Werner Von Braun

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Werner Von Braun

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Childhood

• He was born in 1912 in Wirsitz Germany.
• He studied Calculus and Trigonometry in high
  school to learn how rockets work.
• When he was a teenager he joined the Society for
  Space Travel.
• They built experimental liquid fuel rockets.

• After high school he enrolled at the Berlin
  Institute of Technology
• In 1932, he started to design missiles for the
  German army.
• He earned a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in
  1934.

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The German Army

• During World War II Von Braun was the head of a
  rocket team that developed the V-2.
• The V-2 was a missile that traveled at speeds
  over 3,500 miles per hour.
• Von Braun surrendered 500 workers at the V-2
  Missile Complex when the Allied forces captured
  it.

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http//earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/vo
nBraun/vonbraun_3.html
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Controversy

• In April, Arthur Rudolph, chief engineer of the
  V-2 factory, decided to use concentration camp
  prisoners. The concentration camp prisoners
  started to work at the V-2 complex in June of
  1943.
• The power hungry Heinrich Himmler, commander of
  the SS (Nazi Police force), decided to take
  command of the V-2 plant. When Von Braun
  resisted, he was thrown in jail. Himmler stated
  that he tried to sabotage the operation.
• The United States had no idea what to do with Von
  Braun after his surrender because he was granted
  an honorary rank by the SS in 1940.

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Controversy

• Von Brauns friends and followers said that he
  didnt follow the Nazi party. They used his
  incarceration as an example. They also said that
  he accepted his role in the SS because he was
  afraid of what Himmler might have done to him if
  he did not accept. They also said that the
  benefits of being in the SS were, research
  funding and promotions.
• The United States space program decided to allow
  the German scientist into the space program after
  Von Braun confessed that he heard about prisoners
  being killed at one of the missile complexes
  called Mittlewerk.

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After World War II

• After the war, 116 of Von Brauns scientists
  worked for the United States army.
• The developed guidance systems for missiles.

• Von Braun became a U.S. Citizen in 1953.

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U.S. Army

• The Von Braun team developed the ballistic
  rockets called Mercury Redstone, Redstone, Juno,
  and the Saturn 1B, while working for the Army.

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U.S. Army

• When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957,
  the United States went into a state of panic
  because they thought they were losing the space
  race.
• Von Braun and his rocket team developed the
  Vanguard. It flew only four feet off of its
  launch pad and blew up.
• Von Braun then erected the Jupiter-C that
  carried the United States first satellite,
  Explorer-1.
• Then in 1961 Von Brauns team developed the
  Juno-1 that took Alan Shepard into space.

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NASA

• In the 60s President Kennedy decided to beat the
  Soviet Union in the Space Race by landing
  Americans on the Moon.
• Von Braun became director of NASA's Marshall
  Space Flight Center(MSFC).
• Von Braun and (MSFC) developed the Saturn V
  rocket.

http//earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/Giants/vo
nBraun/vonbraun_4.html
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The End of Von Brauns Career

• In 1972 he became Vice President for engineering
  and development at Fairchild Industries, Inc.
• In 1975 he became founder the National Space
  Institute.
• He died on June 16, 1977.

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Use of Mathematics

• When developing his rockets he used trigonometry,
  calculus and physics.
• Von Braun had to use Isaac Newtons law of
  thrust, force mass x acceleration. He needed
  this law to develop propellants and nozzles for
  his rockets. If his rockets were too heavy for
  the force that the fuel was giving off, he needed
  this law to figure out how powerful the fuel
  needed to be.