All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S01E02.WEBRip.x264

They were once the most
advanced buildings and structures on the planet.

The best achievements in design and construction .

Today they are abandoned,
polluted and dead.

On today's show, we aim
for the stars and find out

why did unwanted
battleship guns fire on us

gain important information about
the limits of space.

I had no idea that space
technology was something else,

as the rockets that are launched
take off and fly away.

Shooting upwards with the big cannon
does the same job.

We investigate how the
shattered remains of a secret Nazi base

got with the development of the pioneering
V2 rocket

first on the way to the new world.

People forget that the beginning of the space
program was covered by a shadow

the plan was military and not about
sending a man to the moon.

The V2 rocket was a
remarkable piece of machinery,

which appeared out of nowhere
and then attacked with deadly precision.

We investigate
a forgotten facility in the Arizona desert,

to find out if it is the real home of America's space program.

They did something that
had never been done before in this country.

We were doing science here
for the benefit of humanity.

And we reveal a strange connection to
an abandoned oil barrel

and between trying to survive in the Cold War era .

This soon led to the
encapsulation of monkeys

and to launch into space.

Abandoned Buildings

A space mission

For centuries, mankind
has been fascinated by the stars.

Many civilizations tried to
understand what could be seen from Earth.

But the truth, like the stars,
remained elusive.

Only by the 20th century had science
developed far enough,

to provide the opportunity to escape from the grip
of Earth's gravity.

One of the first space rocket programs of the 20th century

was located in Peenemünde on the German
island of Usedom.

Only a few meters away from the Baltic
Sea is hidden under pine trees

mounds of crumbling concrete and
twisted metal.

It was once the most secret military facility in Nazi Germany

Test stand number seven.

Dr. Philipp Aumann is the director of the Historical Technical Museum in Peenemünde .

He has researched the
history of these mysterious ruins.

Peenemünde was the first
official rocket project.

in Germany and around the world.

The main
theme of the ideology of the future was space exploration.

The engineers who worked here were
nationalists and soldiers

and when they created
this mighty weapon,

they had no problem with
serving Germany.

Governments were willing
to fund this program,

because they wanted to
dominate Europe militarily.

This flow of funding and focused
effort meant that

that rocket technology
developed in a very short time

Creating V2 in just two years
is a phenomenal result.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there was
a young engineer, Werner von Braun

and his experience in rocketry
was just what Germany needed.

The man who could create long-range weapons.

Werner von Braun oli
juhtiv raketiinsener.

He and his colleagues were engineers
and had a technological problem,

which they longed to solve.

He was very enthusiastic about the
possibilities of rocketry

to open for space exploration.

Nothing came of it during the war years
, but when he moved to America,

his work became a
cornerstone of the Apollo program

and that program put people
on the moon in the 60s and 70s.

Von Braun received
the full support of the German military

and with Hitler's rise to power, the
space program gained momentum.

In 1936,
construction began in Peenemünde

the world's first
missile test site.

A special
launch platform was constructed,

from where the rockets were
launched into the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea

and fished out
for analysis.

See oli exam status seven
ehk Katsestend number side.

There is a wall of sand around here.

It surrounds the entire starting point
and turns it into an arena.

The rockets were launched from here.

They fired over 300 rockets,

thinking that they are hidden by a secret
and no one will find them.

In 1936, the Peenemünde project was started ,

to develop a
completely new type of rocket

and their first rocket
was not a rocket at all.

It was a bomb. V1.

It was powered by a
pulse jet engine.

The Germans
released over 7,000 of them,

of which more than 2,000
reached London.

1942 in October
, the rocket launched successfully for the first time,

forever associated with
von Braun - V2.

Although rising to only 84 kilometers,
it was still a milestone for the future.

12 meters long
and 1.5 meters in diameter

The V2 weighed 62 tons
and carried a ton of explosives.

The V2 rocket is an
impressive weapon in itself

and is said to be the
origin of all rocket technology.

But there was
all this infrastructure around the rocket

and the facility that allowed the Germans
to do what they did.

The rocket needs to be refueled,

this propellant
needs to be prepared,

everything necessary must be delivered,
everything must be monitored

and make this rocket launch at
all.

But Hitler was not interested
in space exploration,

he needed weapons.

The order was given to send the V2s in
a deadly rain upon the Allies,

but rockets were
far from perfect weapons.

The rockets did not work properly

when first used, this
weapon system was far from ready.

All testing
and operation of the rocket

accompanied by explosions and breakdowns.

