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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

That wasn't just a takedown of Werner von Bruan but of every scientist that checked their ethics at the door of the laboratory.

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Ironically, the V2 program was a net detriment to the Reich. It consumed vast resources that would have been far better spent on conventional weapons. The V2's problem was it was hopelessly inaccurate (the guidance system was a clock and a gyroscope) and did only insignificant damage to the Allied war machine.

The V1 was more cost effective - not because the V1 did much damage, but because it diverted a great deal of British effort at trying to shoot them down and blow up their launch sites. The Germans eventually figured the latter out, and built lots of fake launch sites for the RAF to uselessly destroy.

Missiles only became effective due to better targeting or nuclear warheads.

Intentions matter.

Yes. Interestingly, Willy Messerschmidt was imprisoned for a couple years after the war, Ernst Heinkel was tried but not imprisoned.

Von Braun was not because Russia had also captured a number of rocket scientists, the US rocket technology was way behind, and von Braun was needed to get the US rocket program going.

Modern liquid fuel rocket engines can directly trace their evolution back to the V2.

Isn't a clock and a gyroscope precisely two things that are needed for the missile to know where it is at all times? Like, it can then know where it isn't by subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is, to get the positional deviation. Combine that with the clock deviation, it can get the velocity and acceleration and then use all three information to generate corrective commands.

Yes but not precisely. There is an uncertainty that is difficult to remove.

However, if you combine it with modern image recognition and you know your target it will be probably enough

In principle, yes. That's called inertial navigation and while it works, for a while, the errors involved are big enough that without a feedback loop you'll be happy if it lands anywhere near the target area. And with the size of the payloads of the day 'near' isn't nearly precise enough. So these were only usable as a terror weapon. Unfortunately, not much seems to have changed in 80 years in spite of our ability to target much more precisely.

Typo: Bruan -> Braun.

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