Richard van der Riet Woolley

Infobox Scientist
name = Richard van der Riet Woolley

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birth_date = birth date|1906|04|24
birth_place = Weymouth, Dorset, England
death_date = death date and age|1986|12|24|1906|04|24
death_place = Somerset West, South Africa
nationality = United Kingdom
field = Astronomy
work_institutions =
alma_mater = University of Cape Town
University of Cambridge
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = Astronomer Royal
influences =
influenced =
prizes =
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Richard van der Riet Woolley (April 24 1906 – December 24 1986) [GRO Register of Births: JUN 1906 5a 296 WEYMOUTH - Richard Van der Riet Woolley] was an English astronomer who became Astronomer Royal. His mother's maiden name was Van der Riet.

Woolley was born in Weymouth, Dorset, and moved with his parents to South Africa upon their retirement. There he attended and received his degree from the University of Cape Town. Woolley returned to the United Kingdom and studied at University of Cambridge. After two years at Mount Wilson Observatory he again returned to the United Kingdom in 1931.

Woolley specialized in solar astronomy and in 1939 he was appointed director of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory in Canberra, Australia. He later returned to the United Kingdom to take up his appointment as Astronomer Royal from 1956 to 1971. He moved the Royal Greenwich Observatory from Greenwich to Herstmonceux.

Woolley won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1971. From 1972 to 1976 he was director of the new South African Astronomical Observatory. He retired in the late 1970s and spent most of his retirement in South Africa.

Woolley is known for his initial disbelief in the practicalities of space flight. In a 1936 book review of P.E. Cleator's "Rockets Through Space", [cite book | last=Cleator | first=P.E. | title=Rockets Through Space; or, The Dawn of Interplanetary Travel | location=London | publisher=G.Allen & Unwin, ltd. | year=1936 | oclc=123158265] Woolley wrote::

"The whole procedure [of shooting rockets into space] ...presents difficulties of so fundamental a nature, that we are forced to dismiss the notion as essentially impracticable, in spite of the author's insistent appeal to put aside prejudice and to recollect the supposed impossibility of heavier-than-air flight before it was actually accomplished" [cite journal | last=Woolley | first=Richard | title=Book Review: "Rockets in Space", by P.E. Cleator | journal=Nature | volume=137 | issue=3463 | pages=417–470 | doi= | month=March | year=1936 | url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v137/n3463/index.html#misc1 | accessdate=2008-02-24 | format=dead link|date=June 2008 – ^{[http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3AWoolley+intitle%3ABook+Review%3A+%27%27Rockets+in+Space%27%27%2C+by+P.E.+Cleator&as_publication=Nature&as_ylo=1936&as_yhi=1936&btnG=Search Scholar search]} ]

On appointment as Astronomer Royal, he reiterated his long-held view that "space travel is utter bilge". Speaking to "Time" in 1956, Woolley noted:

"It's utter bilge. I don't think anybody will ever put up enough money to do such a thing . . . What good would it do us? If we spent the same amount of money on preparing first-class astronomical equipment we would learn much more about the universe . . . It is all rather rot" [cite news | author=Staff writers | title=Utter Bilge? | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861825,00.html | work=Time | date=16 January 1956| accessdate=2008-02-24]

Woolley's protestations came just one year prior to the launch of Sputnik, five years before launch of the Apollo Program, and thirteen years before the first landing on the moon.

References

External links

* [http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/aasmemoirs/woolley.htm Australian Academy of Science]