Harold Earnest Ross
From The Space Library
 Harold Ross (ca. 1953) | |
| Birth Name | Harold Earnest Ross |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Engineer, Author |
| Nationality | Britain |
| Notable Works | Project Satellite (with Wernher von Braun) |
Harry Ross was one of the pioneering members of the British Interplanetary Society. Ross was trained as an electronics engineer and remained in the BIS from 1937 until 1953.
In late 1938 Ross wrote the paper The B.I.S. Spaceship which appeared in the January 1939 issue of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. In July 1939 Ross, working with another BIS member named John Happian Edwards, delivered a paper on their proposed fire control system for the BIS lunar spacecraft.
Working alongside BIS artist Ralph Andrew Smith Ross created designs in the late 1940s for a more advanced and practical manned rocket and space craft (named Megaroc) which influenced projects like the Mercury Redstone of the 1960s.
Smith and Ross also designed a space station in 1948, similar to the one proposed by Hermann Noordung.
H.E. Ross delivered a paper to members of the British Interplanetary Society in London on November 13th 1948 in which he outlined the principles of lunar orbital rendezvous as a possible method for reaching the moon.
Ross then worked with Smith on the proposed BIS spacesuit in late 1949. It was the first spacesuit engineered by aerospace scientists specifically for use on the moon.
Ross also wrote papers on satellites for weather observation, communications and astronomy.
Ross would become a highly respected member of the early astronautics community and would co-author the 1958 book Project Satellite with Kenneth Gatland, Arthur Valentine Cleaver and Wernher von Braun.
