Theodore Von Karman was responsible for many important achievements in Aeronautics, including the boundary between Earth and Space.

Here is a question that most people have probably never asked themselves: What, exactly, did Theodore Von Karman do that proved to be a benefit to society as a whole.

The answer: Quite a bit. Enough, in fact, that craters both on the Earth and on the Moon have been named in his honor (a distinction many people surely desire for themselves).

Von Karman’s Early Successes

By the time the 1950's came around, this Hungarian-born Engineer/Physicist had already done more for the field of aeronautics than just about anyone else in the business. In fact, even by the time he emigrated to the United States in 1936 at the age of 55, he had already possessed his doctorate for several decades, been named director of aeronautics at the highly prestigious Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University in Aachen, Germany, and had spent a brief stint in the Austro-Hungarian Army (from 1915-1918 – the height of World War I), where he used his vast knowledge in aerodynamics to design one of the earliest helicopters.

Yes, by 1950, he had done all of this and more, including founding the first Jet Propulsion Laboratory, still in use by NASA to this day, and was named the first chairman of the Scientific Advisory Group, which worked on technology for military use. He had certainly done a lot.

The Von Karman Line

All of these achievements were certainly important to the burgeoning field of aeronautics, but there is one particular legacy which has a tendency to stand out even more.

Perhaps nothing Von Karman accomplished during his lifetime was quite as important as the creation of the Karman Line. This is the line that finally told us where the Earth ended and space began.

Prior to the nineteen fifties, the fields respectively called Aeronautics and Astronautics were used practically interchangeably. Actually, Aeronautics was indicative of any sort of flight, where Astronautics generally leaned toward military usage, but apart from that, they generally referred to the same subjects.

Von Karman decided that this wasn't good enough for him. He recognized there should be a difference between the two – that aeronautics, the flight of planes, required a certain amount of atmosphere in order to keep aloft, while astronautics required exactly the opposite – a lack of atmosphere, so that it might keep tremendous speeds with no discernible energy expended.

Von Karman decided that there must be a definitive line drawn in the sky where aeronautics effectively ended and astronautics began. Together with an obscenely large group of fellow scientists, Von Karman spearheaded a study that would create such a line. In the end, it was decided, after several complex calculations, that the line could be set at roughly 100 kilometers above sea level (in truth, the actual answer was probably something a little higher or lower than this, but Von Karman, in his wisdom, decided to opt for a round number so that it might be easily remembered). And thus, this imaginary line, 100 kilometers off the Earth, 20 kilometers above the mesosphere and well into the thermosphere, became the official boundary between the Earth and outer space. This line became known, naturally, as the Karman Line.

While this line has not been fully accepted as set in stone (for instance, in the US, the edge of space is frequently defined as being located around 50 miles – 80 km – above sea level), at least it was a step in the right direction.

Practical Applications?

Is there any way in which this knowledge will be of benefit to the average human being, apart from contestants on game shows?

Well, if a person ever got into a high altitude airplane race, it just might help them out considerably. After all, what would happen if the line wasn't there, and this individual was racing an airplane at an altitude of around 20 kilometers, still keeping aerodynamically aloft within the atmosphere of Earth, while the tricky opponent decides to be clever and fly his plane way up at an altitude of 125 kilometers.

Thanks to the institution of the Karman Line, the opponent would hopefully be disqualified, because at that point he would no longer be flying a plane, but rather a spaceship (he would have left the field of aeronautics and entered that of astronautics). And then the prize could be given to the real winner.

And it would all be thanks to Theodore Von Karman of Hungary.

References:

Cordoba, Dr. S. Sanz Fernández de. “100 km. Altitude Boundary for Astronautics.” http://www.fai.org/astronautics/100km.asp