 1934, I made acquaintance with Ary Sternfeld. By most unlikely coincidence, we met at 5:50 in the mornings on a tram that brought me to Montrouge ... Actually, I had to check in at six o’clock in a factory where I was a trainee. Ary Sternfeld continued his travel [on the tram].

Our friendship dates from that year. We frequently met at 8:30 in the evenings at “Golf Ball” at 17 Opera Boulevard. Many letters remain from that period. He [Sternfeld] told me about a novel that he published in a weekly magazine. The main character of his story had the name of Esma-Tanerie. Many would see Esnault-Pelterie under this disguised name.

Alexandre Ananoff 1978, 27

 Then on 19 February 1934, Sternfeld described orbital transfer from a given Keplerian orbit to a trajectory approaching a point near the central body (Sternfeld 1934b). He showed that bi-elliptical transfer might minimize required velocity increments if a space vehicle first moved away from the central body and raised the transfer orbit apocenter. This counter-intuitive finding has become perhaps the best known contribution of Sternfeld to orbital mechanics, his “trademark.” The cover of Ary’s manuscript highlighted this trajectory. After his death, it would be engraved on his tombstone. It seems appropriate to call such an orbital maneuver “Sternfeld transfer.”

Ary also discussed his spaceflight ideas at a meeting of the French Astronomical Society on 2 May 1934. The session chairman warmly thanked him for the interesting talk, “you are as much a poet as an implementer. You have faith in the ideal of future times and I wish you to preserve this creative spirit for a long time” (Hamon 1934, 278). The audience responded with animated applause.

On 6 June 1934, the Committee on Astronautics of the French Astronomical Society bestowed the REP-Hirsch Award of Encouragement (Prix d’Encouragement) on Ary Sternfeld. The minutes of the Society described the award:

To Mr. Ary J. Sternfeld, the Award of Encouragement, for his interesting treatise titled “Initiation à la Cosmonautique,” expressing regret that [the Committee] could not better recognize the definitely considerable effort of Mr. Sternfeld, because this effort had unfortunately been applied to a large number of questions which does not fit into the first article of the Rules of the Award.

The Committee on Astronautics would like to state that the questions of pure theory [of spaceflight] seem now to be well clarified, and it will attribute henceforth more importance to experimental results or to the work capable of accelerating obtaining such results.

It is necessary, in fact, to note that one knows sufficiently about general conditions of astronautical travel and it is of little interest to perfect their details, while we are not able to send a rocket to a 100-km altitude (even much less than that) in order to explore directly the real composition of the upper atmosphere. (L’Astronomie ... July 1934, 206)

“The first article of the Rules of the Award” referred to in the Society’s decision had specifically required the work to advance “one of the problems on which solution depends the realization of interstellar navigation or advancing the knowledge in one of the branches relevant to the astronautical science” (Esnault-Pelterie 1930, 243). Clearly, Sternfeld’s broad treatise “Initiation à la Cosmonautique” did not fit into the defined category.

I will never forget ...

I will never forget and I will always preserve in my memory the fact that it is the [French] Academy of Sciences that published almost one quarter century ago my first notes on astronautics. I will always preserve in my heart that it is France and its scientists such as Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Jean Perrin, Ernest Esclangon, you André Louis-Hirsch, and many others who encouraged me in my first steps on the ascending but so arduous road of astronautics. The International Astronautics Prize that the Committee on Astronautics of the French Astronomical Society found the justification to give me as an award (to me, a mere unknown foreigner on the streets of Paris) was not only great encouragement for me but also an expression of humanism of the French people, their respect for other nations, and their love of Science and Peace.

From the letter of Ary Sternfeld to André Louis-Hirsch, 11 December 1957 (Moureu 1963, 4)

The Award of Encouragement was however a major recognition of the contribution of the young engineer. The publication of the American Rocket Society “Astronautics” reported later that Ary’s prize came “with a sum of two thousand francs” (Astronautics ... 1936, 7). Sternfeld followed the award by publishing a number of articles in popular and trade publications in France. His articles unambiguously introduced the new scientific word cosmonautique in the titles (Sternfeld 1934c,d,e,f; 1935a,b,c,d,e).