Out of this Universe

AUIT's Monthly Astronomical Publication

Talk of Impressionism and the name Monet or Renoir immediately top the list; Realism brings to mind Gustave Courbet's painting Bonjour; and Surrealism, well, only images from Salvador Dali will do. Having grown up with a small amount of artistic ability and the enjoyment such a pursuit brings, these names were comfortably familiar to me. When I began my education in astronomy 15 years ago, I was uninitiated regarding the world of Space Art and those who render it. Today, the term Space Art brings to my mind many of the more recent images and creators of this form. I've discovered that, unlike most other genres, space art has not been the sole province of one or two individuals influencing its style and form, but developed through the collaboration of many academic and professional institutions of science; a natural occurance perhaps, as it was they who at first had the "knowing and science of such things". Perhaps it is because I am a newer enthusiast to the genre. Be that as it may, today, when one speaks on the history of Space Art, the name Chesley Bonestell tops the list as the father of modern space art. Chesley Bonestell (1888—1986)

"That was possible because Bonestell had traveled out into space ahead of everyone else—and he took his paintbrush with him. He orbited the Earth before Gagarin and Glenn, left his footprints on the dusty lunar surface before Neil Armstrong, viewed a Martian sunset before the Viking probes landed there, and explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune before the Voyagers ever visited those giant, gaseous planets." — A Chesley Bonestell Space Art Chronology Melvin H. Schuetz, 1999   [15]

Willy Ley (1906—1969)

"Following the end of the war, his writings, lectures and newspaper, radio and television interviews helped to spur even greater public interest in rockets and their potential for space flight." — from the Willy Ley Collection, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Willy Ley was not just an early expert and proponent of rocketry, but also an accomplished writer, having puiblished his first book in 1926, entitled Die Fahrt in den Weltraum ("Travel in Outer Space") and his second in 1928 entitled Die Möglichkeit der Weltraumfahrt (The Possibility of Interplanetary Travel) which become the inspiration for the movie Frau im Mond. Born in Berlin, Germany on October 2, 1906 Ley's education included studies in astronomy, physics, zoology, and paleontology at the University of Berlin, a degree in journalism from the University of Koenigsberg and an honorary Ph.D. awarded by the Adelphi University of New Jersey in 1960.

Ley was one of the first members of the "Verein für Raumschiffahrt" or Society for Space Travel which he cofounded in Berlin in 1927 (Ley became Wernher Von Braun's tutor in rocketry when the latter joined the club in 1931). As a resut of this club's work, Ley wrote numerous publications and articles in Germany and abroad, editing the VfR's journal, Die Rakete (The Rocket) on rocketry and space travel through the early 1930s. In 1927 the German filmmaker Fritz Lang released his extraordinary futuristic vision Metropolis and thereafter, rocketry was brought to the forefront when he announced that his next production would deal with space flight. Willy Ley, one of the advisers to the film Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon) recalled that 'a Fritz Lang film on space travel could scarcely be surpassed for spreading the idea. It is almost impossible to convey what magic that name had in Germany at that time'. Image left, Willy Ley courtesy the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Archives Division.   fn2   [17]

When Adolf Hitler gained political power in 1933 the Nazi government pressured Ley to cease publishing his articles in foreign journals and magazines as the idea for the use of rockets as a possible weapon was then beginning to take shape; army officials felt that the technology was better placed under their authority. The government's interest was such however, that it allowed the civilian operated Society for Space Travel, after pleas to the army, to continue rocket tests at an army proving ground at Kummersdorf. Nevertheless, the VfR decided to close its doors in 1934, apparently from a lack of funding. As a result of this and his government's politics, Willy Ley emigrated to England and then to the United States under the patronage of the American Interplanetary Society/American Rocket Society in 1935, eventually becoming a naturalized citizen in 1944.   fn3   [18]

Since there had been little public interest in the United States at the time Ley arrived, he continued to write articles and books publicizing the practicality of manned spaceflight in the relatively near future while maintaining employment in areas other than the science of rocketry. He worked as a science editor at the New York newspaper PM until 1944 and afterwards, moved to the Washington Institute of Technology in College Park, MD to work as a research engineer. However, when German launched V-2 missles began falling on London in 1944, Ley was sought out as a knowledgable adviser on rocketry. It was also the yeat that he published a new and most insightful book under the title Rockets: the Future of Travel Beyond the Stratosphere (the title was revised to Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel for its 2nd publication and Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space in its 3rd edition). This book expressed Ley's "belief that rockets would soon be able to carry humans into space, perhaps even to the Moon. This was one of the earliest books on rocketry for the general American public, and served as a basic reference source for future science fiction and reality writing." At right is an image showig a Peenemünde Museum replica V-2 rocket, courtesy original author at Wikipedia, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0. *   [19]

It was at this time in 1944 that Chesley Bonestell was introduced to Willy Ley, their meeting coming as a result of Bonestell's publication of paintings he had submitted to Life magazine. From this point forward, space art would develope into a universe full of richly colored surfaces, mountainous terrains, landed space craft and crews who took leave of their ships in oxygen supplied, helmeted space suits to explore the worlds they had left the Earth to visit.

