EUGEN SANGER: EMINENT SPACE PIONEER

摘要

In international literature on astronautics, three main space pioneers are mentioned: Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard and Hermann Oberth. There are other two space pioneers that are very rarely mentioned: Robert Esnault-Pelterie and Eugen Sanger. Pelterie is known particularly in Europe, and Sanger is mentioned in the second half of the 20th century normally only in connection with space shuttle flights.rnTaking a look at Sanger's work and heritage, it is obvious that he greatly influenced the development of astronautics in terms of purely theoretical dissertations on achievable limits of space research as well as in terms of technical approaches to achieving the short- and long-term goals of astronautics, and in terms of setting tasks for organizing mankind to achieve these goals. Saenger's book The Technology of Rocket Flight was the first study based not only on basic research, but also on the applied research that he conducted and the findings of which he published in various papers. Saenger was clearly connected with and influenced the development of two experimental research groups in the US in the 1930s, which resulted in two of the most significant companies in the US in the 1950s that manufactured liquid propellant rocket engines. Basic and applied research in the field of space planes resulted in construction of rocket planes such as the US space shuttle and Soviet Buran shuttle.