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Are you saying that DARPA (a government entity) didn't establish the original internet?

Robert Goddard and Werner v. Braun were making rockets without the government.

The basic principles of guidance and cooling were found by private efforts.

The electric light bulb and the generating systems that make them glow were developed without the government.

The transistor was invented at Bell Lab, without government oversight.

Automobile and Diesel engines were invented and developed and sold without the government.

The Wright Brothers developed a working flyer with $1200 of their own money.

Langley produced three -failed- airplanes with a $50,000 grant from Congress one year before the Wrights developed a successful flyer with their own money.

and so on and so on and so on.

ruveyn

Von Braun was a German scientist whom we took over to the US following World War II.

It was v. Braun who said: "I am for the stars. But sometimes I hit London and Antwerp".

We should have hanged that nazi thug.

ruveyn

We took Von Braun because the Soviets were taking German scientists at an alarming pace. Also Von Braun designed the Saturn V rocket that got us to the moon.

We build them good in the Fatherland.

That Saturn V was useless for defense. Better the Atlas and Titan rockets.

ruveyn

For most of the 1930s, therefore, rocket R&D was removed from the thought of war; it was von Braun fulfilling his childhood dream. The team moved to Peenemünde in 1935, and as late as 3 October 1942, after a successful launch of their baby the A-4 (53 miles elevation, 118 miles downrange), von Braun was still idealistic: “Do you realize what we accomplished today? Today the spaceship has been born!” and Dornberger chimed in innocently, “This 3 October 1943 [sic] is the first day of a new era of travel, the era of space travel!” Up till now, growing Nazi intrusions had been a nuisance and irritant to the decidedly non-political team, but the successful launch suddenly switched Hitler’s attention to it. He organized a committee of overseers; von Braun and Dornberger eluded some of the intrusions with claims that the work demanded absolute secrecy, but by the end of 1943, after the British had inflicted severe damage at the test center, Hitler ordered the production underground. This become the notorious Mittelwerk production center, in which A-4 rockets (renamed V-2s by the Nazis for “vengeance weapon #2”) were built by slave labor in a last-ditch effort to safe Germany from defeat. In February 1944, Himmler, who had visited the Peenemünde center the previous summer, tried to lure von Braun’s support; when it was rebuffed, the Gestapo arrested him in the middle of the night.

Von Braun was kept in jail two weeks without any explanation as to why he had been arrested. Finally, he was hauled into before a mock trial, where the accusation was, “he did not intend the A-4 to be a weapon of war, that he had only space travel in mind ... and that he regretted its military use” (Ordway, 32). He was also accused of spying and trying to escape. In the nick of time, Dornberger entered the courtroom with a document. When the official read it, von Braun was released. What happened? Dornberger had been working since the arrest to effect his release, and after many unsuccessful attempts, persuaded the head of the Gestapo that von Braun’s was “absolutely essential” to the success of the A-4 program. Also, Albert Speer had persuaded Hitler, who grudgingly agreed, that the “secret weapon” Germany had been boasting about publicly could not proceed without its premiere rocket scientist. For six months, until the assassination attempt on Hitler (when the von Braun affair was forgotten), von Braun was in a very precarious position.

He had two choices: refuse to cooperate and be shot, or steer the circumstances he was placed in for good, with what influence he had. Who could fault his decision? He had no authority, and no power other than advice, which he used to mitigate the evils around him. For instance, when he was made aware of the “hellish” circumstances under which prisoners were forced to build rockets in underground tunnels at Mittelwerk, he realized quickly that humane arguments with the morally-bankrupt SS leaders were futile. He persuaded them with shrewd pragmatic arguments that the project could not be completed on time unless the workers were fed and given rest. Similar shrewdness is found with Hushai’s counsel to Absalom in the Bible (II Samuel 16). Because of this, some of the suffering was alleviated. Yet von Braun had no authority over the project that the Nazis had wrested from his team’s hands; he was only asked his opinion on very specific problems, and was escorted under guard at all times. On September 8, 1944, V-2s were launched against Paris and London. Von Braun later described hearing the news as the darkest day of his life. To his chagrin, the rockets worked perfectly; they just hit the wrong planet.

And it would have probably been built earlier if there weren't insane idiots who hijacked v. Braun's expertise. The Saturn V was designed for travel to the moon, and if it weren't for maniacs trying to take over the world, mankind would have probably have bases on the moon and humans setting foot on Mars by now.

1. Mars is useless except maybe an operating base for mining the asteroids.

2. Von Braun was a ranking officer in the SS.

A former member of the Nazi party, commissioned Sturmbannführer of the paramilitary SS and decorated Nazi war hero, von Braun would later be regarded as the preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th century in his role with the United States civilian space agency NASA. In his 20s and early 30s, von Braun was the central figure in Germany's rocket development program, responsible for the design and realization of the deadly V-2 combat rocket during World War II.

Von Braun was completely aware that slave labor was used in his rocket projects. As I said a bastard Nazi thug.

ruveyn

Are you saying that DARPA (a government entity) didn't establish the original internet?

Are you saying that DARPA (a government entity) didn't establish the original internet?

1. Mars is useless except maybe an operating base for mining the asteroids.

2. Von Braun was a ranking officer in the SS.

A former member of the Nazi party, commissioned Sturmbannführer of the paramilitary SS and decorated Nazi war hero, von Braun would later be regarded as the preeminent rocket engineer of the 20th century in his role with the United States civilian space agency NASA. In his 20s and early 30s, von Braun was the central figure in Germany's rocket development program, responsible for the design and realization of the deadly V-2 combat rocket during World War II.

Von Braun was completely aware that slave labor was used in his rocket projects. As I said a bastard Nazi thug.

ruveyn

Von Braun also got himself arrested for pointing out that the war was a waste of time. He was not sympathetic to the Nazis, he just wanted to go to Mars.

A lot of bad things happened in WWII to procure victory. On both sides.

But Von Braun had very little power in the scheme of things. Hitler wrote that he would be spared only so long as he was indispensable.