During the development and testing of the missile,
Germany was at war with the Allies.

So while the V2 wasn't used for a
cause that could be praised,

the engineering behind it was
thorough and very impressive.

1944
a historic start took place on the seventh test stand

and the vertically launched
V2 entered space.

Traveling at four times the speed of sound,

von Braun's rockets soon
screamed at the people of London and Antwerp.

However, despite the missile's
powerful destructive power,

it was not enough to
turn the war in the Nazis' favor.

Hitler was taken in by miracle weapons
, and all the money was spent on them.

It benefited
both the US and the Allies,

because there was not enough money to build tanks
and infrastructures,

bicycles
were ridden and there was nothing modern on the battlefield

and therein was the irony of the matter.

After all, history shows

that the Nazis were
thoroughly defeated by the end of World War II

and V2 launch sites, such as
Test Stand Seven, were destroyed.

But the technology lived on as
scientists like von Braun

started
working for the Americans, taking secret missile plans with them.

Abandoned Buildings

A space mission

Abandoned Buildings

A space mission

Alamogordo in the
middle of the US military's White Sands Proving Ground

another V2 launch site is located.

This is launch complex number 33.

This 22 meter long structure
stands abandoned in the desert

and its beams have been
eroded by flying sand for decades.

How did White Sands become the place where
America's road to the stars began?

At the beginning of the space program

there were no grand plans
like sending a man to the moon,

the program was military. Rockets
were sent vertically into space

and became interested and studied
how they come down,

to understand how this information
could be used to attack the enemy

this was the beginning of the space program.

At the end of World War II, there
was a group of visionaries,

who had become clear
that the key to future success is knowledge,

knowledge is
the key to survival in a nuclear world

and backwardness in missile
or nuclear technology

can mean total defeat.

White Sands made history,

when on July 16, 1945
the very first nuclear bomb was tested here .

Just a week earlier,
a facility had been created on 7,770 square kilometers,

which was then called the
White Sands Test Site.

When comparing the V2 to
America's first rocket design,

then the V2 was technologically
very far ahead.

At that time, our rocket could
carry about 15 kg of payload

and take it to a height of 100-110 km
into the atmosphere.

The V2 could lift 900 kilograms to
a height of 160 kilometers.

Wagons with missile parts arrived at White Sands

and dozens of scientists
who had led.

Germany's V2 program.

The ultimate secret of Nazi Germany - the
deadly rocket bomb V2

assembled for testing by US engineers .

White Sandsi polügoonil
New Mexicos Las Cruceses

an ingenious lifting arrow raises
14 m of death and destruction,

which
essentially compete with the atomic bomb.

But the most important part of the V2
program that arrived,

was not a rocket detail, but
the father of the V2, Werner von Braun.

But was the creator of Hitler's revenge weapon the right man for the job?

Werner von Braun led
the German rocket program.

Or in other words: how to shoot
other cities on Earth?

When he switched to the US side,

he gave their program an
incredible boost.

Without him, it would have
taken them decades.

Without him, they would
n't have gotten anywhere.

I don't think von Braun
was an ardent Nazi,

he created the V2 because he was the
man who invented rockets.

America had everything it needed for a successful missile program .

They had rockets to learn from,
to rebuild,

their engineers could
study and analyze them

and they had
experienced German engineers.

The experience of the German V2 program
showed that

that the technology was
far from perfect.

As a result,
the US military constructed an observation tower,

where you could safely watch
every start.

The building was covered with
8 meters of concrete

and withstood a V2 explosion at a distance of 90 meters

or a collision with a V2 falling from a height of 160 kilometers .

This building was built
because of the power of V2

the rocket carried about
8600 kg of fuel,

which is extremely explosive.

Failed to release a pair of V2,

something ignited one tank
and the other tank exploded

and this explosion
was colossal.

To protect people, the room had
reinforced walls 3 meters thick.

The presence of people in space was essential for the success of the V2 launch .

There were management experts,
control and combustion experts,

the facility's military superiors.

During the starts, it was located in this room

the brain trust of the entire V2 program.

The rocket takes off!

At first it seemed that the military
was right to expect disaster.

America's first V2,
launched in 1946. in April,

rose to a height of only 5.6 kilometers
and then turned into a ball of fire.

Everyone was looking forward to
the next launch a few weeks later

and this time the rocket climbed
to a height of 144 kilometers

and then fell
56 kilometers away.

An Air Force film
shows a missile in flight

and then the
flight camera automatically takes over.

The huge rocket leaves the Earth behind
at a speed of 1.2 kilometers per second.

