I wish to express my deep appreciation for the grants from Daniel Guggenheim, The Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, which have made this work possible, and to President Atwood and the Trustees of Clark University for leave of absence. I wish also to express my indebtedness to Dr. John C. Merriam and the members of the advisory committee, especially to Col. Charles A. Lindbergh for his active interests in the work and to Dr. Charles G. Abbot, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for his help in the early stages of the development and his continued interest.

Document I-10

Document title: H.E. Ross, "The B.I.S. Space-ship," Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 5 (January 1939), 4-9.

The British Interplanetary Society was formed in 1933. This article, by H.E. Ross, one of the society's leaders, outlined the society's most important and well-known contribution to spaceflight, a manned lunar mission. Casual meetings on the subject began in London, leading to the formation of a Technical Committee in February 1937. The committee was split into smaller task groups, including one assigned to conduct extremely crude propellant tests. The result was a solid-propellant spaceship for carrying humans to the Moon and returning them to Earth. Despite the proposal's reliance upon solid propulsion (the committee, ignorant of von Braun's ongoing secret research in Germany, had determined that the pumps and cooling systems required for liquid propulsion were too complex and expensive to develop), it effectively outlined the lunar mission conducted by the United States thirty years later.

[4]

The B.I.S. Space-ship

by H. E. Ross

The B.I.S. space-ship design, as shown on the cover of this issue, is such a radical departure from all previously conceived ideas of a space-ship that a full explanation is called for.

In designing a space-ship the designer has a completely different problem to that involved in the design of any other means of transport. A motor car, railway train, aeroplane or ship consists basically of a vessel and a fuel tank, in the latter being placed the fuel required for a journey or journeys. The shortest space-ship voyage, however, is the journey to the Moon, and with the most optimistic estimates of the fuel energy and motor efficiency the quantity of fuel required will still be such that the fuel tank would require to be much larger than the rest of the ship. Consequently we must revert to the old system of petrol cars, so designing our ship that the cans can be attached outside the ship and thrown away when empty. The last condition does not mean that the cans are cheap-they are actually precision engineering jobs, and horribly expensive-but the cost of the fuel needed to bring them back would be even greater. We find by careful calculation that with the best fuels and motors that we can afford it will require about 1,000 tonnes (metric') of fuel to take a 1 tonne [5] vessel to the moon and back, so our designers' problem has been to design a 1 tonne space-ship with containers for 1,000 tonnes of fuel attached outside and detachable.

The nature of rocket motors has also affected the design considerably. With such motors as aero-engines a larger unit can be made lighter in proportion to its power than a small unit, but in the case of rocket motors quite the reverse is the case; in fact the

1. A metric tonne is roughly equivalent to an English ton.

proportionate weight of rocket motors rises so steeply that a motor of more than about 100,000 H.P. is hardly feasible, and as the lifting of the 1,000 tonnes at the start calls for many millions of H.P. this requires a considerable number of small units. Again, since the cost of the motors is less than the cost of the fuel required to bring them back, and as only a few small motors will be required to land the one tonne ship on its return against over a hundred large ones at the start, the motors are jettisoned after use.

For a maximum fuel economy, anything which is to be jettisoned should be jettisoned as soon as possible, and this has led to the cellular space-ship design, with hundreds of small units each comprising a motor and its fuel tank, and each so attached that as soon as it ceases to thrust it falls off. This early detachment of all dead weight has resulted in an enormous increase of efficiency over earlier designs, and has reduced the fuel required for a return voyage to the moon from millions of tonnes to thousands of tonnes.

Owing to the large number of small units, it is possible to start a motor and run it till its load of fuel is exhausted, controlling both thrust and direction by the rate at which fresh tubes are fired. This makes it possible to use solid fuel for the main thrust, with consequent considerable saving in weight, and giving the additional advantages that the strength of the fuel helps to support the parts above and its high density makes the ship very compact. Liquid fuel motors are, however, provide for stages requiring fine control, and also steam jet motors for steering.

Diagram 2 (right) shows the spaceship as it reaches the moon. The approximately hemispherical portion (to the downward pointing cone) is the life container. The portion between the two cones contains the air-lock, air-conditioning plant, heavy stores, batteries and liquid fuel and steam jet motors, etc. Below this are the solid fuel tubes for the return voyage. The whole of the remainder of the vessel (diagrams 1 and 3, consists of the tubes for the outward voyage, which have to be jettisoned by the time of arrival at the moon.

It will be seen that the streamlining is conspicuous by its absence. The form of the ship has been largely dictated by other considerations, and as compared to the terrific power needed to [6] lift the vessel out of the earth's gravitational field the total air resistance is quite negligible (less than 1%), this does not matter greatly. The diameter of the front of the ship is determined as being the smallest reasonable size for the life container. (It should be noted that this design is for a very small space-ship, about the overall size of a large barge. On larger ships this restriction will be somewhat modified). The diameter of the rear of the ship is determined by the firing area required. Too small an area calls for excessive pressures in the motors, and consequently excessively heavy construction. The two diameters being approximately the same has led to the straight-sided form. An increase in central diameter would mean improved streamlining, but this would only decrease the resistance below the velocity of sound, and this is only a small proportion of the whole. On the other hand, the straight-sided form gives the greatest strength, which is of major importance, and also serves to minimize frictional heating. The main body of the space-ship, comprising the motor tubes, is hexagonal in shape; this form giving the closest possible stacking of the tubes.

