OdyIsssue 2s2, Deceembey r 2012

Image courtesy of NASA/JPL The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society From Super Constellations , Dakotas and In This Issue l Super Constellations, Dakotas, and to HOTOL and SKYLON Comets to HOTOL and SKYLON Titans of the BIS: Ken Gatland The Society’s new President, Alistair Scott, programme was of course The Sky at Night . I l talks to Odyssey about the path that subsequently discovered that the 6 inch l Imagining Outer Space led him to join the BIS, and his vision for telescope was his too, left by him when in l The Feedback Loop the future. 1955 or 56 he handed over his position as l Crafting the Future Why did I join the British Interplanetary Head of Science to my House Master, and Society ? I’ve never been asked that before. started working with the BBC. l The Odyssey Essay File The simple answer would be, because it was I wasn’t so turned on by and l Echoes from the Future there when I needed it. space at that point. I was far more l Dates for Your Diary So where do I start? I suppose I should go interested in the aircraft - the Super right back to when I was seven. I and my Constellations , Dakotas , Comets and later the brother were sent back from Bangkok to Boeing 707 s -that flew me to and from the boarding school in Kent. Far East each summer holiday. I didn’t really In Next Month’s Issue want to fly them - I wanted to know how l Leading SF author David Brin steps they worked and why they flew! So after a into the Virtual Interview Chair further 5 years at school, this time at my father’s old school in Scotland, I applied to l John Silvester reviews 2132 , Kim join the Undergraduate Apprentice Scheme Stanley Robinson’s latest epic novel at Hawker Siddeley Aviation , Hatfield, and l And we continue to remember author, the Aeronautical Engineering course at spaceflight innovator and past BIS Bristol University. My twin did the same, President, Ken Gatland but at BAC Weybridge and Southampton University. However he ended up, like me, at Bristol. Curiosity Corner So, from 1967, aircraft became my life and my career, at least for the first eleven years with Hawker Siddeley and British Aerospace , first on the design and wind tunnel testing of the Airbus wing; then in sales engineering on the HS146 airliner and the Hitch a ride to the edge of the HS125 business jet, travelling mainly in solar system: Europe and Africa. In 1978, my ‘hobby’ or part-time career as an artillery officer in the http://tinyurl.com/8lk7byh The author (on right) with his brother and parents at Kuala Lumpur Airport about to board the BOAC 4 in the background Editor: Mark Stewart (September 1960). Layout and Design: Adrian Mann As expected it took us a good few weeks to (www.bisbos.com ) settle in; but I do remember fairly early on sitting through some fascinating talks by a Production Quality: Mel Hacker, David A. Hardy, Martin Postranecky and John Silvester very entertaining young astronomer and being shown how to use a 6 inch reflector Distribution and web support: telescope by my House Master. It was quite Ralph Timberlake, Andrew Vaudin and a few years later, when I had finally reached Ben Jones the senior dormitory and been allowed to Odyssey is published every month by the stay up late once a month to watch a certain The author (the tall one with the hair) and the BIS and is circulated by email. Feedback TV programme, that I made the connection. sales team about to set off on a 6-week trip on the e-Magazine is welcome, including The year was 1957/8, the entertaining round Africa in the HS126-600 in the back - suggestions for future articles, via astronomer was and the TV ground. (Hatfield, January 1976). [email protected]

