Disney’s
“Man in Space”
“In our modern world, everywhere we look we see the
influence that science has upon our daily lives.” In 1955 the Disneyland television episode “Man in
Space” opened with these words spoken by Walt Disney himself. This show was the
first of a series of Tomorrowland
programs dedicated to rocket ships and space travel. As described in the
episode, rockets date back to ancient China but their practical use for
scientific exploration was relatively new. In the United States this effort was
started by Robert Goddard in the 1920’s. The development of the German V2
rocket during the Second World War and the acquisition of that technology by the
Allies at the end of the war set the stage for the next logical step: launching
a manned rocket into outer space.
The episode starts with the history of rocketry and then
goes into the technological and physiological challenges of space travel. Many
physics principles are prominently featured, starting with the Action /
Reaction Principle. A rocket uses this principle for propulsion by burning fuel
and oxygen creating a high-speed plume of gas that is ejected from the motor.
This action results in a reaction that propels the rocket forward, as
illustrated in this screen capture from the episode.
The Action / Reaction principle for rocket propulsion was
not always well-known. For example, a New
York Times editorial (January 13, 1920) said of Goddard’s proposal for
using rockets to travel into space, “[A]fter the rocket quits our air and
really starts on its longer journey, its flight would be neither accelerated
nor maintained by the explosion of the charges it then might have left. To
claim that it would be is to deny a fundamental law of dynamics…” The editors
of the Times shared the common
misconception that rocket motors were like airplane propellers in that they
needed something to “push against” so they could not work in the vacuum of
space.
Centrifugal force is another important physics concept
discussed in the episode. The narrator explains how an orbit is maintained when
the downward pull of gravity is balanced by the outward pull of the centrifugal
force. If the spaceship travels too slow then gravity will pull it into the
atmosphere, which then slows it further. But if the spaceship travels too fast
then the centrifugal force will pull it out of orbit and into deep space.
Another example of centrifugal force is its use in training astronauts to
withstand extreme acceleration, such as during lift-off, by spinning them in a
human centrifuge.
Weightless conditions are presented in the episode as one of
the major physiological and psychological challenges for astronauts. Our bodies
naturally sense balance so the human mind becomes disoriented while weightless
since that is a constant state of free fall. The episode mentions other
challenges, such as drinking while in orbit. Without gravity it is not possible
to pour a liquid into your mouth so drinking can only be done using straws. An
anachronistic element from the episode is the discussion of the difficulties encountered
when smoking while weightless (see screen shot below).
The “Man in Space” episode does not discuss the current
events of 1955 but viewers were certainly well-aware of the underlying political
and social aspects of the so-called “Space Race.” Shortly after the end of WWII
the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a “Cold War.” As the
world’s two superpowers they had active space programs, both for military and
propaganda purposes. In 1957 the USSR launched Sputnik, the first artificial
satellite, and in 1961 the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human
in space. After initially being behind in the Space Race the US accelerated
their program. In a speech to Congress in 1961 President Kennedy said, “this
nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out,
of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” The Apollo
11 mission completed this goal in 1969 and after that both the US and the USSR
de-emphasized space travel as a national priority.
It is interesting to compare the predictions for space
travel made in 1955 with the progress made since that time. The “Man in Space”
episode described a multistage rocket carrying a “space plane” that when it
returned to Earth would land on an airstrip. This design resembles the Space
Shuttle, which was first launched in 1981 and flew for NASA for thirty years. The episode was immensely popular (nominated
for an Oscar) and, more importantly, it was highly influential. The Disney
animators gave the viewing audience a realistic glimpse into the future and in
doing so they engaged the imagination of many children who would go on to become
the scientists and engineers of the space program.
