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1 Iac-03-Iaa.2.1.02 Arthur Rudolph and the Rocket IAC-03-IAA.2.1.02 ARTHUR RUDOLPH AND THE ROCKET THAT TOOK US TO THE MOON Marsha Freeman Associate Editor 21st Century Science & Technology Washington, DC USA [email protected] ABSTRACT came to the United States, working For hundreds of years, writers for the U.S. Army on the earliest imaginatively transported us to the intermediate range intercontinental Moon by angels, dreams, and cannon ballistic missiles, including as fire. Space pioneer Arthur Rudolph manager of the Pershing I project. managed the rocket program that Following President allowed man, for the first time, to set Kennedy’s 1961 commitment to land foot upon the lunar surface. a man on the Moon, Arthur Rudolph Rudolph’s management of the was given the responsibility of Saturn V rocket program was the managing the rocket program to carry culmination of a 40-year career in out Kennedy’s mandate. The Saturn V space technology development, that rocket program was the most complex he began at the age of 24, working engineering, manufacturing, and along side rocket enthusiast Max management task in history. Valier. After Valier’s death, Rudolph While most people with such a designed his own, improved liquid lifetime of accomplishment are able rocket engine. He was one of the first to retire and enjoy their later years, men hired by the German Army to Arthur Rudolph was subjected, in the work on rocket experiments, based on early 1980s, to a ``Nazi-hunting’‘ the innovations he had made. witch-hunt by the Justice Department. Following his work on the World War Driven from the U.S., Rudolph, was II A-4 rocket, Rudolph later exonerated by the German government, but was never able to return to his adopted country. But Arthur Rudolph will be remembered in the history of astronautics for his early contributions, and for the success of the rocket that took men to the Moon. 1 MODEST BEGINNINGS Hermann Oberth’s 1929 book, Wege Arthur Rudolph was born on zur Raumschiffahrt as soon as it was November 9, 1906 in the small village published. (3) And, being in Berlin, of Stepfershausen. (Figure 1) His gave him the opportunity that same parents were farmers–something he year, to see Frau im Mond, the decided he would not be, at a young popular movie that convinced young age. From childhood, Arthur Rudolph men, such as Arthur Rudolph and expressed an interest in and passion Krafft Ehricke, that making space for things mechanical, and used every travel a reality was what they wanted opportunity to examine how the to do with the rest of their lives. agricultural implements and other On May 1, 1930, Arthur equipment in his small world Rudolph started a new job, at the functioned. (1) manufacturing plant owned by Dr. Arthur Rudolph’s father died Paul Heylandt, which produced in 1915 during the First World War, compressed liquid gases, including leaving Arthur and his younger liquid oxygen, for German industry. brother Walter the responsibility, and During a tour of the plant on his first the chores, of the farm. After day, “we walked through the halls and attending his village school, he also the machine shop, and I was not attended the equivalent of a high very impressed with that, because I school for three years, and then left had seen better ones before,” Arthur for this city–Bremen–where he Rudolph recalled in an interview in worked in the silver-working industry, 1992. (4) and underwent training in metal “But finally we went into the working and forging. backyard, and there I saw a strange But he longed to be in a big contraption. “What is that?” Rudolph city, with new opportunities. In 1926, asked. “That is the test stand of Max he had read in a newspaper, an article Valier,’ ‘’ the fellow giving the tour with a picture of the Moon, replied. “And when he said, `Max advertising a novel by Otto Gail, Valier,’ my ears picked up,” Rudolph about a flight to Venus. He was reports. intrigued. After quitting time on the Arriving in Berlin in 1928, he second day of his job at Heylandt, was a toolmaker at the R. Stock & Arthur Rudolph, “heard this loud Company machine tool factory, and noise, and I ran outside to see what it later continued his studies, graduating was.” Max Valier and his assistant in 1930 with an equivalent bachelors Walter Riedel were testing a small, degree in mechanical engineering. (2) liquid-fueled rocket engine. Arthur Arthur Rudolph reports that he Rudolph asked Valier if he could use was a heavy smoker, and one day, a another assistant to conduct his pack of cigarettes he bought had a experiments. He replied that “he picture of Robert Goddard and his could use all the help he could get,” rocket on it! When a student, he read Rudolph recalls. (Franklin, p 