Ernst Stuhlinger

Ernst Chair Inger (born 19 December 1913 in Niederrimbach, † 25 May, 2008 Huntsville, Alabama ) was a German -American atomic, electrical and rocket scientist. In 1955 he became an American citizen.

Life

Ernst Chair Inger was born in Niederrimbach in southern Germany, where his father worked as a village teacher. In Tübingen, he attended secondary school, after which he studied at Tübingen, Munich and Königsberg physics, mathematics and zoology. In 1936 he was at the Technische Hochschule Berlin 's assistant Hans Geiger in physics. Inger chair in 1936 received his doctorate with the 28-page dissertation The ionizing power of cosmic rays ultra at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in physics and was then a research assistant at the TU Berlin. About his research on cosmic rays and nuclear physics, he has been involved since 1939 in the German Atomic research. After Stuhlinger was drafted in 1941 by the Wehrmacht, was a year later he was transferred to the front in Russia, where he received the invitation in early 1943, to go to Peenemünde to participate in the missile program of Wernher von Braun; there qualified specialists were sought at this time. On foot, he then had to cover more than 1000 kilometers to the west. This Abkommandierung to Peenemünde saved his claims to probably life. He dealt there with the development of command and control systems for missiles. Asked about his work, he later said: "We did not feel that we developed a retaliatory weapon .... Our goal was a powerful, controllable, high-precision missile ". Like many of his employees in the Army Research Center Peenemünde also said chair Inger later that in the laboratories and workshops no prisoners had worked. However, there were already starting in June 1943, a concentration camp at Peenemünde.

As one of 126 scientists Stuhlinger emigrated after the Second World War in the U.S. (see Operation Paperclip ). First chair Inger was housed at Fort Bliss in Texas and continued his work on the rocket development for the U.S. Army continued. In 1950, he was moved with the team to Wernher von Braun to Huntsville (Alabama ). Under the supervision of the U.S. Army there began the development of the Redstone, Jupiter and Pershing missiles. Then the team worked for NASA's rocket program. Chair Inger became director of the Space Research Center ( Space Science Lab ) of the Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA in Huntsville (Alabama ) ( 1960-1968 ). At the start of the first American satellite Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958 Chair Inger was involved as well as on the first manned American space flight by Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961. Until 1975 he was a consulting director of research.

After his retirement, became chair of Professor Inger and senior researcher at the University of Alabama. He simultaneously worked on the development of an electric drive for automobiles. During this time he spent several months at the universities of Munich and Heidelberg, to deal with space probes and electric drives. In particular, the development of space gliders, studies and concepts for a manned Mars mission bothered him again and again. In honor of his life's work in the field of electrical drives, the highest award of the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society ( ERPS ) was named after him: the chair Inger Medal ( full name: " Ernst Stuhlinger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Electric Propulsion ").

Find out more

Stuhlinger gained in the construction of Explorer 1 the nickname " Mr. Apex " when he built an electro-mechanical calculator, which should be determined from different measuring signals the ignition of the upper stage of the launch vehicle from the ground at the right moment. The " Apex Predictor " mentioned equipment was in chair Ingers garage under great time pressure and of relatively simple components, but worked perfectly.

Writings

• Possibilities of Electrical Space Ship Propulsion, Frederick Hecht ( Ed. ), Report on the Fifth International Astronautical Congress (Easter rich society for Space Research, Vienna, 1955).
• Zs with Joseph King: Concept for a Manned Mars Expedition with Electrically Propelled Vehicles, Progress in Astronautics, Vol 9, pp. 647-664, San Diego: Univelt, 1963.
• Zs with Krafft A. Ehricke, Egmont R. Koch, Hermann- Michael Hahn: Project Viking. Conquest of Mars, Kiepenheuer & Petrovich GmbH, November 1982
• Zs with Frederick J. Ordway III: Wernher von Braun. Venturing into outer space, Esslingen, 1992.
• Enabling Technology for Space Transportation. In: The Century of Space Science. 1, 2001, pp. 73-74.
• Template: Internet resource / maintenance / access date not in ISO format template: Internet resource / Maintenance / date is not in the ISO FormatLeland F. Belew, Ernst Stuhlinger: Skylab: A Guidebook. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, August 6, 2004, accessed on 5 July 2008.