The rotation of the rocket causes
the Earth to spin in front of the lens

and the camera films the Earth from
an altitude of 104 kilometers.

The horizon is
1158 kilometers away

and the curvature of the Earth is
amazingly apparent on film.

It was the first successful launch of a large
rocket from American soil,

which pushed the United States into
the space age.

I would have liked to have seen those
first launches of the V2 from the White Sands base.

For me it was a time of great unknown
and great excitement.

I can't imagine how
engineers and scientists like me felt,

who touched space with these amazing
rockets.

We wanted to see the stars and planets
without Earth's atmosphere interfering.

As the experiments became
more and more complex,

it was clear that the
systems of the 33rd launch site could not cope with them.

A completely new structure had to be created for the V2 launches .

It soon became a
standard fixture at all launch sites.

For the first V2 flights, the
rocket was delivered by Meillerwagen,

with the original German transport vehicle.

It was driven up onto the launch pad

and by means of a pair of small ladders it was
prepared and fueled,

instruments were placed on
top of the rocket.

The problem was
that by 1947 they had changed

instruments became more complex,
their installation took longer.

It became clear that
something stronger was needed.

In 1947,
a gantry crane was delivered from California.

It could move around on rails,
place platforms,

to do everything necessary at the rocket
and when everything was done,

the platforms were raised, the crane
moved away, and the rocket sent off.

But White Sands didn't
just boost rocketry,

it was also the first place from which
living things were sent into the atmosphere.

Live monkeys.

Testing of V2 rockets

to radiation
in space developed over time.

In the beginning there were simple things
like an ant or a grain of corn,

to see the effect of
cosmic radiation.

However, this soon led to the monkeys
being put in a capsule

and to launch into space.

Today's animal rights activists
would surely be out of their minds,

but back then nobody cared,
nobody knew.

The problem was that in those
distant times monkeys did not survive,

the parachutes that were supposed
to bring the vehicle down never worked.

Abandoned Buildings

A space mission

Abandoned Buildings

A space mission

By the early 1950s, White Sands
had made great strides

and initiated
the further development of space exploration.

The successful V2s had exhausted themselves,

but the engineers and scientists of the 33rd launch complex
could be proud.

These first missiles from the White Sands base

has been overshadowed by the phenomenal success of the Apollo missions ,

however, these early projects
were extremely important.

After the end of the V2 program
there was an effort,

which ended with the
Soviets winning the space rally.

In my opinion, the most
important thing was the novelty of the whole thing.

They did something that
had never been done before in this country.

We were doing
science for humanity there

and I think that's what made
scientists work hard.

V2 may have failed as a weapon,

but it triumphed
as the first spacecraft.

No more rockets were built in places like White Sands ,

but at the Barcroft Research Station in the White Mountains of California

there were also experiments with monkeys.

They wanted to see how living things could
withstand space travel.

Picture the picture: it's the 60s, the
sexual revolution.

How many Americans knew

that the monkeys were taken to a mountain 4.2 km high
and experimented on,

to get an idea of how
to start a space program?

If they had known,
they would have been horrified.

The use of animals was very necessary
to send humans into space.

Such experiments
could not be avoided.

And, of course,
they were constantly accompanied by deaths.

Of course , it wouldn't have been
so easy for humans,

it could have
ended the entire space program.

In the early 1950s, Barcroft Station was
a classified research facility for the US Navy.

When the decision
to close it was made,

the facility was taken over by
the University of California.

With NASA's help, Barcroft began to play
an important role in the space program,

using a
unique chimpanzee colony.

University historian Daniel Pritchett
revealed their forgotten story.

It was built in 1951. and started
collecting meteorological data,

then they started
breeding laboratory animals,

began to study the
physiology of chimpanzees,

because it was planned to send
chimpanzees into space before humans.

It was necessary to understand the physiology of chimpanzees
and create tracking devices,

so that the health and condition of chimpanzees in space can be monitored .

The Saga of Ham: This chimpanzee has
been selected and thoroughly studied

and patiently taught
to help mankind understand,

can living things
survive space travel.

Doing things with animals on Earth
can provide valuable information,

when simulating the conditions
as they might be in space.

Much can be learned from controlled experiments on Earth

and there is no need to send out expensive
missiles that may not return.

If you want to test high acceleration,
you can do it with animals.

If you want to test a hard landing,
you do it with animals.

Although there was knowledge of
people at high altitudes,

did not know how
the human body behaves under conditions of weightlessness.

Such experiments can be
carried out on animals

and of course this should be
done before human trials.