17) 2 Just two weeks later, on May oxygen through ring slots, which 17th, Max Valier would die in Arthur could be more easily manufactured. Rudolph’s arms. During the test of the (Figure 2) rocket engine on a Saturday at the With his new design, Rudolph Heylandt works, as the pressure was was able to obtain a smooth, turned higher in the engine, which controlled burn. The propellant was about a foot long and four or five distribution was very even, and the inches in diameter, it exploded, inlets were adjustable. (6) Now, he shooting metal shrapnel in all was ready for some real experiments. directions. Valier died within Arthur Rudolph, Walter minutes, and Walter Riedel and Riedel, and their boss as Heylandt, Arthur Rudolph were lucky to escape Alfons Pietsch, continued in Valier’s with their lives. (5) footsteps, and even got so far as a Happily, neither amateur public demonstration of a rocket car rocket experimenter was about to give at Tempel up, and Arthur Rudolph took on the hof Airport, in the Spring of 1931. challenge of moving rocket With Pietsch behind the technology forward, by improving wheel, the crew tried to start the Valier’s rocket engine design. engine. No ignition. Arthur Rudolph reports: “I took a cigarette and threw THE LAMPSHADE ENGINE it into the combustion chamber Max Valier’s rocket engine through the nozzle, and yelled, `Full used a “sprinkling can” type of power. Ignition.’ and Pietsch started injection system, where the fuel was the engine.” delivered through small holes, and in The automobile began to all directions. The holes were difficult move at good speed, and the to drill, according to Rudolph, which demonstration was a success. Arthur led to an uneven distribution of Rudolph remembered years later, that propellant, and uneven combustion. “the applause was good, but the net The liquid oxygen flowed along the income was equal to zero,” walls of the combustion chamber, but considering what they had spent to the inlet areas were not well prepare it. The money from the few controlled. paying observers did not even pay for The rocket was prone to the cost of the fuel. (7) overheat, and glowing red spots and Meanwhile, Wernher von burn-throughs developed on the wall Braun and a band of unemployed of the combustion chamber. This machinists, engineers, and rocket caused spikes in pressure, which in enthusiasts, under the auspices of the turn, created severe explosive jolts in German Society for Space Travel, the engine. were carrying out their own amateur Arthur Rudolph replaced the experiments in the Berlin suburb of “sprinkling can” with a lampshade- Reinickendorf, and Arthur Rudolph type injection system for the fuel and decided to see if they were faring any 3 better than he. his engine design. (10) The observation Arthur Von Braun reports that Rudolph made about these early Rudolph was hired by the Army as a efforts was similar to that of Walter civilian, like himself , when he Dornberger, then directing the showed up with the “complete research for the German Army on alcohol-oxygen rocket power-plant” rocket technology. There were no that he had designed, “which made instruments to measure the thrust of two wholly successful static runs at the rocket engine, and von Braun first trial.” (11) explained that instead, they were By 1934, the Army had doing theoretical calculations! Arthur established the experimental rocket Rudolph went back to his own research and test station at experiments. Kummersdorf, and after the In May1932, deep into the successful tests of the Rudolph rocket Depression, both Arthur Rudolph and engine, it was finally time to design Alfons Pietsch became unemployed. also the rocket. The entire assembly Determined to continue their rocket was to be called an Aggregate. engine development work, Pietsch The Aggregate-1, or A-1 approached various industrial firms rocket was built but never flight for support, but “nobody had a penny tested, due to a lack of available for our ideas,” Rudolph reports. (8) methods for guiding and controlling Finally, the German Army, rockets. Arthur Rudolph’s engine, the under the guidance of (later) Gen. heart of the A-1, worked fine, but Walter Dornberger, did provide the there was no ability to stabilize the intrepid team with 100 marks for the assembly in flight. (Figure 4) construction and testing for their new Finally, two successful tests of engine, and the establishment of a the A-2, outfitted with a gyroscope for small laboratory. But it was far from stability, brought the German rocket smooth sailing. program into its own. (12) When Rudolph and Pietsch To move on to the larger A-3, were half finished, the money had run Arthur Rudolph was given the task of out.
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