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* An earlier writing on this subject was published in 1931 by one of the lesser-known pioneers of spaceflight, David Lasser. His book, entitled The Conquest of Space, explained the basic concepts of rocketry and spaceflight. It was based on the best information available at the time and therefore some errors appear within the text. In 1930 Lasser founded the American Interplanetary Society (today's AIAA). Lasser passed away on May 5, 1996. The current publishing has a foreword by Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

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Collaboration

If Bonestell's collaboration with the well known architects of his day had been successful, his collaboration with the scientists of rocketry would be even more so. Shortly after being introduced to Willy Ley, Bonestell began a series of images that incorporated Ley's own belief and technical expertise in the idea that manned space travel was close at hand, as indeed it was — on April 12, 1961, a Vostok rocket launched a space craft named Kedr, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Garagin into space which was followed less than a month later when, on May 5, 1961, the Mercury-3 mission launched astronaut Alan Shepard and his Freedom 7 craft into a fifteen minute sub-orbital flight. From this moment forward, the challenge to reach the moon was on but the costs, if expensive to this point, would be huge beyond it, especially to the public at large whom would have to bear them. Yet, a close inspection of the lunar lanscape reveals the simple fact that there really isn't much there but craters, rolling hills and dust. No cheese, no martians, no vast amounts of gold about, not even a sky of blue to give it anything but what it really looks like in black and white and only slightly better in color. Image left shows the launch of the Redstone rocket with Freedom 7 and Alan B. Shepard, Jr, courtesy of NASA

It has been often said that if not for the way in which Chesley Bonestell rendered his images of the lunar surface, that the public at large may not have been as anxious to go there. If so, then his art shares a place in history with a select but very small fraternity of artist; the last work of art to stir the public was perhaps Picasso's famous depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. One thing is for certain, many of those who became involved in space programs and rocketry, including many more who didn't, credit the images that Bonestell began to render and which Willy Ley wrote about, as their inspiration.

In Life's March 4, 1946 issue Bonestell, in collaboration with Ley, published an article with illustrations on manned space travel to the Moon that later inspired the movie Destination Moon by George Pal. At right is a still from that movie showing a Bonestell-like rocket ship resting on the lunar surface. It was also during this time that the technological devices common in our modern age began to develope: astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer championed the idea of giant space telescopes, Arthur C. Clarke first proposed the concept of communication satellites in Wireless World magazine and most importantly, White Sands began its test launching of the various modified versions of the German V-2 rockets (research stemming from the work of Dr. Wernher von Braun at Fort. Bliss, Texas) which, on October 24, 1946 reached space by achieving an altitude of 342,900ft (104,600m). "A mounted camera, provided by John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, secured continuous motion picture of the Earth's surface at altitude from 100ft to 65 miles (105km)." After crashing into the desert floor, the steel cassette case and in-flight film were found intact. Says Tony Reichhardt for Air and Space Smithsonian magazine, "when they first projected [the photos] onto the screen, the scientists just went nuts." This event marked the beginnings of both manned space flight and space-based astronomy.   [20]

The favorite theme of science fiction is no longer a fantasy-latest advances in rocket research make it a distinct possibility.
— Willy Ley, Rocket To The Moon? Mechanix Illustrated September 1945

Prior to Life's 1946 release, Bonestell, Ley and the Mt. Wilson Observatory collaborated on the September, 1945 issue for Mechanix Illustrated entitled Rocket to the Moon which depicted the journey to the lunar surface in text and pictures, the cover artwork from that issue is shown at left. At right is another image, by Bonestell, from the issue showing the rocket ship returning from the moon, about 5,000 miles out from the lunar surface (Mechanix, page 79). The text, written by Ley, sets out in laymen terms a technical review of the rocket, complete with some of the known hazards that such a flight might entail: fuel and oxygen requirements, escape velocities and dangers from "short radiations, ultra-violet and shorter, of the sun and meteorites". Said Willy Ley, "To sum up: while the rocket to the moon cannot be accomplished now, we know in which direction engineering research will have to progress to make it possible later. The requirements are high, but not impossible, and they are likely to be met before most of us who read this now have time to die of old age." (Mechanix, page 77)   [21]

Seen on its approach is the Bonestell painted rocket ship, 500 miles above the lunar surface (Mechanix, page 74). Between 1946 and 1949, Bonestell and Ley continued publicizing rocketry and space travel in various magazines like Scientific American, Coronet, Life and Pic. In 1948 Bonestell created what has since become known to collectors and aficionados as his most famous and influential stellar image ever, entitled Saturn from Titan and shown below. Image Courtesy Novaspace Galleries.

