SPACE SHIP OF 2038

From "Amazing Stories," Volume 1, Number 12, December 1938

 

SPACE SHIP OF 2038

"Great engineering skill and ingenuity will be necessary to produce a ship capable of flying to other worlds. The space ship shown here is based on theoretical extensions of known fact."

"Man, in his science, has begun to realize that he can travel to other planets. Scientists have set their minds to the problems that confront space travel, seeking a means to overcome them. True, they are many and complex, but not unsurmountable. First, and most important, is the matter of escaping the colossal pull of Earth's gravity. Science tells us it would be necessary for a body to attain an initial speed of 7 miles per second in order to completely escape the influence of the Earth. But for that we need a tremendous amount of power - more power than any fuel we know today can give us. Out in space, too, there are problems. How will the human body react to gravity-less existence? How will we produce and maintain healthy Earth conditions out in space - atmosphere, pressure, equilibrium, protection against harmful rays, etc.? In designing this imaginary vessel, we have taken all this into consideration, and it seems very likely that space travel, when it comes, will be accomplished by ships such as this." 

A - Pilot & Robot Control Rooms

B - Stairway & Corridor Foyer

C - Navigation Rooms

D - Freight & Storage Section

E - Lifeboat & Launching Tube

F - Passenger Staterooms

G - Gymnasium & Recreation Rooms

H - Fuel Tanks

I - Oxy-Hydrogen Mixing Chamber

J - Detonator Caps

K - Major Explosion Chamber

L - Tapered Main Rocket Tube

M - Auxiliary Rocket Tubes

N - Engine Rooms

O - Steering Rocket Tubes

P - Air Conditioning Equipment

Q - Oxygenation Chamber

R - Wafer Condenser Units

S - Magnetic Gravity Rotors

T - Theatre & Lounge

U - Dining Rooms

V - Gravity Deck Main Bearing

W - Main Shaft & Elevator

X - Auxiliary Blast Chamber

Y - Insulation Hull

Z - Atmospheric Rudders

 Copyright 1938, AMAZING STORIES

Conceived and Designed by Julian S. Erupa

"Rocket travel is not a new idea. As far back as 1805, Sir William Congreve, an English general, who saw them in the orient, suggested that rockets might make good weapons. About 1850, Col. Konstantlnoff, of the Russian army, began experimenting with a rocket glider.

Shortly before the World War, people began to talk seriously of flights to the moon and the planets. It soon became evident that if flight through space was ever accomplished, it would be a rocket that would do it. No other type of motor has enough speed.

However, it is easy to calculate how much initial speed would be necessary to send a “single-shot” rocket away from the Earth. Scientists estimate it to be 7 miles per second. At that speed, everything in the ship, including occupants, would be instantly ground to powder by acceleration shock at starting. Thus, it becomes evident that speed build-up must be gradual. Many plans have been made to accomplish this.

Professor Piccard and Professor Goddard, both eminent scientists, struck on the idea of using oxygen in addition to the regular fuel. Piccard wanted only to reach the stratosphere, and when he found he could do it with a balloon, he gave up the rocket experiment. However, Goddard and others carried on, only to find that liquid oxygen is highly dangerous, and explosions hard to avoid. It takes enormous pressure to keep oxygen in a liquid state, and when the heat of the combustion or the exhaust begins to reach the oxygen tanks, something usually lets go.

Max Valier was killed in one oxygen tank explosion. Esnault-Pelterie (who worked out to the last decimal point the characteristics a rocket would need to get to the moon) was seriously injured in another. The rockets of both Oberth and the American Interplanetary Society came to Earth prematurely when their oxygen tanks blew up.

Rocket planes by Oberth and Tiling, using powder fuel, worked perfectly in the atmosphere. Tiling was later killed. Nebel’s liquid fuel rocket was more successful, and went to its ceiling at enormous speed, then dropped back on its parachute when its fuel gave out. Goddard is carrying on this last and more promising line of experiment. Even the American Navy has a rocket plane designed, which awaits only development of a suitable fuel.

In designing our conception of the ultimate result of these widespread experiments, we have been greatly aided by the staff of Popular Aviation, by articles by the American Interplanetary Society, and by records of the old German Verein für Raumschiffahrt. In presenting a model ship design, we have taken into consideration many things which pertain to the construction of such a ship in addition to the main problem of motive power.

They are problems suggested by our partial knowledge of the conditions space-travelers would meet out in the void between the planets. They are many, and they must be solved with great engineering skill and clever application of old and new principles.

First, out in space there is no air. Naturally this is an advantage to the flight of the ship, since there will be no friction to combat. The rocket motors, whose efficiency has been proven to increase at higher altitudes and at higher speeds, would attain 100% efficiency in space. The ship could be driven forward until enormous speeds were reached, even speeds of many hundreds of miles per second, depending on the goal. Theoretically, there is no limit to the speed possible, although Lorenz and Fitzgerald have formulated a principle of contraction that implies a body shortens in the direction of its motion, reaching zero length at the speed of light. However, this is open to grave doubt, since Einstein has formulated (and apparently proved) that light has mass, in which case its speed would annihilate its own existence. Somebody is in error there.

Steering a ship would be easy in space, since even the slightest firing of a tiny rocket tube in any other direction would result in a slow swerving of the ship, which would have to be halted by a compensating charge in the opposite direction when the amount of turn was sufficient, since with no slowing down through friction, a motion, once started must continue. A great deal of space flying would simply be “coasting” at a constant speed. A ship could “coast” to the end of the universe at a steady speed, not allowing for the possible slowing (or speeding) effect of planetary gravity of worlds and suns passed by. Such gravity would influence “course” too, and such a flight would not be straight. However, beyond any gravitational influence, the flight would be perfectly straight.

