Wan Hu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wàn Hǔ or Wàn Hù (萬虎 or 萬戶) (c. 1500) was a minor Chinese official of the Ming dynasty and perhaps (though not likely) the world's first astronaut.
According to legend, early in the 16th century, Wan decided to take advantage of China's advanced rocket and fireworks technology to launch himself into outer space.
He had a chair built with forty-seven rockets attached. On the day of lift-off, Wan, splendidly attired, climbed into his rocket chair and forty seven servants lit the fuses and then hastily ran for cover. There was a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared, Wan and the chair were gone.
He was never seen again.
Another legend describes a sled like vehicle with kites attached.
The Discovery Channel's show "MythBusters" attempted to recreate Wan Hu's flight using materials that would have been available to him. The chair exploded on the launch pad, with the crash test dummy sitting in it suffering severe burns. An attempt was also made using a chair with modern rockets attached, but it barely made it off the ground before turning upside-down and slamming into the earth. It was determined that small rockets that can be strapped to a chair cannot provide enough thrust to significantly lift the chair, let alone achieve escape velocity. Bottom line, myth busted (he couldn't have really gone into space with 47 rockets!).
NASA named the Wan-Hoo crater of the Moon after him.
[edit] The Origin of Wan Hu
The legend of Wan Hu was not recorded in any Chinese history book. It was first mentioned in print in Rockets and Jets written by American author Herbert S. Zim in 1945. It was then introduced into China via translation, and that is why the exact Chinese name that this legendary person had (萬虎 or 萬戶) as mentioned above could not be determined just based on the pronunciation. The story is more of an urban legend invented a half century ago rather than a part of the Chinese historical record.
In a show about inventions on Chinese Central Television called Tian Gong Kai Wu, Wan Hu was said to be able to lift himself only by a foot using rockets. In most Chinese versions of Wan Hu's story, he is described as an unfortunate pioneer of space travel who was burnt to death because of the explosion caused by the rockets, instead of being the first astronaut in history. These stories fit perfectly with the result of the MythBusters' experiment.