This is an authentic relic
from the early 60s,

from the time we trained

chimpanzees and macaques
to go into space.

It is a 200 liter drum
with a small plexiglass seat

and this is a space capsule simulator.

It is insulated from the inside,
it is equipped with catheters,

which were surgically
implanted in animals

and within it they got used to
what they had to do in space.

The chimpanzee was sealed in a capsule

and flown by helicopter to
Barcroft Station.

This was the beginning of a long series of experiments,

where their response to
stress and changes in air pressure was recorded.

We are on the
first floor of Barcroft station.

In the 60s, there were
animal colonies on the first floor,

here were chimpanzees and macaques,

here
the physiology of these animals was studied

and telemetry equipment was developed

to monitor their bodies and
health.

Here, the effect of altitude on
these animals was investigated.

Here they were trained, practiced
sitting on small chairs,

because
they had little space in the space capsules.

The American approach was
that animals can be trained to do things,

what people can do in space -
push buttons, pull levers, etc

and thus data can be collected
to help design the cabin,

which can eventually be used to
send humans into space.

Different countries sent
different animals.

Sometimes for obvious reasons,
sometimes not so obvious.

If you know that the animal will not come back,
you can send, for example, a mouse.

But if you want to experiment
with bigger animals too,

then the Russians sent the dog Laika into space with Sputnik 2 .

And they had such an order
that the dogs were taken from the street.

The idea was to take
animals that lived in harsh conditions

they have received little food and water
and are therefore better suited

for an experiment
that wanted to be tested.

Can simulate
temperature changes,

can create heavy
loads with a centrifuge, but not everything can be done.

We are still doing experiments on
the International Space Station today.

Astronauts are
guinea pigs in this sense.

We try to understand how
weightlessness affects the human body,

how cosmic radiation affects us .

We are still trying to understand
many of these things.

Abandoned Buildings

A space mission

Abandoned Buildings

A space mission

Chimpanzees were one thing,
but what about human astronauts?

Since the start of V2
launch tests in New Mexico

scientists tried to find out
if manned flights were possible.

This 9 m high apparatus provides
information about the human reaction

to the effects of height change, weight and
vertical acceleration.

The physical and physiological effects of prolonged vibration are investigated

and the breathing apparatus measures the response of the lungs
and other organs.

In 1961, Soviet
Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth on Vostok 1

and became the
first person in space.

In the USA, the need was immediately felt to
compete with Nsvl's achievement.

But they were
n't just competing in space.

One of the US Army's largest
research facilities

is the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

In the middle of the desert stands
a lonely big cannon.

This is the record-breaking
Harp super cannon,

which was forgotten for decades

and its important role in space exploration is only now being revealed .

I had no idea
that space technology

wasn't just about sending state-of-the-art
rockets into space.

It wasn't like that.
Centuries-old technology was also used :

cannon. Take a huge charge
and send it straight up.

Using a cannon to launch something into orbit
is not a stupid idea.

In fact, it's a cheap and surefire way to
launch something into orbit.

The cannon was an important part of the series of tests that took place in the 60s ,

which was called the High Altitude
Research Project, or Harp.

The project was the brainchild of ballistics
expert Gerald Bull

and its goal was to make
spaceflight a reality.

In my opinion, Dr. Gerald Bull
was first and foremost a genius.

As both an engineer and a scientist
, he was constantly experimenting.

When he began to think about
the technology of launching a cannon into orbit,

many made
Jules Verne jokes about him,

others said that even if it
could be done it would be of no use,

unless you have
some kind of telemetry kit to send data to Earth.

But Bull proved them wrong.

He thought that supercannons could be used to
get into space cheaply

and a lot was learned with the help of this program .

The target of Bull's cannon
was the ionosphere.

This layer of electrically charged air

plays an important part in the
possibility of ultra-long distances

and can affect the flight of spacecraft leaving Earth .

At a time when rockets were very expensive
and extremely unreliable,

Bull believed that the information from the sensors released by his cannons
was cheaper.

If you want to know the space
conditions before launching a rocket,

you put up cheap sensors
and find out what's going on

right where you
're going to launch the big rocket

and you will definitely get
very valuable data.

The Bulli Harp cannon project
paid off in many ways.

Yes, of course, you can collect
information about the upper atmosphere.

But you also gain a
strategic military advantage,

as you will learn how to
launch missiles at your enemy

and that was what
interested them the most.

Since it was the dawn of the space age,
both technology choices were important.

Technology emerged from World War II
and found use in new frontiers.