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: December 2012 www.bis-space.com 1 When, in 1984, I finished my stint as PA, the Chief Executive sent me into space, over the road in Stevenage to the Space and Communications Division. There I was sent back to university for a week on a spacecraft engineering course to be re-educated before being posted back out to the Far East and Australasia to sell . But it wasn’t until I returned from my travels to take up a PR role that I realised that I needed a better network. I needed to find an organisation that looked at The author ‘sells‘ the early HOTOL concept to all aspects of space: from advanced launch Dr Habibie, Minister for Research and Develop - concepts to exploring the universe, and the ment and later President of Indonesia use of space as a highly effective ‘tool’ for (Jakarta, February 1987). everything from global communications and Territorial Army took me up the road to navigation to weather forecasting and British Aerospace Dynamics in Stevenage to resource monitoring. sell missile systems around the world. Of I feel that the British Interplanetary Society course, as the best place for networking with does all this for me. Its motto From like-minded aerospace professionals, I had Imagination to Reality says it all. The Society joined the Royal Aeronautical Society . has a tremendous mix of professionals, The author(on right) meets his inspiration, Sir It was only in 1983 when I was PA to the academics and amateur enthusiasts. Some are Patrick Moore, the very first Editor of Space - Chief Executive of the Dynamics Group of closer to the imagination end of the scale flight Magazine (Selsey, August 2011). British Aerospace that I quickly had to find where, like Arthur C. Clarke (one of its earliest take a lead role. I regard it as the ‘think-tank’ of out what space was all about and what a members and twice President) they are the space business, free of most of the significant role the UK space industry was surfing the boundary between science fiction restrictions of politics, finance and sometimes playing. As the press releases started to and science fact; others like member Alan even basic engineering. Over the next few trickle across my desk, I had to read up on Bond , CEO of Reaction Engines and Bob months I look forward to seeing the BIS take a each project and brief the boss to try to Parkinson (the most recent past President) are leading role again, in promoting keep him one step ahead of the press. We almost in the realms of reality with vehicles interplanetary travel with huge programmes didn’t always succeed. On projects like the like HOTOL and now SKYLON . like the Icarus starship and the smallest of Polar Platform , which later became Envisat , We live in exciting times and I recognise that picosats like Sprite . I feel that the BIS must win and I ntelsat VI , I managed to keep up, but on the BIS has such a wide range of interests that back the loyalty of its members and the HOTOL we all failed miserably when Frank it cannot be in front of the field in all areas, but respect of its peers in the space business and Miles announced it prematurely on ITN . there are key areas where it can, and should, now is the time.

The Titans of the BIS - Remembering Ken Gatland

“Re Ken Gatland, I thought his books were much the best available on spaceflight during the golden years of Apollo. But unfortunately it wasn't until he died that I realised that the Ken I used to sit near in church at Ewell each Sunday was the great man himself. I have several of his books including his personal copies of the books that he wrote. I don't think that there's anything that the BIS library doesn't already have a copy of though.” Jeff Cousins CMS-1 Infrastructure Systems Software Engineer, BAE Systems Maritime - Naval Ships, New Malden, Surrey

Odyssey would like to hear from other members of the BIS who knew Ken. Any reminiscences of Ken, who was President of the Society from 1973-1976, would be welcome. Ken was editor of Spaceflight magazine for twenty two years, and the author of many memorable books on space exploration including Manned Spacecraft , Missiles and Rockets , and The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Space Technology . Please send any recollections to the Editor.

Woodrow Wyatt (left) and Ken discuss the Migrant Moon-probe on the BBC’s Panorama in January 1959. (Image courtesy of the BIS archives).

