My Life in Space Exploration / Springer Biographies (PDF)

After a humanistic school education, Gerhard Haerendel chose

to study physics with the intention of becoming a researcher in astrophysics. Commencing



as graduate student with Ludwig Biermann, the leading astrophysicist of that



time, he was soon "handed over" to Arnulf Schlüter, Germany's foremost



plasma theorist, as thesis advisor. Shortly afterward, the Max Planck



Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich under Werner Heisenberg set up



a research group for space research under Reimar Lüst, who hired Haerendel as



young theorist supporting the experimental program consisting of seeding



visible barium plasma clouds in space. In 1969, he was appointed leader of this experimental program and, three years later, became co-director of the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics in Garching/Germany.



He led this program from simple sounding rocket experiments to international projects involving combined active and diagnostic payloads focusing on specific phenomena such as plasma instabilities



like equatorial spread F, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, auroral



acceleration, and finally to the ultimate goal of creating two artificial



comets in the solar wind, so far the only experiments ever of this kind. The latter step of this program was enabled by his group having acquired the competence to build entire satellite payloads.



This led naturally into participation in the global exploration of the



magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. The missions were conceived and carried out



as national programs under the control of the his institute, however with



strong international cooperation and support by NASA, ESA, and the Swedish



Space Corporation. He was strongly involved in the interpretation of



the data obtained and the