It was not known exactly
what would come out of it.

In this way, it makes more sense to finance
two outputs at the same time

both rockets
and large cannons.

The Harp Cannon demonstrates Bull's genius
for designing large cannons.

has researched the
history and construction of this record-breaking weapon.

The program received two 400 mm gun barrels from the Navy .

One was 21 meters long,
the other about 15 meters long.

They were welded together in the middle
and supported by the superstructure.

The two pieces are welded together here
where the big bolts are.

The superstructure was built to
make the tube more rigid,

the pieces would not come loose and it
would be stronger in a vertical position,

as the cannon may move a little while firing

and you don't want
the tube to sag.

Bull's cannon had to have
a special design in its foot,

which would allow it to fire
at an 85 degree angle.

The first cannon was built
in 1963. on the island of Barbados.

Because it was
north of the equator,

could launch the rockets into the atmosphere beautifully
and later pick them up from the sea.

Local historian Trevor Marshall is
aware of the reactions in Barbados

to the huge cannon
that is still rusting on the beach.

From 1962 to the 70s

this cannon was fired
more than 2000 times.

Its sound was quite loud, the
bang was loud.

Barbadians also felt the
bang on the other side of the island.

The aftershocks were terrible.

Houses shook on their foundations,
cracks appeared in some houses.

Barbadians felt
that this was not good for the island,

although it had seemed to
raise Barbados

into the stratosphere of world prestige.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to send something into space .

It can also be done more easily -
for example with the Harp cannon.

This almost primitive technology

had just become powerful enough,

to send the rocket
178 kilometers straight up.

While the big cannon has its pros,
it also has its downside.

It takes a very high acceleration to send something high up quickly

and as experienced, the object may not be able
to withstand this acceleration.

And then there's the mass problem,

since very heavy things cannot be sent out using this technique ,

so
only small objects can be launched.

To bring information from the upper atmosphere,

Bull designed a revolutionary
javelin-shaped rocket.

The rocket, called the Martlet, took
advantage of a World War II invention

which was used for a high-speed
anti-tank missile - a sleeve.

The martlet had a streamlined shape,
it looked like an arrow with fins.

The purpose of the sleeve was to fill
the void inside the tube.

In this case, plywood was used,
each third was called a pedal.

The gases pushed it out of the tube
and the pedals fell off.

What remained was a streamlined shape with
a telemetry package in its nose

and different materials could be placed in the stern according to the purpose of the experiment .

It was a detailed technique
and what I like about it,

how modern technology was added to primitive technology ,

to achieve something record-breaking by sending the rocket high .

It took a tremendous amount of thrust to send the Martlet into the ionosphere .

Each launch was achieved with enormous
forces in the Harp cannon.

You can see the size of this opening
and the screws to lock it.

Its very length indicates
that the mass of its opening

had to deal with the
charges and pressures of firing.

During the tests, the pressure
could reach 3400 atmospheres.

You have to think about the materials,

upon the necessary explosion to obtain the required thrust ,

one must make sure that the recoil
does not tear the cannon to pieces

and that you have a pipe long enough
to send something like that up high.

There is a lot to think about

and it takes a
lot of thought and construction to achieve it,

but deep down, this technique is simple
and I love it.

After the success in Barbados

the second Harp was established
at the Yuma proving ground of the US military

and there Gerald Bull set
a record that stands to this day.

On November 18, 1966

the Arizona cannon gave the Martlet
a speed of 2.1 kilometers per second

and it rose 178 kilometers
into space.

But today it sits greased and ready to
fire in the Arizona desert,

so when the time comes it
can aim for the stars again.

Even now life at high altitudes is being studied at Barcroft Station ,

but the space program using chimpanzees
has long since been abandoned.

Rocket technology has left
the V2 far behind

and the historic Test Stand 7 and
Launch Complex 33 have been abandoned.

Space exploration now has
new goals.

The current focus in space is
cost reduction

and we use space
every day in so many ways,

that it helps to deal with it.

Space X keeps costs down with
reusable rockets.

The future of space exploration may depend

from investing in technologies
we don't know anything about yet.

However, it can also depend
on something simpler,

perhaps even from something as
primitive as the Harp cannon.

I'm not saying that man will be sent
to Mars with a cannon, it won't happen,

but when it is necessary to send
payloads and objects into orbit,

which is assembled there
to be sent further

and if there is a need to explore space
more than we have done,

and it makes them happy
when they get together

a combination of technology
and the technical era,

to give us something
that currently does not exist.