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: December 2012 www.bis-space.com 2 Imagining Outer Space The Feedback Loop “Hi Mark, IMAGINING OUTER SPACE- European between 1945 and 1970, and the Just wanted to say that the ‘silent Astroculture in the Twentieth Century: contributions to this volume offer a stake in majority’ are listening and appreciate Edited by Alexander C. T. Scott this field. The book attempts to define your efforts. I’m probably one of the (Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 9780230231726) astroculture, introduce a West-European ‘silent majority’ so if you are receiving perspective to space, and explore the little response, do not worry, it’s a good science/fiction complex. Altogether there are sign! If you are receiving a lot of seventeen articles on outer space with very response, please ignore this email! varied themes under the headings I know from my own experience in trying “narrating,” “projecting,” “visualizing,” to promote various things locally, that a “encountering,” and “inscribing.” lack of any response or comment from There are two references to the BIS. In a your ‘audience’ can be very disconcerting rather odd criticism, the Introduction makes and you can make the assumption that nobody cares; but this is not the case! reference to the “venerable British Keep up the good work, we are listening, Interplanetary Society ,” and argues that its we care and we appreciate what you are motto “leads too easily to a naive doing. endorsement of the type of teleological master narratives that professional Best wishes, and every success. historiographical scholarship must avoid by Kind regards.” all means”! More positively (and perhaps Mike Swain, MBIS more intelligibly), an article on Arthur C. Clarke describes him as a “major figure in the “Everything you send from Odyssey is an British space lobby known as the British adventure to read. I really look forward to Interplanetary Society. ” receiving and reading each of the BIS The article “ Space, Time and Aliens ” concerns materials these days. The BIS is really Reviewed by John Silvester, FBIS itself with imagination, and compares frisky and spry for nearly 80.” This book is a compilation of articles and various science fiction authors, such as Nancy Wood, FBIS takes as its theme European astroculture in Clarke, Asimov, and Stapledon. It discusses Lago Vista, Texas, USA the Twentieth Century. It is not a which space pioneers appear to have been technical/science-based publication; nor is it influenced by science fiction, and concludes “Thanks for the latest Odyssey . I think it's light reading material. Moreover, there that Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, Oberth, Von Braun rather appropriate that I had a Babylon 5 appear to be no scientists amongst the and Korolev were, but that William Pickering movie playing on No. 2 desktop when I writers; the “Notes on Contributors” lists and James Van Allen were not. Another opened the PDF file on No. 1 and, mostly arts-based academics, which is not article on the Tunguska event deals with elsewhere on the top of the table, was a surprising since the book is concerned with authors who were influenced and inspired by document created by my late father with the sociology of space. The author tells us the mystery of what happened in 1908; and I a pertinent quotation: that early versions of the articles were in fact rather like one description of it as “a Q: What is the difference between a slice presented at the first international catastrophe without any catastrophic of bacon and the BIS space-ship? conference on the cultural history of outer effects, the Tunguska explosion seemed like A: The space-ship is a rash project, but the space in Europe in the Twentieth Century in an ideal experiment secretly arranged by bacon is a rasher. February 2008. nature itself...” - Eric Needham, , In the introduction, the editor makes the Other articles deal with East German November 1939.” point that both Russia and the United States personal attacks on Wernher Von Braun; Philip Turner have developed open, well established space Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Space: 1999 ; the histories, whereas in Europe these are sociology of American flying saucers; and smaller, fragmented and underdeveloped, Damien Hirst's Beagle 2 calibration target. and that the European Space Agency's reach What I like about this book is that it Journey into Space into academic territory is very limited. It demonstrates that there are many strands to argues for the creation of a European space enthusiasm, extending beyond the perspective on outer space for the period well-known purely scientific/technical areas.

Out Now! Star Maker: Just a note on John Sylvester's fascinating the Philosophy of piece on Journey Into Space (Odyssey 19 , September 2012): visions of space as a Olaf Stapledon British imperial preserve didn't end with Charles Chilton in the 1950s. Warren Ellis's Regular readers of Odyssey will know that graphic novel is a 2006 what-if imagining of we have a particular fondness for Olaf that future, with equal parts grandeur and Stapledon in the pages of the e-Magazine. bite. It's worth a look: JBIS has recently published a special edition http://www.amazon.com/Ministry-Space- which celebrates the life and literature of Warren-Ellis/dp/1582404232 an author who influenced amongst many others, H.G. Wells, Arthur Clarke and Brian Aldiss. John Carter McKnight

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: December 2012 www.bis-space.com 3 Crafting the Future: Envisioning Space Exploration in Post-war Britain

Prior to the launch of Sputnik , knowledge media and displayed in public sites such as craft skills, graphical technologies, and about human space travel was widely museums and exhibition spaces. Focusing on communication media to create pictures and circulated by spaceflight proponents, the timeframe 1947–1953, this article models to support rhetorical claims that scientists and news producers in mainstream examines how key members of the British spaceflight and astronautics are legitimate culture through print, film and broadcast Interplanetary Society used a combination of fields of scientific research and space travel could and should be achieved in the near future. Production and circulation of factual knowledge about space travel was not confined to material and discursive practices in established fields such as astronomy and aeronautical engineering. Actors from other professional, non- professional, and social groups contributed to the realization of future spaceflight as an heterogeneous cultural endeavor or astroculture encompassing an array of technical processes, artifacts, craft skills, and scientific knowledge. Ray Macauley

Odyssey urges all of its readers to access this fascinating and immaculately researched article at: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NmMew 3nPCYjJP3qJ9Cy2/full

R.A. Smith’s depiction of a high altitude space plane returning to Earth (image courtesy of the BIS archives).