The form of the nose is intended not so much to reduce the resistance at low velocities, as to split the air at high velocities (several times the velocity of sound), so as to maintain a partial vacuum along the sides. The frontal paraboloidal portion, seen in diagrams 1, 2 and 3, is a reinforced ceramic carapace, capable of withstanding a temperature of 1500°C in air, and by its form the frictional heating is made a maximum on this portion and minimized on the sides. The carapace (which, of course, has no portholes) is detached once the vessel has got away from the earth.

The tubes are stacked in conical layers for greater structural stability, since, apart from the vessel proper-the top portion-the whole strength lies in the tubes, and these are not rigidly fixed together, but simply stacked and held in position by one-way bolts and light webs.

The firing order of the tubes is in rings starting from outside and progressing inwards towards the center. While the motors are firing their thrust holds them in place; when expended, the acceleration of the ship causes them to release from position and

they drop off. Those in the inner rings of the bank not yet used do not position themselves for release until their firing thrust carries them a fractional distance up the release bolts. A light metal sheath embraces the outermost ring of tubes; this and the webs are discarded when the whole of the previous bank of motors has been jettisoned.

Diagram 4 gives sections through the vessel at various levels and shows maximum periphery of the carapace. The top half of the diagram represents a section through the large motor tubes [7] stacked in banks A to E; these are used to obtain release from Earth. The lower half of diagram 4 shows the medium and small tubes used for deceleration of the moon (the ship, having been turned end to end, approaches stern first). Fine control for the actual landing is provided by the vertical liquid fuel motors seen within the two cones in diagram 2 and about the hexagon angles in diagram 5. The inner small tubes in diagram 4 are shown in a section through two banks (ref. diagram 2), the lower of these being used for control of deceleration when approaching the moon and the upper bank (ref. diagram 2, right), being used for the return journey.

[8] Adjacent to the top of the liquid fuel motors (diagram 2), are shown four of the tangential tubes. These are necessary in order to provide the crew with artificial gravitation, which is achieved by rotating the ship (approximately 1 revolution in 3 1/2 seconds). The g value desired is therefor under control of the crew. Not only is this artificial gravitation considered a necessary precaution (the physical affect of long periods of non-gravitation being at present unknown), but in any case haphazard rotation of the vessel would almost certainly take place, making navigational observations impossible. Hence control of rotation is essential. Again, before the moon landing can be attempted it is necessary to stop rotation in order to prevent disaster to the ship when it touches ground.

It is not anticipated that the space-ship can be so accurately manoeuvred that its landing will be without shock. Hydraulic shock absorber arms are therefor incorporated; one of these being shown attached to the frame on the right hand side of diagram 2. These are normally collapsed within the hull, and are extended just prior to landing.

The firing of the motor tubes is carried out by an automatic electrical selector system, but manual control is used for navigational corrections. The ship, being in rotation, is kept thrusting in the correct direction, but this does not prevent "wobble" if firing is not equal on all sides. Manual control of stability is maintained during the first few seconds of ascent, and after that a pendulum conductor automatically controls stability. The main wiring cable to the tubes is led down a central column, provided at each band level with a plug connection which brakes away when its purpose has been served and is then jettisoned.

The hemispherical front of the life-compartment (diagram 2 and 3), is of very light nature; this being made possible on account of the protective carapace above. The segmented carapace (diagram 8), is, of course, discarded after passing out of Earth's atmosphere, and protection of the life-compartment shell is not [9] needed for the ascent from Moon. The return into Earth's atmosphere will be done at low velocities, hence heating of its shell will not be excessive.

Owing to the small scale of the diagrams it has not been possible to show many of the filaments and accessories within the life-compartment, but the following can be noted. Diagram 2 shows one of the seats for the crew of three. These can also be seen pointing radially in diagram 6. The controls for firing are placed on the arms of the chairs, and the chairs themselves move on rails around the life-compartment. The crew recline on these chairs with their heads towards the center of the ship and a circular catwalk is provided for them and around the circumference of the chamber (diagram 2 and 3).

For observation purposes ports are provided in the dome of the life compartment (one shown in diagram 2 and twelve in diagram 7). Under the flange of the carapace, in the rim of the floor of the life-compartment (diagram 1, 2, and 6) are the back-viewing ports; these are covered during thrusting periods. Three forward-viewing ports in the top of the life compartment shell are also provided, see diagram 2 and 7. It should be noted that observation of direction cannot be made during the initial thrusting period in ascent from Earth-it being impossible to see backwards through the tail-blast of the ship—the

carapace prevents vision in other directions, and in any case the period is too short to allow of stellar observations. Therefore navigation during this period must be done entirely by means of internal instruments, which consist of an altimeter, speedometer and accelerometer. Another essential is, of course, a chronometer and gyroscope ensures maintenance of direction. A suspended pendulum provides indication of "wobble" and modi