The International Space Hall of Fame, New Mexico Museum of Space History noted that, "Dr. Carl Sagan said that he didn't know what other worlds looked like until he saw Bonestell's paintings of the solar system." and Joseph Chamberlain, director of the Adler Planetarium, believed that, "It might even be suggested that without Bonestell and his early space age artistry, the NASA era might have been delayed for many years, or it might not even have happened at all." By this point Chesley Bonestell had created a large portfolio of images, enough so that by 1949 he and Ley were able to publish one of the most enduring, inspiring and collaborative efforts to date - The Conquest of Space fn4.   [22]

At the time of its publication, only 15 percent of the American public actually believed we would be able to reach the moon within the next 50 years; 70 percent believed it would take much longer. By 1957 the general public had a much different outlook and opinion about manned space travel, with 41 percent of those polled believing that we would reach the moon in less than 25 years and only 25 percent now believing that it would take longer than that. The 1957 poll was conducted shortly after the launching of the Sputnik I satellite on 4 October 1957. "An important shift in perceptions had taken place, and it was largely the result of well-known advances in rocket technology coupled with a public relations campaign that emphasized the real possibilities of spaceflight." From the publishing of Verne's From the Earth to the Moon to the first rocket launched into space at White Sands, art and science found themselves coupled in a partnership that, emerging in the textual and visual format of The Conquest of Space, was not only a new and mutually beneficial form of the art but one that was to be employed to good effect over the next several years by one of the most prominent spokesmen of space exploration in the United States, Dr. Wernher von Braun.   [23]

Written beneath the front cover's image is the bold and promising message proclaiming the book to be "A preview of the greatest adventure awaiting mankind with text and pictures based on the latest scientific research" As the readers of this book were to discover, it was exactly that and a whole lot more.

Seen at left is the front cover of The Conquest of Space as well as cover and end paper art. The second image is the book's iconic painting by Bonestell, showing the conception of lunar flight at that time, complete with survey crew. Setting the space ship against a backdrop of steep and jagged lunar montains, while incorrect, gave it a unique appeal of provocative imagination and inspiration. The third image depicts the baking surface of Mercury, one of the many planetary surfaces that Bonestell included in Conquest. Appearing at the end of Chapter 3 were scenes painted of Venus, Mars, Mars as seen from Deimos, Saturn from Japetus, Saturn from Titan, Saturn from Mimas and an imaginary planet of the double star Mira. Many of the images included in Conquest had been previously released in various magazines articles such as Life's 1944 and 1946 issues. Above volume, The Conquest of Space from author's collection. Images are copyright © Bonestell Space Art.

The impact of The Conquest of Space must be viewed in light of its goal and the influence that such a work had on the preceptions and desires of an age just awakening to the prospect that such a thing could even be possible, let alone close at hand [fn5]. That the lunar surface was actually an uninteresting vista of sand-dune like hills, powdery surface and smoothed rimmed craters misses the point — rockets blasting off towards space were not a common sight; there were no regular launchings of satellite—carrying Delta 4 or Atlas 5 rockets from Cape Canaveral and as such, they was little factual knowledge or concern regarding the current state of development or potential within the mainstream public.

What Bonestell and Ley were attemping to do was to enlighten the public to the fact that rockets and space travel were no longer what if dreams or theorized possibilities kicked around a lunchroom table. Even as they wrote their book, rockets had already been modified, engineered and launched; and they had already reached space. There was a myriad of V-2 test firings and high altitude launchings at White Sands, including the first multistage rocket and V-2's equipped with the latest scientific equipment for upper atmospheric research by the NRL between 1946 and 1951 (Naval Research Laboratory). These alone contributed to the decisions which enlarged the White Sands testing grounds, built additional facilities, researched newer rocket designs and finally, led to the developement of what became the launching point for all subsequent vehicles — the facility at Cape Canaveral, Florida. By 1958 earth orbiting satellites were a fact and by 1961, men had flown into space.

To these gentlemen and others, the furture of space travel had arrived and through the images of Bonestell, so too would the support and desire to get us there.

