Herman Potočnik
Herman Potočnik | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 22 December 1892 |
| Died | 27 August 1929 (aged 36) |
Herman Potočnik (
Early life
Potočnik was born in Pola (now
Both of Potočnik's parents were Slovenian. His father Jožef was born in 1841 in
When Herman's father died in 1894, his mother relocated the family to Maribor. Herman had two brothers, Adolf and Gustav (who were both navy officers), and a sister Frančiška (Franci). He spent most of his childhood years in Maribor and, according to oral sources, in Vitanje.
The meaning of his German-like pseudonym Noordung is still a mystery, but some suggest that he used it to indicate the problems of chaos (German: Ordnung, "order"; ordunga in Slovene colloquial language). Assuming that the initial "N" was intended as a negation, the name could mean "no order".
Education and military service
In Maribor, Potočnik attended primary school. Afterward he attended the military secondary schools in Fischau and Hranice in Moravia. His uncle Heinrich was a major-general in the army, and probably enabled his study at Austrian military schools. From 1910 to 1913 he studied at the Imperial and Royal Technical Military Academy in Mödling in Lower Austria (Niederösterreich) near Vienna and graduated as an engineer second lieutenant. His specialization was building of railways and bridges.
During
The Problem of Space Travel
At the end of 1928, he published his sole book, Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums - der Raketen-Motor (The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor) in Berlin. The publisher, Richard Carl Schmidt, printed the year 1929 as a publishing date, probably from a purely business motive (to keep the book looking new throughout the coming year) and this date is often mistakenly given as the actual date of publication. In 188 pages and 100 handmade illustrations, Potočnik described a plan for establishment of a permanent human presence in outer space. He conceived a detailed design for a space station, regarded by Russian and American historians of spaceflight to be the first Space architecture.[citation needed] He described the use of orbiting spacecraft for detailed observation of the ground for peaceful and military purposes, and described how the special conditions of space could be useful for scientific experiments.[1] Potočnik expressed strong doubts of the potentially destructive military use of these fresh discoveries.
The book was translated into
With his many ideas he became one of the founders of astronautics. His concepts were first considered seriously only by amateur rocketeers in Germany, the
Potočnik's book described geostationary satellites (first proposed by
Death
Potočnik died of pneumonia at the age of 36 while in great poverty in Vienna, Austria, and was buried there. An obituary notice about his death was printed in one Maribor daily newspaper, mentioning his ranks (engineers and captain), his illness, but nothing about his work regarding space.
Legacy
- Streets in Graz and Ljubljana now bear his name.
- A proposal was made during the late 1990s to name the International Space Station after him, but was not adopted.
- In 1999 a two-day international memorial symposium about his life and work was held at the University of Maribor, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first printing of his famous book.
- 19612 Noordung, found in 1999 at Črni Vrh Observatory, is named after him.
- In 2006, the Herman Potočnik Noordung Memorial Centre (HPNMC) was built in Vitanje, Slovenia.
- There is activity to construct a statue of Herman Potočnik in his birthplace of Pula.
- In 2012, the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT), inspired by his work, was built in Vitanje, Slovenia.
See also
References
- ^ Walking in Space By David Shayler, p.4
- ^ Science Wonder Stories, vol. 1, no. 2 (July 1929), pp. 170-180
- ^ Science Wonder Stories, vol. 1, no. 3 (August 1929), pp. 264-273
- ^ Science Wonder Stories, vol. 1, no. 4 (September 1929), pp. 361-368
- ISBN 9781312107472.
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2008) |
External links
- about the Memorial Centre on Culture.si: HPNMC Vitanje
- about Potočnik on Vesolje.net: Herman Potočnik Noordung
- the unofficial Memorial Centre and KSEVT blog: Noordung Orbit
- Potočnik's book at NASA (info): "The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor" Archived 2021-05-11 at the Wayback Machine
- Potočnik's book at NASA (full electronic text): "The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor" Archived 2021-12-29 at the Wayback Machine
- Potočnik's book at NASA (scans): "The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor"
- original book in German (scans): "Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums: Der Raketenmotor"
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
