When he saw the flames from the engines beat, he heard nothing. Only seconds later, the blades of Grass moving in front of him – the shock front. Then it was unbelievable, and in a special way according to the. “It sounded, as if in a giant frying pan fried eggs hatching tents,” says Jürg Meister. “The low frequencies pushed me on the stomach, my shirt was vibrating.”
masters has witnessed three launches of the rocket to the moon. The now 80-Year-old was at the University of Bern, the solar wind experiment has been developed an apparatus, the particles can capture. And it was he who brought to the Experiment in hand Luggage in the US – a rolled-up foil, hidden in a five-piece, the collapsed tripod.
Astronaut Edwin Aldrin stands next to the master co-developed solar sail: Several stands are still on the moon.
The solar wind sail was the only non-American Experiment on Board Apollo 11. Devised by a Team led by Professor Johannes Geiss, the former head of the Physics Institute had it. The film made him famous. They had been planted by the astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, still in front of the American flag. Geiss is now over 90 years old and lives in Bern. The media, he is no longer available due to health reasons.
The native of Germany had very good relations with the US space Agency Nasa. As in the case of Apollo11 an Experiment failed, and in the tool frame of the moon, a space ferry was free, was Bern. A aluminum foil on the moon in the solar wind and bring them back: “This was a very nice and simple idea,” says Jürg Meister. The particles collide and get stuck. The film is melted, you can determine what was caught.
“the joy of our sails,”
What sounds simple, it was complicated. Master and his colleagues had to first clarify, what is the probability of different particles in the sail to get stuck or bounce off. The you found with a self-developed solar wind simulator. Tricky it was, finally, that the Limit of a pound, so 454 grams. “That was a sticking nut,” says foreman with a laugh: knew the Americans the metric System “would be the default, guaranteed been a kilogram”.
“I simply hoped that the come back of healing”: a physicist Jürg Meister has followed the Apollo missions intensive. Photo: Adrian Moser
but the physicists and mechanics of the University of Bern had to burn “a lot of brain lard”. Master remembers Daniel Germann, was one of the mechanic: I once turned the night a super fine thread on a thin sleeve. “The day before, no one had thought possible.”
The sun, the wind, the sail works like a window shade that rolls up by itself. After use, the tripod of the role is to be solved, and back to left. To test the device, came Astronaut Don Lind to Bern. He knew, what with the bulky gloves on grip and how far in the space suit, arms spread. “He gave us instructions, which we implemented meticulously,” says masters. To diamond grips and a colored components of red. “Lind had joy in our sails – like a beautiful toy.”
answers to great questions
established As Aldrin on the moon, was also a master in front of a television. “We had tried it hundreds of times. We knew it was going to work.” Slightly tense, he had been at the most because of the astronauts. “I simply hoped that the come back of healing.”
image route, With a simple foil high
The Experiment was successful. In four other missions, it was repeated with increasingly longer exposure times. On big questions, there was a sudden reply. So it turned out that the proportion of the heavy hydrogen on the sun was the same size as the earth and meteorites. This knowledge helped to understand the formation of the solar system better.
master does not hide his admiration for the Apollo project. If you remember, he muses, how huge the Saturn rocket was what was burned during the Mission, all repulsed, and was left behind, and how little, finally, to the earth returned – “it was a violent performance”. The only problem is the engines, with its enormous thrust. “That was typical of the Americans,” says master, “you shied at nothing that might be the Problem so big.”
as a student of physics thrilled
The contact for Nasa allowed the young doctor of physics, to work in 1970, six years at Rice University in Texas. There, he evaluated the data of another Apollo experiment. After returning to the University of Bern, he joined soon in the ammunition factory of Thun and moved with the family to Steffisburg. Instead of thin films he worked on with armor piercing ammunition. “Everything goes so fast – the Mechanics that I had learned, I was able to practically forget.”
champion, who grew up in Köniz, was enthusiastic as a student of physics. “The formulas, I took like syrup.” Sputnik, rockets, the moon programs, “everything that flies”, has drawn him into the spell. This is not, today, where he is already a grandfather, is different. Only it is not more missiles, which will be the biggest interest, but birds and swallowtails. Together with his wife he bred these butterflies. “Nature is one of the most Fascinating,” he says.
“have A couple of the Kick”
And the moon? Whenever he would look at him, will him aware of the fact that up there the five left behind tripods. “To know that I held you in my hands, already.” That people have wanted to walk on the moon and done it, “it was justified,” he says. For more manned space missions, he evaluated, but critical. Of space tourism, he holds nothing: “A few have the Kick but all the others suffer under the CO2-emissions.” And the conquest of space also life? “I can only laugh”, says the master. “You have to imagine these distances. You will do it never.”
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 21.03.2019, 20:35 PM
