The Problem of Space Travel

Herman Potocnik Noordung’s ‘Inhabitable Wheel’.

In 1929, an Austro-Hungarian - Slovene called Herman Potocnik published a book under the pseudonym of ‘Noordung’. The book was Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums (The Problem of Space Travel). It was the first book to devote most of its pages to space stations. Noordung proposed the Wohnrad (inhabitable wheel) design. This strongly influenced the work of technicians and researchers, as well as of science fiction authors. It inspired many space station designs during the 1950s, even the one appearing in 2001 - A Space Odyssey.