Herman Potočnik Noordung and Vitanje

Contact

Spominski center Vitanje

Grajski trg 1, SI-3205 Vitanje

http://www.noordung.info

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Events abroad

Past Events

• 25 Feb 2016

  Russia Moscow Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia Moscow

  
  programme

  
  

  
  

  The opening of the Herman Potočnik Noordung memorial room, organised in cooperation with the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia Moscow,

  
  

  
  

  
  

• 1 May 2010

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  31 Oct 2010

  China Shanghai Shanghai Expo Site

  
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  Slovene Pavillion at Expo 2010 Shanghai featuring Herman Potočnik Noordung, Starck with Riko, Primož Trubar and World Book Capital Ljubljana 2010, with contributions by Oskar Kogoj, Matej Andraž Vogrinčič, and Slavoj Žižek

  
  

  
  

  
  

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Sunita Williams visiting the Herman PotoÄnik Noordung Memorial Centre Vitanje, 2009

The Herman Potočnik Noordung Memorial Centre was opened in December 2006 in advance of the 115th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Herman Potočnik Noordung (1892–1929), a rocket engineer and a space flight pioneer and a visionary who conceived the idea of a geostationary satellite.

The initiative of Dragan Živadinov (Noordung Cosmokinetic Cabinet) to put up a memorial centre that would showcase Potočnik's life and work was given a green light in the Municipality of Vitanje, a small town (today circa 860 inhabitants), where Potočnik spent his early childhood.

The memorial centre closed when the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT) opened in Vitanje in September 2012.

Herman Potočnik Noordung

A visionary with an extraordinary technological imagination and an astounding philosophy of existence, Herman Potočnik Noordung was the author of the first strategic plan for the human exploration of space, whose predictions enjoy growing confirmation with each new extra-terrestrial accomplishment in the modern era. Born in 1892 to Slovene parents in Pula, Croatia, he spent World War I as a first lieutenant, assisting in the construction of railway lines and bridges on the Soča and Piava rivers. In 1925 he completed his engineering and electro-technical studies in Vienna with the title Specialist in Rocket Technology. Years of dire economic hardship and illness coincided with his design of a futuristic rocket and his exploration of space-travel technology. Despite setbacks the first notes for a book emerged, inspired by the writings of German rocket scientist Hermann Oberth. By 1928 Noordung had completed a rough draft of all the chapters, and in 1929, shortly before his death, the book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums was published. Running 188 pages and featuring 100 of his own drawings, it discusses gravity and ways of overcoming it, looks at space technology used in everyday life, contemplates the efficiency of the rocket while warning against its possible misuse for military purposes, and envisions a geostationary satellite that would orbit the globe indefinitely with enviable precision. The concluding thought of the fourth and last segment of Potočnik's book is about the drive for nuclear and photonic technology which would make it possible to travel to nearby planets in our universe. The book considers space travel not as mere day-dreaming but as a very real technological possibility.

Programme 2006–2010

The Herman Potočnik Noordung Memorial Centre was a one-artefact-museum – Herman Potočnik Noordung's book The Problem of Space Travel (1929). The memorial room slightly resembled the interior of a space observatory. Due to lack of physical memorabilia about his life, the interior of an observatory capsule presented videos with statements of renowned historians, cosmonauts and astronauts for instance: Tatjana Nikolajevna Zhelnina, Pavel Klushantsev, Jurij Baturin, Roger Launius, Frederick I. Ordway III, and sir Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke introduced Potočnik's design of the wheel space station to Stanley Kubrick who used it (uncredited) in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969).

The programme of the Herman Potočnik Noordung Memorial Centre Vitanje was closely linked to the artistic endeavours of the Noordung Cosmokinetic Cabinet and developed by Dragan Živadinov (Merger of Art and Science), Dunja Zupančič (Postgravity Art) and Miha Turšič (Culturalisation of Space).

The memorial centre occasionally hosted astronauts (for example, Christer Fuglesang, Sunita Williams) and other prominent guests. In May and June 2009 the Herman Potočnik Noordung Memorial Centre Vitanje hosted an exhibition of Russian scientist and cosmonaut Jurij Baturin with the title Meeting with Earth.

Srečanje z Zemljo by IRENAKOVACEVIC on YouTube

Cosmonaut Jurij Baturin speaks on the opening of his exhibition Meeting With Earth (2009)

See also

• Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT)
• Noordung Cosmokinetic Cabinet
• Delak Institute

External links

• KSEVT website
• Herman Potočnik Noordung on Vesolje.net website
• Herman Potočnik Noordung blog
• Herman Potočnik on Wikipedia
• Potočnik's book The Problem of Space Travel. The Rocket Motor, The NASA History Series online (no illustrations) and on Google Books
• Municipality of Vitanje website presentation (in Slovenian)
• The KSEVT project presentation, Bevk Perović Arhitekti

Gallery

Hermann Noordung depiction of a space station habitat wheel. Hermann Potocnik (1892-1929), also known as Herman Noordung, created the first detailed technical drawings of a space station, 1929

Hermann Noordung image depicts a three-unit space station as seen from a space ship. The three units were the habitat, the machine room, and the observatory, each connected by an umbilical, 1929

Hermann Noordung space station. Treppenschacht=Stairwey. Aufzug=Elevator. Aufzugschacht=Elevator shaft. Achskörper=Axle, 1929

Dr Yuri M. Baturin - Meeting with the Earth - photo exhibition at Herman Potočnik Noordung Memorial Centre Vitanje, 2009

Photo exhibition Meeting with the Earth in Vitanje by Dr Yuri M. Baturin, Herman Potočnik Noordung Memorial Centre Vitanje, 2009

Herman Potočnik Noordung (1892–1929) was an engineer in the Austrian army who wrote an early work on spaceflight and created the first detailed technical drawings of a space station.

The exhibition Sky is black, Earth is blue, dedicated to Yuri Gagarin, prepared by the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT) team at the opening Russian Scientific and Cultural Centre, Ljubljana, 2011

The exhibition Sky is black, Earth is blue, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space, prepared by the Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies (KSEVT) team. The opening of the Russian Scientific and Cultural Centre, Ljubljana, 2011 (From left to right: Miha Turšič, Dragan Živadinov)