Maxwell Hunter

Maxwell White Hunter (born March 11, 1922 in Hollidaysburg , Pennsylvania , † November 10, 2001 ) was an American rocket engineer and space scientist , who was awarded a special prize by the US National Space Society in 1989 for his long-standing services .

Life

Studies and chief engineer at Douglas Aircraft Company

After attending school, Hunter studied physics and mathematics at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington (Pennsylvania) and then completed postgraduate studies in aeronautics and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which he obtained in 1944 with a Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D. ) ended.

He then started a job as an engineer at the aircraft manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica , and dealt there with designs of prototypes of the company produced Douglas XA-42 and Douglas XB-43 - bombers . Then he became a member of the team that should deal with the structure of the guided missile development. In the following years he worked as chief engineer in the development of short-range missiles such as the Honest John , Thor , Nike Zeus and other missiles of the Cold War .

As chief engineer for space systems, he was responsible for all space developments at the Douglas Aircraft Company in the early 1960s. These included the Delta launcher and the Saturn S-IV launcher for the Apollo program .

Member of NASC and Chief Engineer at Lockheed

In 1961 he left the Douglas Aircraft Company and became a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Council (NASC), a body advising US Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson on space policy issues.

In 1965 Hunter returned to the private sector and as a member of the Lockheed Missiles & Space Company was responsible for the design of improved space transport vehicles, the development of larger tanks for space shuttles, and the guidance of the Hubble space telescope in the early stages of development in the mid-1970s.

Hunter was also a staunch supporter of the ideas of young enthusiasts during his tenure as chief engineer at Lockheed. Through his interest, he fostered the early recognition of math student Michael Minovitch , who started a revolution in the development of interplanetary space missions. While on vacation at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in La Cañada Flintridge , Minovitch wondered if a planet's gravity could be used to 'kick' a passing spaceship give.

Minovitch showed how a trajectory to a target planet could be designed in such a way that a so-called swing-by or gravity assist could be obtained from one planet in order to transport a spaceship to another planet. A simple boost from the second planet would result in going to a third planet, and so on. The only energy required would then be that to get from earth to the first planet. In 1965, this idea was adopted for the later Voyager project, which also included the Voyager 2 journey that began on August 20, 1977 to explore the outer planetary system .

Retirement and later research

When he retired in 1987 , he founded SpaceGuild Inc. in Sunnyvale, California, his own consulting firm.

During this time he also considered the replacement of the space shuttles and published shortly after the Challenger accident on January 28, 1986 under the title The Opportunity, a report on the need to replace the shuttles with a less expensive launch system. He also saw classic business opportunities for a space economy in this, whereby the key in his view lay in cheaper space transport and a less costly shuttle replacement. In his report, he stated: "Such a new vehicle should cost no more per pound to develop than the prototype of an airplane and be as safe as an airplane."

('Such a new vehicle should not cost much more per pound to develop than an experimental airplane and possess airplane-class safety').

In 1989 the US National Space Society awarded him a special award for "a lifetime contribution to the field of rockets, guided missiles and space travel". However, through his missile designs, he was instrumental in the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) called Star Wars and the presentation of these plans to US President Ronald Reagan . As was evident from his estate, he also supported later versions of a launch system as a replacement for space shuttles and presented his ideas as early as 1985.

Hunter's favored designs were based on what was termed a 'single-stage-to-orbit' (SSTO) approach as the best way to build inexpensive, reusable launch vehicles. He believed that this would pave the way for mass space tourism , with a chain of hotels in orbit and eventually vacations on the moon .

Hunters aim was to develop a generation of space boosters that to the cost to enter the orbit of 10,000 US dollars to reduce per pound to about $ 100 per pound in order to open up a market for space travel for the Kind of vacationer who has previously taken cruises around the world and adventure splash tours to Antarctica .

The discussion was and remained that of the possibility of building a rocket booster that could bring payloads of ten or twenty tons into orbit in one go. Viewpoints ranged between Hunter's favored SSTO approach and the two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) school, which required an additional set of engines for take-off. Hunter believed that SSTO with modern, lightweight materials and ultra-miniaturized electronics was much more workable than the TSTO approach and called his design SSX ('Space-Ship-Experimental').

Web links

• Maxwell Hunter. Brilliant scientist at the heart of US space and missile plans . In: The Guardian, November 26, 2001