Boris Rauschenbach
Encyclopedia
Boris Viktorovich Rauschenbach (Russian language
: Борис Викторович Раушенбах) (18 January 1915, Petrograd
- 27 March 2001, Moscow
) was a prominent Soviet
physicist
and rocket engineer, who developed the theory and instruments for interplanetary flight control and navigation in 1955-1960s. He is also notable for his studies in Christian theology
and theory of Art
.
, tracing their history to Karl-Friedrich Rauschenbach who settled in Russia in 1766. His father, originally a Volga German
, was a manager at a leather factory in Saint Petersburg, and the family lived at the factory site until 1925. The family was bilingual; Rauschenbach said that "I feel myself a German and a Russian at the same time, a peculiar feeling... reflecting reality. We grew up in Russia, immersed in Russian traditions" ("Я чувствую себя одновременно русским и немцем - интересное ощущение... оно отражает реальность. Мы выросли в России, впитали в себя русские обычаи"). Boris attended a former Reformist Protestant school, one of two German-language schools left in 1920s. The school, plagued by ever-changing novel teaching systems, provided poor education (apart from good language practice).
hobby of this time, especially the practical studies of stability
in flying wing
gliders. Glider enthusiasts' rallies in Crimea
exposed Rauschenberg to aviation professionals; in 1937, he received a job offer from Sergey Korolyov
to join his RNII (Rocket Institute), based in Khovrino
near Moscow.
) project. Despite Korolyov's public statements on "All attention to engines!" ("В центре внимания - мотор!"), he realized a wide range of unsolved rocketry problems, notably flight stability and automated controls. Autopilots on conventional planes could be "trained" and tuned by human pilots in flight; rocket designers had to find an alternative "training" technology. Rauschenbach's first assignments on Model 212C jet cruise missile were done in TsAGI
wind tunnel
. This was followed by manned rocket plane program, cut short when NKVD
arrested Korolyov and Valentin Glushko
in summer of 1938. Until 1941, Rauschenbach worked on jet combustion stability, a program that resulted in effective and stable Rocket artillery
projectiles. After the German Invasion of 1941
, recently married Rauschenbach relocated with his institution east, to Yekaterinburg
.
was interred in a labor camp without trial, like other ethnic Germans. Half of his detachment of around a thousand inmates perished in the first winter. They were working at a brick plant near Nizhny Tagil
in Urals. Two weeks upon arrival at the camps, Rauschenbach wrote a technical letter to his former design bureau, commenting on his incompleted work. The letter was promptly received by general Viktor Bolkhovitinov
, working on a parallel rocket project, who managed to transfer Rauschenbach from hard labor to a desk job. Until 1946, inmate Rauschenbach performed calculations for Bolkhovitinov's bureau, learning advanced mathematics in the process.
In January 1946, Rauschenbach was dispatched from the camp to an exile in Nizhny Tagil
, working there for Mstislav Keldysh
calculation bureau. In 1948, Keldysh extricated Rauschenbach from exile, in what the latter called "a long and completely fantastical affair" ("длинная и совершенно фантастическая история"). Rauschenbach worked with Keldysh on jet engine
dynamics until 1954, later saying that "In my life, I worked for two bosses only, Korolyov and Keldysh, both men of high integrity, and that's important" ("Начальников в жизни у меня было только два — Королев, и Келдыш, высоконравственные люди, вот что очень важно"). His twin daughters were born in 1950 in Moscow; wife, Vera Rauschenbach, worked in State Historical Museum
in Moscow.
Rauschenbach's first major success was the lunar flyby of Luna 3
in October 1959, that returned first photographs of Moon's far side. This was followed by flight control systems for interplanetary probes to Venus, Mars
and manned orbital space flight. He was the last man to have eye-to-eye contact with Yuri Gagarin
before the first spaceman blasted off, he was on the mission control during the flight and recorded Gagarin's first technical reports after it. 1961 Soviet newspapers described his identity as Professor V. Ivanchenko. Rauschenbach also designed instruments for the Vostok 3
-Vostok 6
joint flight and the first Soyuz
spacecraft docking systems.
, which was converted to an independent Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MFTI) in 1951. Rauschenbach chaired Theoretical Mechanics department in MFTI since 1978. His course of lectures in the recent years was 'Dynamics of spaceflight'.
Rauschenbach trained the first cosmonauts in flight dynamics and spacecraft control systems, but after the death of Korolyov in 1965, he gradually stepped aside from active space program and concentrated on academic activities and his studies of art.
and human perception of flat images. This applied problem transformed into general interest in humanities: "Art and art studies, faith and religion live forever, and the man is always anxious to step further into the deep of it" ("искусство и искусствознание, вера и религия существуют вечно, и в человеке всегда живет и будет жить какое-то беспокойство, желание проникнуть как можно глубже в сущность всего этого").
Rauschenbach's first published work outside rocketry, "Spatial composition in old Russian art" (1975) and later "Spatial composition in painting" (1980, including world art) were dedicated to mathematical foundations of perspective in art. His mathematics prove the impossibility of rendering correct spatial perspective on a flat sheet. His studies of the difference between the material artwork and human perception of it indicated that perception differs with the subject of an image. Great artists deliberately distorted perspective, and the degree of distortion depends on the subject.
His theological essays, published in 1990s, concentrate on the proof of Holy Trinity. This work, as well as studies of icons, earned him credits of Russian Orthodox Church
.
In Russian:
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
: Борис Викторович Раушенбах) (18 January 1915, Petrograd
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
- 27 March 2001, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) was a prominent Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and rocket engineer, who developed the theory and instruments for interplanetary flight control and navigation in 1955-1960s. He is also notable for his studies in Christian theology
Christian theology
- Divisions of Christian theology :There are many methods of categorizing different approaches to Christian theology. For a historical analysis, see the main article on the History of Christian theology.- Sub-disciplines :...
and theory of Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
.
Biography
This article, including quotation, is based on Rauschenbach's 1997 book of autobiographic essays, "Pristrastie" (Obsession)Family roots
Boris-Ivar Rauschenbach was born to a protestant family of ethnic GermansGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
, tracing their history to Karl-Friedrich Rauschenbach who settled in Russia in 1766. His father, originally a Volga German
Volga German
The Volga Germans were ethnic Germans living along the River Volga in the region of southern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain German culture, language, traditions and churches: Lutherans, Reformed,...
, was a manager at a leather factory in Saint Petersburg, and the family lived at the factory site until 1925. The family was bilingual; Rauschenbach said that "I feel myself a German and a Russian at the same time, a peculiar feeling... reflecting reality. We grew up in Russia, immersed in Russian traditions" ("Я чувствую себя одновременно русским и немцем - интересное ощущение... оно отражает реальность. Мы выросли в России, впитали в себя русские обычаи"). Boris attended a former Reformist Protestant school, one of two German-language schools left in 1920s. The school, plagued by ever-changing novel teaching systems, provided poor education (apart from good language practice).
Education
Boris, like many young men of his time, was fascinated by flight and aviation. The only aviation-related college in Leningrad was a newly established Institute of Civil Air Fleet, later converted to a military academy. After a brief work at an aircraft plant, Rauschenbach completed this Institute (1932-1937); later he complained about its poor training quality and lack of tradition. More important was his gliderGlider (sailplane)
A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...
hobby of this time, especially the practical studies of stability
Flight dynamics
Flight dynamics is the science of air vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. The three critical flight dynamics parameters are the angles of rotation in three dimensions about the vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch, roll and yaw .Aerospace engineers develop control systems for...
in flying wing
Flying wing
A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft which has no definite fuselage, with most of the crew, payload and equipment being housed inside the main wing structure....
gliders. Glider enthusiasts' rallies in Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
exposed Rauschenberg to aviation professionals; in 1937, he received a job offer from Sergey Korolyov
Sergey Korolyov
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev ; died 14 January 1966 in Moscow, Russia) was the lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s...
to join his RNII (Rocket Institute), based in Khovrino
Khovrino District
Khovrino District is a district in Northern Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia, located along the Likhoborka River. It borders with Khimki on the west and Mikhalkovo on the south....
near Moscow.
Early studies (1937-1941)
Sergey Korolyov assigned Rauschenbach to flight control automation for his winged rocket (cruise missileCruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
) project. Despite Korolyov's public statements on "All attention to engines!" ("В центре внимания - мотор!"), he realized a wide range of unsolved rocketry problems, notably flight stability and automated controls. Autopilots on conventional planes could be "trained" and tuned by human pilots in flight; rocket designers had to find an alternative "training" technology. Rauschenbach's first assignments on Model 212C jet cruise missile were done in TsAGI
TsAGI
TsAGI is a transliteration of the Russian abbreviation for Центра́льный аэрогидродинами́ческий институ́т or "Tsentralniy Aerogidrodinamicheskiy Institut", the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute....
wind tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
. This was followed by manned rocket plane program, cut short when NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
arrested Korolyov and Valentin Glushko
Valentin Glushko
Valentin Petrovich Glushko or Valentyn Petrovych Hlushko was a Soviet engineer, and the principal Soviet designer of rocket engines during the Soviet/American Space Race.-Biography:...
in summer of 1938. Until 1941, Rauschenbach worked on jet combustion stability, a program that resulted in effective and stable Rocket artillery
Rocket artillery
Rocket artillery is a type of artillery equipped with rocket launchers instead of conventional guns or mortars.Types of rocket artillery pieces include multiple rocket launchers.-History:...
projectiles. After the German Invasion of 1941
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, recently married Rauschenbach relocated with his institution east, to Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
.
Internment (1942-1948)
In March 1942, Rauschenbach, then working on auto-targeting anti-aircraft projectiles,was interred in a labor camp without trial, like other ethnic Germans. Half of his detachment of around a thousand inmates perished in the first winter. They were working at a brick plant near Nizhny Tagil
Nizhny Tagil
Nizhny Tagil is a city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, situated east of the virtual border between Europe and Asia. Population: -History:...
in Urals. Two weeks upon arrival at the camps, Rauschenbach wrote a technical letter to his former design bureau, commenting on his incompleted work. The letter was promptly received by general Viktor Bolkhovitinov
Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov
Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov was a Soviet engineer, team-leader of the developers of the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 aircraft....
, working on a parallel rocket project, who managed to transfer Rauschenbach from hard labor to a desk job. Until 1946, inmate Rauschenbach performed calculations for Bolkhovitinov's bureau, learning advanced mathematics in the process.
In January 1946, Rauschenbach was dispatched from the camp to an exile in Nizhny Tagil
Nizhny Tagil
Nizhny Tagil is a city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, situated east of the virtual border between Europe and Asia. Population: -History:...
, working there for Mstislav Keldysh
Mstislav Keldysh
Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh was a Soviet scientist in the field of mathematics and mechanics, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences , President of the USSR Academy of Sciences , three times Hero of Socialist Labor , fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . He was one of the key figures...
calculation bureau. In 1948, Keldysh extricated Rauschenbach from exile, in what the latter called "a long and completely fantastical affair" ("длинная и совершенно фантастическая история"). Rauschenbach worked with Keldysh on jet engine
Jet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
dynamics until 1954, later saying that "In my life, I worked for two bosses only, Korolyov and Keldysh, both men of high integrity, and that's important" ("Начальников в жизни у меня было только два — Королев, и Келдыш, высоконравственные люди, вот что очень важно"). His twin daughters were born in 1950 in Moscow; wife, Vera Rauschenbach, worked in State Historical Museum
State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...
in Moscow.
Space flight control (1954-1970s)
In 1954, Keldysh allowed Rauschenbach to concentrate on space flight theory, notably orientation of a spacecraft in flight, although it had little common with Keldysh's own jobs. Next year, Rauschenbach joined the Korolyov firm. "It was not a breakup with Keldysh. Rather, my work outgrew his institute, and Keldysh himself negotiated transfer of my team to Korolyov" ("Это не был разрыв с Келдышем. Просто работы, которые я вел, уже не помещались в институте, и Келдыш сам договорился с Королевым, что я со своей “командой” перехожу к нему").Rauschenbach's first major success was the lunar flyby of Luna 3
Luna 3
The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space...
in October 1959, that returned first photographs of Moon's far side. This was followed by flight control systems for interplanetary probes to Venus, Mars
Mars probe program
The Mars program was a series of unmanned spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1973. The spacecraft were intended to explore Mars, and included flyby probes, landers and orbiters....
and manned orbital space flight. He was the last man to have eye-to-eye contact with Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
before the first spaceman blasted off, he was on the mission control during the flight and recorded Gagarin's first technical reports after it. 1961 Soviet newspapers described his identity as Professor V. Ivanchenko. Rauschenbach also designed instruments for the Vostok 3
Vostok 3
Vostok 3 was a spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights...
-Vostok 6
Vostok 6
-Backup crew:-Reserve crew:Vostok VI-Mission parameters:*Mass: *Apogee: *Perigee: *Inclination: 64.9°*Period: 87.8 minutes9090...
joint flight and the first Soyuz
Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...
spacecraft docking systems.
Rauschenbach School
Since 1948, Rauschenbach lectured in Physics and Technical Department of Moscow State UniversityMoscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, which was converted to an independent Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MFTI) in 1951. Rauschenbach chaired Theoretical Mechanics department in MFTI since 1978. His course of lectures in the recent years was 'Dynamics of spaceflight'.
Rauschenbach trained the first cosmonauts in flight dynamics and spacecraft control systems, but after the death of Korolyov in 1965, he gradually stepped aside from active space program and concentrated on academic activities and his studies of art.
Art theories and theology
Rauschenbach later linked his interest to visual art with the problems of docking spacecrafts. During docking operation, pilot could see the other spacecraft only on a TV screen. Does it render real objects good enough, wondered Rauschenbach, to bet the lives of two crews on a flat electronic image? This led him to study perspectivePerspective (graphical)
Perspective in the graphic arts, such as drawing, is an approximate representation, on a flat surface , of an image as it is seen by the eye...
and human perception of flat images. This applied problem transformed into general interest in humanities: "Art and art studies, faith and religion live forever, and the man is always anxious to step further into the deep of it" ("искусство и искусствознание, вера и религия существуют вечно, и в человеке всегда живет и будет жить какое-то беспокойство, желание проникнуть как можно глубже в сущность всего этого").
Rauschenbach's first published work outside rocketry, "Spatial composition in old Russian art" (1975) and later "Spatial composition in painting" (1980, including world art) were dedicated to mathematical foundations of perspective in art. His mathematics prove the impossibility of rendering correct spatial perspective on a flat sheet. His studies of the difference between the material artwork and human perception of it indicated that perception differs with the subject of an image. Great artists deliberately distorted perspective, and the degree of distortion depends on the subject.
His theological essays, published in 1990s, concentrate on the proof of Holy Trinity. This work, as well as studies of icons, earned him credits of Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
.
Awards
- 1960 - Lenin PrizeLenin PrizeThe Lenin Prize was one of the most prestigious awards of the USSR, presented to individuals for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was created on June 23, 1925 and was awarded until 1934. During the period from 1935 to 1956, the Lenin Prize was...
for automatic circumlunar flight - 1961 - Order of Lenin for the first manned spaceflight
- 1966 - Correspondent member, Academy of Sciences of USSRRussian Academy of SciencesThe Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
- 1986 - Member, Academy of Sciences of USSR
- 1990 - Hero of Socialist LaborHero of Socialist LaborHero of Socialist Labour was an honorary title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. It was the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and culture...
- 1994 - Demidov PrizeDemidov PrizeThe Demidov Prize was a national scientific prize in the Russian Empire awarded annually to the members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. One of the most prestigious and oldest scientific awards in the world, its traditions influenced other awards of this kind including the Nobel Prize...
for works in mechanics - AsteroidAsteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
4237 Raushenbach is named after him.
Books by Rauschenbach
In English:- Rauschenbach, Boris V., "Hermann Oberth: The Father of Space Flight 1894-1989", West Art Pub, 1994, ISBN 0914301144
- Rauschenbach, Boris V., "On My Concept of Perceptual Perspective that Accounts for Parallel and Inverted Perspective in Pictorial Art", Leonardo, Oxford, vol.16, no.1, Winter 1983,
- Rauschenbach, Boris V., "The Rocket Flight Stability Problem: A History of Misconceptions", 30th History of Rocketry and Astronautics, 1996, ISBN 0-87703-498-2
In Russian:
- Раушенбах Б.В. Вибрационное горение, М., 1961г.
- Раушенбах Б.В. Управление ориентацией в космических аппаратах, М., 1974
- Раушенбах Б.В. Системы перспективы в изобразительном искусстве. Общая теория перспективы. - М., 1986
- Раушенбах Б.В. Пространственные построения в живописи. - М., 1980
- Раушенбах Б.В. Геометрия картины и зрительное восприятие. - М., 1994, ISBN 5-352-00001-X
- Раушенбах Б.В. Герман Оберт (1894-1989) М., 1993. ISBN 5-02-006992-2
- Раушенбах Б.В. Пристрастие, - М., 1997, ISBN 5-7784-0020-9
- Раушенбах Б.В. Постскриптум (воспоминания). - М., 1999 ISBN ISBN 5-7784-0185-X
- Раушенбах Б.В. Праздные мысли. - М., 2000
See also
- Asif A. Siddiqi, "The Soviet Space Race With Apollo", Florida University Press, 2003, ISBN 0813026288