BIS proposes an early space station

The idea for a manned space station left pulp science fiction for scientific authenticity when Harry Ross, on Nov. 13, 1948, described such a facility in a paper to the British Interplanetary Society.

According to historical documents provided by Mark Stewart, BIS honorary archival librarian/editor, the "station was based on a concept" that Herman Potocnik described in his 1928 book "The Problem of Space Travel: The Rocket Motor." Potocnik was an Austrian Imperial Army officer who became an engineer. Hermann Oberth, who published "The Rocket Into Planetary Space" in 1923, urged Potocnik (writing under the pseudonym H. Noordung), to base his ideas of the future not on fanciful science fiction but on solid engineering principles.

The design that Ross and Ralph Smith, both members of the BIS Technical Committee, created "had a mirror to collect solar energy and was to spin on its axis to provide artificial gravity," said Space Travel: A History (Harper & Row/1985).

The BIS documents stated that for power, "water or mercury would be heated in a ring-main of pipes at the circular focus of the mirror," which would drive "eight turbo-generators housed in blisters spaced around the circumference of the living quarters." Personal residences would house "a permanent staff of 24" working on site.

On the same date, Ross also described a mission to land the first man on the Moon. Smith, "who played a leading part in early B.I.S. design studies," said the publication "The British Interplanetary Society: Aims and Objects/Regulations for Membership," produced the drawings. One was of an air purification plant. Two years earlier, Smith and Ross had conceived of a "man-carrying rocket designed to test human reactions to a short period of spaceflight." They "submitted" it to the U.K. Ministry of Supply on Dec. 23, 1946.

In 1949, Ross designed a Lunar Spacesuit "based on a work started in 1940," the BIS historical documents said. "He had examined the problem of a lunar suit for 12-(hour) use with a temperature compensating range from 120 degrees Celsius during the day down to minus 150 degrees Celsius at night." The exterior "was to be a highly burnished metallic film to reflect as much heat as possible." The helmet would be a " thermos-flask" design to give good heat insulation," with "a large-angle vision port."

At the October 1951 First Annual Symposium on Space Travel, in New York, Dr. Wernher von Braun broached an orbiting station. From the gathering grew "an eight-part series on space travel" for Collier's Magazine, said "Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest" (New York University Press/2006). The website haydenplanetarium.org said the 1952-54 articles "birthed an indelible vis7ion for the public's imagination and fascination with space."

Von Braun "weaved a fantastic tale about a massive Earth-orbiting space station that would serve as a docking port for cosmic taxis," said "Dark Side of the Moon." "According to the dream its constant rotation would generate artificial gravity, making it livable for an extended period. The station would serve as a foundation for lunar expeditions, and eventually for trips to Mars."

Chesley Bonestell, whom The Washington Post in 1985 called "the acknowledged "dean of space art," produced the paintings, which included Earth-orbiting stations. The same ideas were placed before the public in Walt Disney's three-part, mid-1950s Man in Space series.

In 1955, film producer George Pal released "The Conquest of Space," in which astronauts "attempt a flight to Mars," Ley said in the May 1955 Astounding Science Fiction. "The United States Air Forces takes on the job of building first 'The Wheel,' the space-station orbiting Earth 1,080 miles out, and then the ship capable of the Mars trip" that launches from the station.

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BIS proposes an early space station