Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-25

on the outside track!
Let 'er 90, Fritz! Hold your hats, everybody!
Get your Arctic and tropical suits ready! Buckle
yourselves into your seats! Forget your earthly
troubles for a while, gentlemen! All visitors on
ship! We're of. sky flyers!
Is this little thumbnail sketch mere fancy, or
Is there any possibility eventually of inter-
planetary communications - travelling TO the
Moon and possibly the planets by rockets?
Speaking before the Astronomical Society or
France not long ago, Robert E~snault-Pelterie.
inventor of the airplane joystick and a dis
tinguished French scientist, announced that
rma Oberth, a German professor, had
conceived a type Of rocket, driven by Hydrogen
gas, so efficient that possible flights into the
celestial spaces thousands and thousands OK
miles from earth were no longer to be laughed
at.
Esnault- pelterie has been an air pilot and
inventor for 20 years. He holds No. 4 flying
license of the French Aero Club and originated
several essential parts of the modern plane, in
addition to the ~joystick. For more than Is
years he has been studying the question Of inter-
planetary flights from the point of view Of
pure mechanics, aided by his knowledge Of
aerodynamics. Reaching the conviction that
such flights were coming closer and closer within
the range of human possibility. Esnault- Pelterie
and a friend, Andre Hirsch, also interested in
the question, arranged with the Astronomical
Society of France to give an annual prize OF
5000 francs for three years for the best origt-
nal scientific work. either theoretical or expert
mental, that would help solve any of the prob
lens of celestial navigation or increase human
knowledge of any Of the branches of astro-
nautical science
THE first annual prize has just been awarded
- to Prof. Oberth, now teaching in a univer-
sity in Rumania, although Noel Deisch of WASH
ington, D. c.. received honorable mentor for
an ingenious method Of providing sky voyagers
with artificial gravitation by a system of rota-
ton, the physical disturbances caused by the
absence of the earth's ordinary gravitation be-
ing one Of the serious obstacles in the path Of
moon flyers.
Briefly, Prof. Oberth proposes a cigar-shaped
rocket propelled by hydrogen gas expelled from
its tail with terrific force. The weight of the
fuel required for the trip to the moon is eSti-
mated at 80 tons, the total weight of the rocket
and its crew at 400 tons, and the cost between
$500, 900 and 81, 600, 900. The pilot would direct
the apparatus by increasing or diminishing the
flow of the propulsive gas on one side or the
other, and the absence Of any spiral construc-
ton on the outside would prevent it from
rotating.
A scheme for regulating the temperature con-
sists of having one SIDE made of polished metal
and co!orifcally isolated from the interior cabin
to prevent the suns rays from cooking the
hardy adventurers inside. The other side would
be of oxidized copper, forming a black surface.
If the polished surface was turned toward the
sun temperature inside would fall, and vice
versa. The description of the Oberth rocket is
highly technical and runs into thousands of
words, but ESnault-P elterie enthusiastically
summed it up as follows: