|
Author
|
Topic: Heinlein's 1945 NAMC memo on atomic bombs and space rockets
|
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 07-02-2007 04:45 PM
   
Dwayne Day has written about a fascinating memo penned in 1945 by Robert Heinlein for the Naval Air Material Center (NAMC), where he worked as a civil engineer: "We must ride the lightning": Robert Heinlein and American spaceflight (The Space Review). As Day writes, quote:
...it is worth looking at a rather amazing memo that Heinlein wrote in 1945 advocating a rigorous American missile and space program. Heinlein wrote it soon after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. He argued that the bomb had changed the world and he believed that intercontinental rockets would also have a major effect on warfare. He wanted the United States to get out in front of this new development like it had with the bomb.There are many interesting aspects to the memo, but what is unique about it is that it occupies a point precisely in the middle of the overlap between science fiction and current reality.
Heinlein's role as a space visionary has been evoked by groups ranging from the early L5 Society to modern NewSpace advocates, but his contributions to the space program as it exists is a subject that merits discussion, as Day concludes. |
Harry Bennett
Member Posts: 47
From: St. Pete, FL USA
Registered: May 2007
|
posted 07-02-2007 11:20 PM
Very interesting from the little bit I read.
I bookmarked it so I can read when I'm more alert and able to understand it better.
14 hr work days will wear you out! |
Dwayne Day
Member Posts: 532
From:
Registered: Feb 2004
|
posted 07-03-2007 07:50 AM
I'll confess that I wrote it rather hastily on Saturday morning after returning home at midnight on Friday after a business trip to JPL, so my conclusions and assessment may be a little unformed. (I actually bumped another essay that I had written on the Heinlein movie Project Moonbase on which I had spent a lot more effort.)I've had the memo for several months now, but only received permission to use it on Friday (while I was flying back from LA). I have limited experience with private archives and somebody suggested to me that I needed to obtain permission because the memo is essentially copyrighted; permission did not arrive until late. It's a neat little memo, and I am wary of over-interpreting it. I'm only a Heinlein dilettante, and not an expert on his work. But I do believe that he has been enormously influential on the American spaceflight movement. My question is whether that influence has been good or bad. I think it has been both. I thought that this particular memo was interesting because it is a case where he clearly tried to _directly_ influence policy, as a government employee, rather than as a citizen or writer. He later did things like take out newspaper ads and other efforts intended to influence policy as a citizen through the democratic process. The Heinlein Centennial symposium is this weekend in Kansas City, and I intend to be there trying to learn more. |
kr4mula
Member Posts: 642
From: Cinci, OH
Registered: Mar 2006
|
posted 07-03-2007 10:15 AM
As a long-time Heinlein fan, I found this to be a great read - thanks.But on your point about needing permission to use the memo. I'm having a failure of imagination in seeing how a memo written by a government employee for a government agency could in any way be "copyrighted," just because someone happens to hold the copy you used in their private archives. But again, maybe I'm missing something here. Cheers, Kevin |
Dwayne Day
Member Posts: 532
From:
Registered: Feb 2004
|
posted 07-03-2007 02:09 PM
quote:
Originally posted by kr4mula:
As a long-time Heinlein fan, I found this to be a great read - thanks.But on your point about needing permission to use the memo. I'm having a failure of imagination in seeing how a memo written by a government employee for a government agency could in any way be "copyrighted," just because someone happens to hold the copy you used in their private archives. But again, maybe I'm missing something here.
Thank you. You're almost certainly right about the copyright issue. However, I had no desire to piss off the source of the memo, nor the people at the Heinlein archives, all of whom have been most gracious. I've found that it's better to be diplomatic in these situations. (It's an old game theory strategy: on your first move cooperate--i.e. be polite. After that, do whatever the other side does.)
|
kr4mula
Member Posts: 642
From: Cinci, OH
Registered: Mar 2006
|
posted 07-05-2007 02:29 PM
I agree that asking them as a courtesy keeps you in their good graces and facilitates future access - always good things at any archives. But the thought that you were required to do so holds all sorts of implications contrary to the writing of history and the use of government records (a very timely topic in some circles!). Thanks for clearing it up.Cheers, Kevin |
Dwayne Day
Member Posts: 532
From:
Registered: Feb 2004
|
posted 07-05-2007 05:03 PM
Don't over-interpret "received permission." I didn't _need_ permission in a legal sense. I asked for it as a courtesy. Like I said, everybody's been very nice. I've had my own experience with researchers who demand things from everybody, and I don't want to be like that. |
advertisement