As a secondary consideration of the lack of air, it is evident that a spaceship must carry its own atmosphere. The air in a ship would soon be depleted, unless apparatus were supplied to replace the oxygen, remove the carbon dioxide, and purify it for re-breathing. Such apparatus is already available, and could be quite efficiently placed in operation. However, the apparatus would have to be kept in perfect order, and run at a set rate, since a release of too much oxygen would result in a condition among the passengers very akin to “drunkenness” or lightheadedness. Too much carbon dioxide would swiftly induce lethargy and sickness.

Secondly, out in space there would be no gravity. No passenger would be able to walk, but would float about helplessly, unable to rescue himself once he floated free of a wall, or an object, and came to rest. Such absence of gravity would certainly result in a sickness infinitely more horrible than sea-sickness. In the human ear there exists a gland which orientates the human being’s sense of up-and-down, and gives him equilibrium. When it is disturbed, he becomes dizzy, and sick. That is why planes, roller coasters, boats, etc., make many people sick.

Out in space, that balancing organ would be absolutely disturbed. The person would experience a dizzy sensation such as he could never imagine. He would experience a sickness that would absolutely overwhelm him. True, after a time he could adapt his body to these new conditions, but perhaps only regular passengers and the crews of space ships would eventually permanently overcome it.

Thus, we must produce artificial gravity. Centrifugal force has been suggested as a means, and certainly rotating the ship rapidly would produce an artificial gravity which could not be distinguished from the real thing. But it would be impossible to navigate a ship rotating so swiftly. No observations of the stars could be made.

Thus, we have designed a passenger section in our ship, taking up the central portion of the ship, entirely enclosed by the outer hull, which is rotated like a huge drum around a magnetic rotor. The passenger staterooms would be grouped about the outer rim of this inner hull where greatest gravity would be maintained, together with lounges, theatres, and all other quarters requiring Earth gravity. Sports, such as swimming, etc., would require Earth gravity. At the bowels of the ship, other sports, where absence of a great deal of gravity might be conceived as enhancing the game, could be held. Contact with this rotating portion of the ship and the other two, non-rotating sections in the nose and tail, would be made by means of a connecting elevator running the length of the ship in the central shaft about which the whole revolves. It would be there that the speed would be slowest and the change could be made without difficulty.

In the forepart of the ship we would have no gravity, no rotation. Here, of course, no passenger could venture, unless he first underwent a “conditioning process” which would enable him to fight off space-sickness, or else was inured to it by previous voyages. An artificial gravity would be created, so that the crew could move about on their feet, by use of magnetic shoe plates. However, such gravity aids would not prevent sickness, since they would not restore balance to the delicate organs in the ears. It is an inaccurate term to refer to these as gravity shoes, since in reality, they are only attraction shoes to aid progress.

Third, out in space, cosmic rays, ultra-violet rays, and perhaps many other unknown emanations are present in unfiltered form. There exists no 200 mile atmospheric blanket to shield them off, to reduce their potency. A space traveler would soon find himself bombarded by harmful rays. Thus, the outer hull of the ship would need to be insulated in a powerful manner. All ports would need to be a type of glass or polarized quartz which would filter out ultraviolet, otherwise even momentary exposure to sunlight would result in severe burns.

Fourth, space voyages will take a long time. Many months may be required. A large store of food and water would need to be carried. Water is a great problem, because of its weight. However, no water would be wasted out in space. It would all be used over and over again, through a distillation process.

Navigation of a spaceship would not be the simple matter of navigation on an ocean. Every body in space has a motion which must be taken into consideration. It wouldn’t do to aim for the planet you want to visit. It wouldn't stay there to wait for you. You’d have to aim at the place where it would be when you got there.

And the gravity attractions of every nearby body would need to be accounted for in the course plotted out by the navigators. The engineers would need to carefully calculate and execute the necessary steering blasts by the proper steering rockets, and compensate them with a measure of exactness that would drive an ordinary engineer to distraction. Even a fraction of an inch deviation at the start of a voyage would result in millions of miles of deflection from the proper course at the end of the journey. Of course, constant course correction would be necessary.

The tail of the ship would contain its driving motors. Probably it would consist of a main blasting tube, tapered to gain the utmost of concentrated repulsion, and made of a special hardened and heat-treated metal.

This main rocket would only be used on taking off and landing. Smaller auxiliary rockets would be used mostly, out in space, since little power would be needed to send the ship forward without any force of gravity to overcome.

Fuel will be some super fuel, possibly a new liquid fuel, used in connection with liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, etc. Explosive fuels would be kept in compartments where the cold of space was allowed entrance, thus obviating danger of explosion due to heat expansion. They would be mixed in gaseous form in a special preparatory chamber, then released into the firing chamber of the rockets. An electric spark would fire the rockets.

The outer hull of the ship would probably be burnished and possess a reflective power. Travel in the sunlight would mean intense heating up of the hull unless it had the power of reflecting the rays rather than absorbing them as heat. Heat inside the ship could escape only by radiation, and thus would be lost only very slowly. It would be an easy matter to maintain a comfortable temperature.

Radio and television will no doubt play an important part in the navigation and recreational functions of the ship. However, what sort of radio waves will be used in space we can only guess, since the Heaviside layer has thus far prevented any definite knowledge of the efficiency of their operation in empty space. Theoretically it would be almost unlimited."