Bruno Augenstein

Bruno Wilhelm Augenstein (born March 16, 1923 in Ellmendingen , Baden; † July 6, 2005 ) was a German-American mathematician and physicist who made important contributions to space research , ballistic missile systems, satellites , antimatter and many other areas.

Life

Bruno Augenstein was born in Ellmendingen near Pforzheim in 1923 . His parents Emma Augenstein and Wilhelm Christopher, a mechanical engineer, left Germany in 1927 and moved to Brooklyn , New York , USA for professional reasons ; later to Providence, Rhode Island to work for the watch manufacturer Speidel .

Even as a child, Augenstein was a keen reader and read several books from the school library every week. He was particularly enthusiastic about science fiction and adventure stories. He began to be interested in mathematics and physics at an early age. A math teacher at his school noticed his unusual talent and made sure that Augenstein was allowed to sit in the senior class of Brown University at the age of 14 and 15 .

He also held the Rhode Island record in discus throwing at his high school. He graduated from Brown University in 1943 with a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics, and received a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1945 .

At the same time he became interested in high-speed aerodynamics and missile systems, and spent a lot of professional time in supersonic testing facilities. He saw a lot of potential in the rocket tests of the California Institute of Technology and supported the research with the intention of having expanded technologies in the distant future to such an extent that the exploration of space would be possible.

Career

After an experiment for doctoral studies at Brown University in 1946, he returned to California and worked for North American Aviation in the aerophysics laboratory. His projects included the work on arming V2 rockets and the ramjet engine which was later developed into the Navaho rocket . In the North American Aviation also he made the first contacts with the Rand Corporation (Research ANd Development), a think tank (Engl. "Think tank") to advise of the US, which saw its task in the armed forces of the United States.

In 1948 he left North American Aviation to teach at Purdue University in Indiana as a professor of aeronautics , but the confines of the faculty so narrowed him that he went back to California in 1949 and joined the Rand Corporation. The main reason for joining was because of the Rand Corporation's interest in running satellite and space programs and its reputation for being a place of work where unconventional thinking was not only listened to, but also nurtured and developed.

Augenstein identified himself with the unique organization of the Rand Corporation, which allowed ideas to be implemented quickly and easily, and the interdisciplinary work enabled him to participate in a variety of problem solutions that were not only physical or system-technical, but also social and political in nature.

ICBMs

At first Rand Corporation developed a fascination with long-range missiles, as this area received a lot of political support (far more than satellite systems at the time). Above all, he was interested in developing a missile system that would serve as a counterweight to the Soviet efforts in this area. In addition, an expanded missile system was another hurdle on the way to a feasible satellite system. At Rand Corporation, Augenstein also became interested in the development of space weapon systems.

Like many other colleagues at the time, Bruno Augenstein thought it would be catastrophic if the Soviet Union overtook the USA in developing an ICBM system. In the early 1950s, he found that Convair's ICBM program unnecessarily constrained itself by following strict guidelines that were of no use. He contacted a team that was researching smaller, lighter warheads, missile reentry speeds, and various other similar projects. His analyzes showed that a functioning ICBM would be possible as early as 1960 and thus exceeded Convair's target implementation date, which would have considered such a missile to be possible in 1965 at the earliest.

In 1954, Augenstein released his analysis in the Rand Corporation report, "A Revised Development Program for Ballistic Missiles of Intercontinental Range," which laid the groundwork for a new project that provided the United States with a new kind of strategic power. These analyzes are seen worldwide as the most important document of the rocket age.

Satellite development

In 1954, Rand Corporation officially began its satellite development efforts and Augenstein considered ICBM development to be an extremely important procedure on the way to a functioning satellite system. In the mid-1950s he conducted studies to see what satellites could do. So he began to be interested in satellite reconnaissance.

In 1958 Bruno Augenstein left the Rand Corporation to join the Lougheed Aircraft Manifucaturing Company, now known as Lockheed Martin . When the first Soviet satellite, Sputnik 1, reached Earth orbit on October 4, 1957, it shocked US scientific circles. As a result, however, the American satellite program should receive leaps and bounds and increased interest. At Lockheed , Augenstein developed techniques and theories to fully exploit the possibilities of space technology and the materials used. He was named Chief Scientist, Satellite Programs, and became Director of Planning at the Sunnyvale facility in California. At that time, Augenstein and his colleagues played the leading role in the development of CORONA, the world's first reconnaissance satellite, launched in 1960.

Defense and Enlightenment

In 1961, Augenstein left Lockheed to join the US Department of Defense. There he continued to be involved in satellite development, space programs and reconnaissance, and became vice director for reconnaissance missions. One of the Department of Defense's greatest successes was the production of the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. For this, Augenstein received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award for educational work.

In 1965 he joined the Institute for Defense Analysis in Washington, which as a nonprofit organization supported the government on critical issues. His resignation from the Ministry of Defense was largely due to the way the Vietnam War was waged. In 1967 he again joined the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica , California. This time, however, as Vice President and leading scientist at the same time to work on fundamental analyzes and national space programs.

Space technology and its basics

In 1971, Augenstein left Rand Corporation again and founded Spectravision together with several colleagues. As a service provider for space-related basic ideas and their elaboration, technological know-how and system analyzes, Spectravision's customers included NASA , Litton Industries, TRW , Rand Corporation and the US Department of Energy.

