the interplanetary probe is 60! |
the interplanetary probe is 60! |
Sep 20 2012, 05:22 AM
Post
#1
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
you may be excused for not knowing that today is the 60th anniversary of the official birth of the concept of the interplanetary probe.
Although Robert Goddard himself speculated on unmanned spacecraft sent to the other planets, it was on 20 September 1952 that Eric Burgess and C.A. Cross read their paper "the Martian Probe" at a meeting of the North-Western branch of the British Interplanetary Society. Extrapolating on the concept of the "minimum Earth satellite" pioneered by the society, they described how a package of instruments could be packaged in a realistic spacecraft, which orbit it could follow, how it would generate power etc. This contrasted with large manned expeditions as described for example in von Braun's Mars project. In doing so, they also created the word "probe" to mean an unmanned, interplanetary spacecraft. (I believe that the word was previously used, e.g. for weather and high altitude unmanned balloons, anyone can confirm this?) The "Martian Probe" paper was later published in Aeronautics (Nov 1952) and in the Journal of the BIS (Vol 12, No 2, 1953). C.A. Cross further elaborated on the idea in the lecture "the Use of Probe Rockets" that he gave to the BIS in London on 1 December 1956 (published in the Journal of the BIS, Vol 16, No 3, 1957). Go get a copy of the two papers from a library near you because they are absolutely fascinating! |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 26th April 2024 - 10:43 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |