What kind of engineers do all this?

[Lacanau]

Hi all,

I was wondering about all the people that worked at NASA when it all began. What kind of engineers did NASA employ to begin the Gemini missions?
I can think of a few, Mechanical, Structural, Electrical, Aeronautical. Are there any others that have abilities that could have helped in the construction and running of the first missions?

Thanks!

 

[N_Molson]

At the beginning there was the Wherner Von Braun team. They were german scientists & engineers really enthusiast for rocketry since before the war (the man that is considered to have "created" rocketry around 1890-1900 is [ame="http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Tsiolkovski"]Constantin Tsiolkovsky[/ame], a russian primary school teacher), and that worked for the Nazis during the WWII (were they Nazis or not, that's a debate for the Basement). Anyways they were given US citizenship provided they worked on an ICBM program (Thor, Redstone, Atlas rockets...).

So at first you had the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Advisory_Committee_for_Aeronautics"]NACA[/ame] since the first Goddard works (US father of rocketry). Then, after the WWII, Wherner's team bring their knowledge about V2s (by far the most advanced rocket of the era), in order to develop an ICBM program. Then there was Sputnik (1957) and the space race (there were no solid projects for Mercury/Gemini before that)...

I guess that a lot of engineers learned "on the pile", getting precious experience from Von Braun team and developping their own knowledge and ideas. At first it was very experimental, unmanned launches were "trial & error", very far from the way it is done nowadays (computer simulations, checks & rechecks, redundant systems etc...)

So I guess the engineers were much more "generalists" back then. Nowadays, it is very specialized, each team working on a very specific aspect. And about the first rockets, it was almost "amateur rocketry scaled up", the rate of failure was high (even for the original V2).

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Nowadays, NASA and the US Aerospace industry that supports it utilize a massive array of engineers, ranging from acoustics to non-destructive testing, combustion stability to ergonomics. Back then? Again, a broad spectrum, but most of them were MEs, EEs, CEs, etc. The specialty degrees arose from hard learned lessons of the early days.

 

[Urwumpe]

It should be noted that the differences are mostly of a formal nature - back then, you didn't have such many specialist degrees for an engineer, but still, every engineer had been a specialist for his field, who did spend a lot of time researching what became part of lectures later. You just started later in specializing, because the special topic was from an education point of view still unknown. Engineers did sure know a lot already about rockets, but not enough about how to teach the knowledge.

At the V-2 team for example, there was only one engineer who was understanding the nature of combustion chamber physics - others needed years later to get to his level of specialization.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Back then there were only a few major engineering disciplines, but engineers could be specialists in certain areas. Mechanical engineers could work in fluid dynamics, controls, other areas outside of nuts and bolts structural engineering. They would also work in teams with electrical or chemical engineers. Applied physicists and mathematicians were in the mix as well.

There were also "engineers" that didn't have degrees but had the know-how and understanding of certain things, through years of related experience. Today they would be called technicians. The definition of engineer did not necessarily imply a college degree back then. Unfortunately experience counts for very little in most companies today - a kid right out of school with a diploma trumps a person doing the same job with 20 years of experience. Stupid decisions made by bean counters.

Historically "engineers" were just that, people who operated and maintained engines and powerplants. It was a more vocational type of engineer, more hands on, and in many ways these engineers understood things better than the degreed engineers. In Massachusetts and other states engineering licenses are required for boilers and powerplant operators. They do not need college engineering degrees but having a degree counts partially toward experience toward these licenses.

 

[N_Molson]

Here's a nice litte compilation of Thor rocket failures, it gives an idea : :lol:

Rebuilding launch pads was a common activity back then...

 

[Wayland]

Practical Engineers

My father always referred to the engineers that learned their specialty "on the job" as "practical" engineers, and respected them highly.