The history of space travel is quite old, as the first man-made spacecraft had left the Earth in 1957. After the success of the erstwhile Soviet Union, scientists’ interest in space research increased a lot. Incidentally, detailed research on space had begun much earlier. Although Moscow recorded the first successful space mission in the 1950s, preparations had been going on for a long time. Even human beings considered using space in order to take revenge in the 1920s!

Europe was yet to recover from the effects of the First World War in 1929. Powerful nations were secretly planning to attack each other at a time when the post-WWI economic depression gripped the world. In such a situation, scientists planned to use space in warfare. Hermann Julius Oberth, an Austro-Hungarian-born German Physicist and rocket pioneer of Transylvanian Saxon descent, decided to destroy enemies with the help of the Sun!

Everyone knows the technique of lighting fire by concentrating the Sun’s rays on a particular object through a magnifying glass. Magnifying glass helps to catch fire by concentrating the intense heat of the Sun. The German scientists thought to use this method in a rare first. Later, Adolf Hitler himself started planning to make a powerful weapon by using sunlight during the Second World War. It was named the Sun Gun or Heliobeam that could have destroyed not just a single enemy, but an entire city or a country.

Oberth decided to make a 100mt-wide magnifying glass and to get this huge glass placed at a specific point outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The physicist also wanted to build a space station for this purpose. As per his original plan, the sunlight would be reflected to a portion of the Earth through that Sun Gun. The job would be done only by turning the angle of the glass to a city of an enemy country. Sunlight would concentrate on that city and burn it down (due to the intense heat).

Scientists planned to make the Sun Gun way back in 1929. More than a decade later, Germany decided to implement this project (during the Second World War). The project began under the supervision of Hitler, as a group of German scientists and some Army officers started developing this devastating weapon in Hillersleben, a village and a former municipality in the Börde District in Saxony-Anhalt.

According to the plan prepared by Oberth, the space station was supposed to be built at least 8,200km above the Earth’s surface, and the magnifying glass was supposed to be spread over an area of at least 9sqkm. The physicist was confident that the glass made of sodium metal could easily heat sea water to boiling point, and destroy any city. However, the project was not a successful one as the German scientists realised that it would take at least 50-100 years to develop such a weapon!

Several Hollywood movies have been made on the basis of the concept of Sun Gun. From James Bond to Star Wars, film-makers have portrayed the destructive form of solar energy time and again in fictional movies. However, the Nazi plan did not succeed. The Sun Gun has still remained elusive because of technological issues. Else, the Planet Earth would have faced existential crisis long ago.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das