Wan Hu
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Wàn Hù (萬戶) (c. 1500) was a minor Chinese official of the Ming dynasty and perhaps 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.
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 going out of control. 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.
NASA named the Wan-Hoo crater of the Moon after him.
External links
- NASA list (http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/printerready/science/geography_items/carters/craters_wxyz.html)