When scientists believed Artemis II space travel was impossible 

A hundred years ago, the scientific consensus asserted that space travel wasn’t just difficult — it was physically impossible. The successful return of the Artemis II astronauts has proven, once again, that the science was wrong.

The first nonfiction book in English to explore and promote the possibility of interplanetary space flight was published in 1931. “The Conquest of Space” by David Lasser, president of the recently formed American Interplanetary Society, was privately published because so many scientists and publishers at the time believed that space travel wasn’t just science fiction but science fantasy.

The American Interplanetary Society had been formed by Lasser and a few others in April 1930 for the purpose of discussing the possibility of space flight and conducting experiments on the best types of fuels to achieve the goal. In 1934, the society changed its name to the American Rocket Society in hopes of appealing to more people, who might be intrigued by rockets but thought interplanetary travel was an unrealistic dream.

The skepticism came because many scientists believed that a reaction to a rocket engine would only happen if there was resistance, such as the ground or air, to the thrust coming from the motor. In other words, they thought Newton’s Third Law of Motion — that for every action (force) in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction — simply would not apply in the vacuum of space.

Defenders claimed that Newton’s law still applied regardless of whether there is resistance. That is why all three of the pre-war English books on space flight — Lasser’s “The Conquest of Space,” Chas G. Philp’s “Stratosphere and Rocker Power” (1935) and the founder of the British Interplanetary Society P.E. Cleator’s “Rockets Through Space” (1936) — included discussions on why Newton’s Third Law would still apply.

Everyone knew that traditional airplanes, which used propellers to force air over the wings, would not work in space because there was no air. Space-flight proponents believed that a mixture of combustible fuels would produce an action causing a reaction — i.e., the rocket moving forward. In fact, these rocket “engines” were often referred to as “reaction motors.” 

Not all scientists were skeptics. Lasser’s book includes an introduction by Professor Harold H. Shelton, then a professor of physics at New York University and science editor of The New York Herald Tribune. He wrote in the introduction, “Most people do not take the rocket seriously,” adding that many think “the rocket as a mode of propulsion is ridiculous and that all rocket enthusiasts are mental defectives.”  

Although Lasser’s book was the first in English, there were scientists in other countries who preceded him.  

The Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was one of the early pioneers in astronautics, though he mostly worked and wrote in obscurity. And there was Professor Hermann Oberth (1894-1989), who taught Dr. Wernher von Braun and worked with him on the German V-2 rocket, later following von Braun to the U.S. Oberth wrote perhaps the first detailed description of rockets and space flight, in German, in “The Rocket into Planetary Space” in 1923. He also played a consulting role in Fritz Lang’s 1929 silent film classic about a flight to the moon, “Woman in the Moon.”

We should also recognize the American Professor Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) and his groundbreaking work, especially on liquid fuels. Lasser encouraged Goddard to be part of his work with the American Rocket Society, but Goddard was very private and preferred to work alone.

While U.S. publishers were reluctant to release Lasser’s book, at least one British publisher was less so: Hurst and Blackett of London. Science fiction and space science writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote in an introduction to the 2002 reprint of “The Conquest of Space” that in 1931, “the 14-year-old Arthur Clarke is walking with his beloved Aunt Nellie past a bookstore in Minehead.” He saw “The Conquest of Space” in the window and it caught his attention. Even though he had been a big reader of science fiction, “it had never occurred to him that space travel might one day be for real. So he persuaded Aunt Nellie to purchase the book, and it literally changed his life.” 

It also changed the lives of all those who live on earth and, perhaps soon, those who live on the moon. Artemis II reminds us of just how much science and our perspective can change. 

Merrill Matthews is the Texas state chair of Our Republican Legacy.  

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