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Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship
More than eleven years before the orbiting of Sputnik, history’s first artificial space satellite, Project RAND — then active within Douglas Aircraft Company’s Engineering Division — released its first report: Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship (SM-11827), May 2, 1946. Interest in the feasibility of space satellites had surfaced somewhat earlier in a Navy proposal for an interservice space program (March 1946). Major General Curtis E. LeMay, then Deputy Chief of the Air Staff for Research and Development, considered space operations to be an extension of air operations. He tasked Project RAND to undertake a feasibility study of its own with a three-week deadline. The resulting report arrived two days before a critical review of the subject with the Navy. The central argument turns on the feasibility of such a space vehicle from an engineering standpoint, but alongside the curves and tabulations are visionary statements, such as that by Louis Ridenour on the significance of satellites to man’s store of knowledge, and that of Francis Clauser on the possibility of man in space. But the most riveting observation, one that deserves an honored place in the Central Premonitions Registry, was made by one of the contributors, Jimmy Lipp (head of Project RAND’s Missile Division), in a follow-on paper nine months later: “Since mastery of the elements is a reliable index of material progress, the nation which first makes significant achievements in space travel will be acknowledged as the world leader in both military and scientific techniques. To visualize the impact on the world, one can imagine the consternation and admiration that would be felt here if the United States were to discover suddenly that some other nation had already put up a successful satellite.”
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Contents
Part 1
Chapter One:
Introduction
D. Griggs
Chapter Two:
Significance of a Satellite Vehicle
L. Ridenour
Chapter Three:
General Characteristics of a Satellite Vehicle
F. Clauser
Chapter Four:
Power Plant Suitable for Satellite Vehicles
F. Clauser, G. Peebles
Chapter Five:
Dynamics of Achieving Orbital Motion
F. Clauser, P. Lagerstrom
Chapter Six:
Rocket Power Plants and Fuels
G. Peebles
Chapter Seven:
Consideration of Structural Weight
W. Klemperer, J. Lipp
Chapter Eight:
Investigation of Design Proportions
F. Clauser, P. Lagerstrom
Part 2
Chapter Nine:
Final Establishment of Sizes and Trajectories
F. Clauser, R. Krueger
Chapter Ten:
Method of Guiding Vehicle on Trajectory
F. Clauser, E. Graham, R. Shevell, V. Sturdevant
Chapter Eleven:
Problems After Orbit is Established
G. Grimminger, W. Klemperer, H. Luskin
Chapter Twelve:
The Problem of Descent and Landing
H. Luskin
Chapter Thirteen:
Description of Vehicle
B. Baker, E. Bradshaw, W. Klemperer
Chapter Fourteen:
Possibilities of a Man Carrying Vehicle
F. Clauser
Chapter Fifteen:
Estimation of Tine and Cost of Project
W. Klemperer, E. Wheaton
Part 3
Chapter Sixteen:
Research and Development Necessary for Design
W. Klemperer, H. Liepmann
Chapter Seventeen:
Conclusion
F. Clauser
Appendix A:
The Upper Atmosphere
G. Grimminger
Appendix B:
The Determination of the Drag Coefficient
H. Luskin
Appendix C:
Lagrangian Equations
F. Clauser
Appendix D:
Sample of the Detailed Trajectory Calculation
R. Krueger
Appendix E:
Development of Small Perturbation Equations of Motion
E. Graham
Appendix F:
Orbit Calculation
E. Graham, V. Sturdevant
Appendix G:
The Meteorite-Hit Probability Formulas
G. Grimminger, D. Wall
Appendix H:
Development of Stability Equations
E. Graham
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