Hermann Oberth.  A Saxon Transylvanian (yes, it was a real country until the Allies gave it to Romania as a bribe/gift).  A Rocketry pioneer (called the "Father of Modern Rocketry" and one of the "Three Pillars" of the science),  A man who designed the Rocket for use in WW1 to stop the war by shocking & awing England (the Berlin Crown Council sent his crazy papers back unread because he did not have a national degree, in the next war the same papers, from his own hand, were called the V2).

I don't know if he was a Nazi, that part of his life is very unclear. The story goes that although he felt, from his location of birth, alligiance to Germany he was not German so he was held as a national asset but not allowed to directly participate on his own systems.

He worked at Peenemunde, the New York Rocket was indeed his design. Remember however that he also worked in Huntsville (Now Marshall Space Flight Center).

He was Wiley Ley and Werner von Braun's teacher.  von Braun held him in the highest, utmost regard and when new things got difficult he sent his people to go look for answers in Oberth's books.

On the last page of his last book (which was ABSOLUTELY NOT about Space), "Primer For Those Who Would Govern", he wrote:

 "Dispense with Nuclear Power Plants.  You should continue with atomic research, for God wants you to enjoy learning and discovering new things. But in addition build space stations at the 60-degree libration points between earth and the sun.  Such research belongs in space, not on a flourishing planet.  The danger is greater than you think."

Obviously, Oberth was a very (very) smart guy. Obviously he was not a fan of nuclear plants on earth.  Honest, if there were an alternative - a REAL alternative - then no one would want the plants on earth.  No One.  Just as if there were an alternative then no one would want petroleum based propulsion any more except for having fun with loud fast cars as collectors items instead of as necessities.  And no one would want the big dams built near fault lines and no one would want those loud obnoxious wind turbines either.  (Though I don't mind the huge solar array up in the California desert at all... I wish the ecowarriors would get a perspective as they fire up their laptops to blog against it and let us turn that expensive puppy on already).

But them's what we got.  That's it till we finally find something else that we have stupidly missed (perhaps in some old crazy books) or take the plunge and put the danger farther away while keeping the result close to home.

Recently I expressed views on Radiation possibly less "apocalyptic" than the news organizations make it out (and in those organizations I include forum fear feeders, who are too often called "sources" these days). 

Let me clarify:  My points and arguments were directly aimed at "RADIATION" being linked to "EVIL" across the board and how that misguided linkage could be hurting the hope of Humans getting farther out in Space.  Specifically, but not limited to, the Radiation Experiment data on the levels at the surface of Mars that has been gathered but has for some reason been lacking public release to folks who are interested in exploring the realities of Human Missions to Mars.

Thinking that possibly the Space and Martian radiation levels are not as big a cause for concern as we have been lead to believe is a difficult concept to discuss.  It is difficult because the word "Radiation" causes a primal fear.  And that is bad.  That is the radiation issue that I was speaking of, I was not saying that the recent Japanese reactor situation was a "scam" or that it was not a cause for thoughtful concern and swift action.

But, since I've been asked, here are my current feelings on Nuclear Power here on Earth.  For what my words are worth ;-)...

I do not say that Nuclear Power Plants are the world's happy-safe places.  I don't say that all Radiation is harmless.  However, unless we have the will to find and pay for some other type of power to take up the slack... there's not much that can be done.  There are ways to get significant amounts of power down to earth, but Boeing - called on as a source of information - is on record as calling them naive because of the cost of launch and time for assembly.

I recall a report on CNN about four years ago, where a Space Solar Power company was trying to get off the ground.  The report went well until Boeing put its stamp of silliness on it - 'it would take years and the cost of getting the materials to location would be in the billions'.  The cameras returned to the Anchors who were both smiling and chuckling at the silliness of space. 

They didn't mention that the costs are in no small way determined by Boeing's interest.  Since then those same billions have been spent down to earth and issues like the Japanese reactor have to be included in them.  So the cost has been paid and half of the proposed assembly years have gone by and we really are no better off, financially or in matters of safe clean energy options.

Oberth's "crazy" papers were returned to him because he did not have a national degree.  He believed odd things.  Yet when his silliest ideas were tested, they seemed to work.

 "But in addition build space stations at the 60-degree libration points between earth and the sun.  Such research belongs in space, not on a flourishing planet. "

We need energy.  We can't go back to the simple garden, there are far too many of us now.  Most every type of power generation that we have that makes a major positive difference also has a major negative possibility.  But what of the silly Space Solar Power (aside from the "cost of launch" used by the companies who have taken tens of billions from the government several times over to reduce launch cost and not delivered) and what about Oberth's other idea of the Kite Power Station (related to Italy's KiteGen company... which was once written of in Wired, but I have never seen mentioned on CNN at all.

Hermann Oberth was beyond smart.  He was incredibly practical too.  Problem was that he was not a great organizer... Werner von Braun ran the V2 factories and Werner von Braun ran Huntsville and Werner von Braun got Disney to air his plan and got the US Government to pony up the money and Werner von Braun got Apollo to the Moon, and Skylab was all Werner von Braun, and the ISS and the STS were von Braun's too.  **

Oberth was von Braun's guest on launch days.

So Oberth has the ideas, now just as then (Obama called Energy "Our Generation's Apollo", did he not?)... what is missing is our generation's von Braun to realize the old man's blueprints, and to stick it to the companies that are happy with things the way they are.  To get today's most needed crazy dreams to come true.

If Hermann were alive today, he'd know that the main thing he needed was another student like Werner.  Another arrogant scientist who knew, perhaps more than anything, how to get the money out of a government because some things truly are bigger than others.

For the good of humanity, in Oberth's name, I challenge you to go out and find that person.  It is our only hope.

Oh wait...  before you go, where is that MARIE data?

:)

More on Hermann Oberth? Sure.

"Dr. Fritz Zwicky, one of the team of American scientists who examined German prisoners ... had to admit that the prisoner was the first to promote the idea of rocketry." -page 128 of Hermann Oberth, Father of Space Travel, 1962, MacMillan

"Oberth belongs to that class of unfortunate amateur-type individual who pick up an idea early, and who find no response.  Later, when the idea is taken up and developed by competent professionals, there remains nothing for the orignal advocate..." - Report on Certain Phases of War Research in  Germany, Fritz Zwicky, Headquarters Air Material Command, 1947

"Historically, a lack of understanding of this effect [The "Oberth Effect"] led early investigators to conclude that interplanetary travel would require completely impractical amounts of propellant" - Wikipedia page on The Oberth Effect which is the core of the multistage rocket and our interplanetary probes.

"[Werner von Braun] approached Ernst Stuhlinger, a member of the original "Rocket Team" that had emigrated to Fort Bliss. Von Braun asked Stuhlinger to review the research by von Braun's mentor, Oberth. "Professor Oberth has been right with so many of his early proposals," von Braun told Stuhlinger in 1947, "I wouldn't be a bit surprised if we flew to Mars electrically."" - Ion Propusion, 50 Years in the Making, NASA

“Whether all this will work, I do not know.  But nothing is impossible on earth; one must only discover the means with which it can be carried out.” - Hermann Oberth, Ways of Spaceflight (NASA F-622)

** - related to this timeline of The Von Braun Program: Let's  all just face it, the "American Space Program's" most amazing Human accomplishments were all from Germans.  Sure, Americans made up the grunt force and did all the important support work but since von Braun's death, the "American Space Program" has been nothing more than a robot support system.   Even these final few STS launches are being remembered as the ones where President Obama called the ISS to tell them to unpack Robonaut ... because now even doing an EVA is "too dangerous" for us.

I miss the German Rocket Team. And I wonder sometimes if the reason so many amazing things could be done back then in such short timeframes was because back then a lot of people knew first hand what it was like to face real and certain death in their daily lives and so they figured "I have to do something that matters - that truly matters - before they come and shoot me" 

I just wonder.

I wonder because now, with technology that makes the 60's look like the stone age, we hear that just going to the moon will take 20 years.  We already did it, we did it in 9 years with tech that a watch today would beat.  It should all be easier now but it's now impossible and getting worse.  What changed?  We did, or maybe it is truly just that the "we" of back then wasn't actually "US" or "U.S." after all. 

Read that Father Of Space Travel book... it tells of people on the brink of starvation, under terrible oppression and daily torment, who still managed to fight to make crazy dreams come to be.   

... and look to another immigrant, this time from South Africa, to perhaps be the one to drag America back from sleep in this generation.  Go Dragon!