From the BIS Archives – The Odyssey Essay File The 2012 “Arthurs” Remembering Arthur http://tinyurl.com/cxhw7ds

An Evening with Brian Blessed – to dream of “other worlds beside the Earth.” http://tinyurl.com/8rwjjhr

Brian on an interstellar voyage as a member of the crew of the Altares on its way to Alpha Centauri in The Day After Tomorrow (1975).

The Towering Sky – Exploring the Edge BIS Fellow Gery Webb (left) with Arthur C. Clarke at the World Science Fiction of Space Convention, outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton, August 27th 1979. http://tinyurl.com/csclbeb

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: December 2012 www.bis-space.com 4 Echoes of the Future Join Us on Facebook Don’t forget to join us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/bis.space And http://www.facebook.com/groups/27273 56275/

Dates for Your Diary

BIS Christmas Get-Together – The Last Men on the Moon Speaker: Jerry Stone 5 December 2012 Sending people into space propelled by Above: An Orion spacecraft departs for Mars. nuclear weapons might at first seem a surface and toroidal airbags to cushion the totally mad idea, but the physics are blow, and would have been connected to the actually sound. Much research and rest of the ship by large shock absorbers. development was done during the 1960s, and small scale models using conventional Acceleration experienced by the crew would explosives actually flew. be smoothed out to acceptable levels. Using nuclear weapons would obviously release a The principle is simple: use the power of a huge amount of energy - far more than nuclear blast to propel a vehicle forward. The conventional rockets - so the ships could be obvious problems are the power of the blast huge, weighing many thousands of tons. and the safety of the vehicle and its crew. It was envisaged that the ships would use a One option which was seriously considered 'Pusher Plate,' through which the bombs was a mission to Mars. would be ejected. This would have an ablative Adrian Mann

The last men to visit the Moon: Command Module Pilot Ron Evans, Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, and Commander Gene Cernan pose with their Moon Rover during the rollout of the Apollo 17 rocket (1972).

For full details on all upcoming events see: www.bis-space.com/whats-on

A Super Orion lifts off from its launch site at Jackass Flats, Nevada, USA. Season’s Greetings!

Odyssey would like to wish all of its A Touch of Christmas Magic readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. How wonderful it would be if on the 24th of Thanks also to all those who have December the crew of the ISS, on gazing contributed to the e-magazine and provided down at the Earth, were to report sight of a feedback on its contents. The support and man in a sleigh speeding with nine reindeer input of readers and contributors alike is through the upper reaches of the hugely appreciated. atmosphere as he attempts the impossible feat of delivering presents to every child on Mark and Adrian the planet: something along the lines of "Houston, you won't believe this but..." I hope the presents on the sleigh this year will include many a copy of David Baker’s wonderful new book: International Space David Baker discusses the history of the space Station Manual: Owners' Workshop Manual . station and the future of the ISS in his recent Forget all the tinsel and tat this year and go talk at the BIS. The evening was full of the sort for a real present, one that any space of insights which only David can bring to a enthusiast would love to receive. lecture; amongst many such revelations was And maybe, just maybe, we might all wake up just how close the later Apollo missions came on the 25th December to confirmation, to being cancelled after the near tragedy of delivered via the ISS, that there really is a Apollo 13 almost scared Richard Nixon into Scrooge carries Tiny Tim aloft on Christmas day: Santa Claus. abandoning the Moon programme. “God bless us all, every one!” From Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843)

Odyssey: The e-Magazine of the British Interplanetary Society: December 2012 www.bis-space.com 5