In 1972, the USA launched the ERTS-1 (later renamed Landsat ) earth exploration satellite, for the theoretical basis and problem solving of which Augenstein was responsible. In 1978 he wrote a report for NASA and helped set a future direction for earth exploration programs. During his years at Spectravision he also increasingly took on the role of a consultant at Rand Corporation, where he returned fully in 1981. In the 1980s, he led the US Air Force Studies in the field of antimatter at Rand Corporation and was co-author of a book on antiproton technology. In 1987 he held a conference on antiprotons to reveal the biggest problems in the research process, as well as to set milestones in the exploration and thus formulate a goal. He later proposed a propulsion system for anti-matter missiles (called "Augenstein mirror matter engine" by others), which would find use in space as well as on Earth.

Augenstein also took part in a Rand Corporation study on the proposed National Aerospace Plane (NASP or Rockwell X-30 ), an aircraft designed to traverse intercontinental routes at hypersonic speeds in space and on earth. The completed study showed that there were serious doubts about costs and completion, as well as the functionality of the project and was therefore discontinued in 1993.

further activities

In 1992 he started a research project into microwave vehicles on behalf of the Ministry of Defense. A year later he was asked to write down the history of the Rand Corporation math department. This collection of Rand Corporation innovations that we now take for granted included game theory, Monte Carlo simulation , dynamic programming, and many more. In 2002 Augenstein wrote that John von Neumann's book on quantum mechanics contained a logical contradiction and was therefore logically inconsistent.

Publications

literature

• with BE Bonner, FE Mills and MM Nieto, eds. Antiproton Science and Technology. World Scientific Publishing, 1988. ISBN 9971-5-0587-8
• Links Between Physics and Set Theory Chaos, Solitons and Fractals, Vol. 7, No. 11, November 1996, pp. 1761-1798
• Hadron Physics and Transfinite Set Theory , International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Vol. 25, No. 12, 1984
• A Brief Science Fiction Story, 1993

Edge documents (selection)

• The simulation of combustion models in wind tunnels - 1948
• Shock wave interaction, or the velocity effect in HE rounds - 1952
• Scientific satellite-payload considerations - 1955
• Policy Analysis in the National Space Programs - 1969
• US Technology - Decline or Rebirth? - 1972
• Relations Connecting the Dirac, Hamilton-Jacobi, and Gauge Equations - 1972
• Almost Painless Quantum Electrodynamics - 1974
• Energy choices and preference relation "paradoxes" - 1977
• An examination of alternative nuclear breeding methods - 1978
• The relativistic perihelion shift of an artificial planet, revisited - 1978
• When can cost-reducing R&D be justified - a simple explanatory model - 1979
• Bunched launch, bunched acquisition, and work-arounds: elements of alternative spacecraft acquisition policies - 1979
• Evolution of the US military space program, 1945-1960: some key events in study, planning, and program development - 1982
• Improving the means for intergovernmental communications in crisis - 1984
• Concepts, problems, and opportunities for use of annihilation energy: an annotated briefing on near-term RDT & E to assess feasibility - 1985
• Some examples of propulsion applications using antimatter - 1985
• RAND Workshop on Antiproton Science and Technology, October 6-9, 1987: annotated executive summary - 1988
• Space transportation systems, launch systems, and propulsion for the Space Exploration Initiative: results from Project Outreach - 1991
• The National Aerospace Plane (NASP): development issues for the follow-on vehicle: executive summary - 1993
• Priority-Setting and Strategic Sourcing in the Naval Research, Development, and Technology Infrastructure - 1995
• Naval research, development, and technology-deciding what to buy and how to buy it - 1995
• “Space” chapter in RAND's “50th Anniversary of Project Air Force” publication - 1996
• Roles and impacts of RAND in the pre-Apollo space program of the United States - 1997
• Mert Davies: A RAND Pioneer in Earth Reconnaissance and Planetary Mapping from Spacecraft - 2004 (with Bruce C. Murray)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Augenstein, BW “Space” chapter in Rand Corporation's “50th Anniversary of Project Air Force” document published in 1996.
2. ^ Kaplan, F. "The Wizards of Armageddon". Simon & Schuster, New York, 1983. ISBN 0-8047-1884-9
3. ↑ MacKenzie, D. "Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance." MIT Press 1993. ISBN 0-262-13258-3 (HB)
4. ↑ Campbell, V. "How RAND Invented the Postwar World." Invention & Technology, Vol 20, Number 1, 2004.
5. ^ Augenstein, B., W. Shapley and E. Skolnikoff, "Earth Information From Space By Remote Sensing." Report prepared for Dr. Frank Press, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, June 2, 1978.
6. ^ Forward, RL and J. Davis, "Mirror Matter: Pioneering Antimatter Physics." John Wiley & Sons, Inc (NY), 1988 ISBN 0-471-62812-3
7. ^ Augenstein, B. "von Neumann Standard Quantum Mechanics is Logically Inconsistent." Chaos, Solutions and Fractals 13 (2002) 947-956
8. ↑ The Turing Test (PDF file; 97 kB)