End of Part One

Part Two of Art & Artists of the Universe continues with the collaboration of Chesley Bonestell, Dr. Wernher von Braun, Willy Ley and Fred Whipple for the famous Collier's magazine series of articles published between 1952—1954. We'll then follow the history of the art from the first successful manned space flights of 1961 to the Apollo 11 moon landing of 1969, concluding with STS-1, the first space shuttle mission of 1981. Part Three is a review of space art as it was presented in the media of pulp science fiction magazines, a form popularized by many artists and writers from 1930—1950. We'll explore both the art and artists who frequently contributed to such publications as Astounding Science Fiction/Analog, Startling Stories, Satellite Science Fiction and Galaxy Science Fiction. The series concludes with a look at the genre's current form and style, sampling the universe as rendered by today's artists through the format of paintings and computer imagery.

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Footnotes
2.   An interesting histroical aside arises from the movie Frau im Mond regarding its use of the "countdown". As the Moon rocket neared the moment of launch, a loudspeaker announced: "Five...four...three...two...one...zero...FIRE!" Though used for its dramatic effect, Lang had popularized the "countdown" still in use today. — Science Fiction Filmsite University of Michigan Fantasy and Science Fiction Web Site.

3.   Membership within the VfR dropped dramatically in 1932 as German police began objecting to rocket tests within the Berlin city limits. This was coupled with a fear of Adolf Hitler, who began restricting the activities of organizations, like VfR, that had significant ties to the international community. Facing total elimination, VfR made pleas to the German Army to aid in the continuation of rocket testing. In the summer of 1932, the German Army allowed VfR to launch a Repulsor-type rocket (named by Willy Ley) at an army proving ground at Kummersdorf; the upshot was that the club could continue under the aegis of the army or disband. The German Army did allowed Wernher von Braun to continue rocket experiments while working on his doctoral thesis in combustion phenomena, using the facilities at Kummersdorf. The VfR however, was forced to disband in the winter of 1933/1934 because the organization could not meet its financial obligations. Rocketry experiments ceased at the Raketenflugplatz facility in January, 1934 and the area resumed operation as an ammunition dump. Upon the disbanding of VfR, all private rocket testing in Germany ceased. Willy Ley left Germany while Wernher von Braun officially began his work for the German Army at Kummersdorf. See Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR) The Internet Encyclopedia of Science, The Worlds of David Darling and Highlights in German Rocket Development from 1927 — 1945 from the NASA — Marshall Space Flight Center website.

4.   Amongst those on record as having been influenced or inspired by Bonestell's art were Carl Sagan (author), Arthur C. Clarke (author), Wernher von Braun (scientist-engineer who's own images were revised by Bonestell), George Pal (movie director), Robert A. Heinlein (author who turned Bonestell's name into a verb), Victor Stenger (professor and author) as well as many of the engineers and scientists of the early pre and post NASA era.

5.   In 1954, when Arthur C. Clarke's "The Exploration of Space" was published in a Swedish translation "experts" assured their readers that manned spaceflight would remain impossible for at least the next 50 years. They only missed the mark by 43 years. The Conquest of Space - Willy Ley, Chesley Bonestell Stefan Zenker December 23, 2007

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Further Reading, Histroical & General

• The Lion (Leo) was known in the New Kingdom Ancient Astronomical Drawings: The Common Prototype © Robert G. Bauval 2002
• Rock Drawings Tanum Fossum Sweden Norway Scandinavia Astronomical Solution LexiLine List on the History of Civilization, revised March 11, 2004.
• Constructing the Heavens. Drawings of Nebulae in Victorian Science by Omar Nasim, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
• 1054 Supernova Petrograph by Dan Greening, from the Chaco Canyon National Park web page.
• Arthur B. Evans, The Illustrators of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires from SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES, XXV:2 (July 1998): 241-70 JV.Gilead.org.il Copyright © Zvi Har'El November 14, 2007
• TROUVELOT, ETIENNE LEOPOLD, images created by, from the Science & Society Picture Library. Site hosts the collective images from the Science Museum, the National Media Museum and the National Railway Museum
• Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College, Volume VIII Harvard University Library
• Veronica Hollinger Contemporary Trends in Science Fiction Criticism, 1926—1980, Science Fiction Studies #78 = Volume 26, Part 2 = July 1999,
• Galileo's Moon Drawings GALILEO'S OBSERVATIONS OF THE MOON © Tom Pope and Jim Mosher, July 2, 2009.
• Robertson, Frances Science and Fiction: James Nasmyth's Photographic Images of the Moon Victorian Studies - Volume 48, Number 4, Summer 2006, pp. 595-623
• Gary Westfahl's Bio-Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Film Chesley Bonestell (1888—1986). American artist Copyright © 1999—2009 Gary Westfahl All Rights Reserved Worldwide
• The First Photo From Space In 1946, rocket-borne cameras gave us our first look at Earth from beyond the atmosphere. By Tony Reichhardt, Air & Space Magazine, November 01, 2006. Article regarding the V-2 projects at White Sands and the first images taken of the earth from a rocket in space.