Handwritten draft manuscript by aerospace engineer and space architect Wernher von Braun, which contains subject matter similar to 'Crossing the Last Frontier,’ his famous inaugural article in Collier's 'Man Will Conquer Space Soon!' series, which appeared in the March 22, 1952 issue of the magazine. The 13-page manuscript, unsigned and undated, written in pencil on 8 x 10 sheets of notebook paper, reads, in part: “These projectiles utilize the same principle of propulsion as the jet airplane. It is based on Isaac Newton's third law of motion, which can be stated this way: for every action there must be a reaction of equal force, but in the opposite direction. A good example is the firing of a bullet from a rifle. When you pull the trigger and the bullet speeds out of the barrel, there is a recoil which slams the rifle butt back against your shoulders. Why? The exploding powder exerts an equal pressure in all directions.”
Von Braun continues on the topic of propulsion: “Small rockets, such as the well-known 4th of July rockets, utilize solid propellants wherein the ‘fuel’ and the oxidizer’ are blended like in gun powder…For simplicity you cannot beat a ‘solid’ rocket. But along with this tremendous advantage the solid rocket has inherent shortcomings…For these reasons designers of large rockets switch to liquid propellants. In order to be able to utilize powerful propellant combinations, they use separate ‘fuel’ and ‘oxidizer’ and store them in different tanks. In order to save dead weight, they do not pressurize these tanks but use pumps to feed both propellants into a combustion chamber of ‘rocket motor,’ which alone has to be sufficiently thickwalled to withstand the high combustion pressure.” Von Braun then makes a “checklist of the most important factors a rocket engineer must consider in making his choice of propellants.”
He then asks the question: “What about the possibility of utilizing atomic energy for the propulsion of a satellite rocket ship?” Von Braun writes: “We must bear in mind that the only known way of releasing atomic energy is its transformation into heat energy. In the atom bomb, this heat is released abruptly in one bright blinding flash. It is the heat radiation emanating from this flash that may set buildings in the target area afire. And it is the tremendous amount of heat energy suddenly released within a small volume of air which builds up such a terrific local air pressure that the shock wave, along which this pressure responds, may destroy solid structures as far as a mile away. In a ‘pile’ the transformation of atomic energy into heat takes place slowly and under control. But all we get out of our atomic energy is still only heat.” In fine condition. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Stephen Hankow of Farthest Reaches, who states that this manuscript “originates from the personal collection of Doris Hunter, former Head Archivist of the WWB Collection of the Alabama Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.”
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