By drawing several straight lines that cross one point on a piece of paper, we arrive at one of the most fascinating mathematical theories: Committee theory not only has a number of practical applications like pattern recognition – a central branch of machine learning – but also searches for collective solutions to problems that have no familiar solution at all.

In the 1920s, the founding father of rocketry and astronautics, Hermann Oberth, struggled hard to realize his visionary ideas. Having his dissertation on rocket science rejected, Oberth convinced a film studio to fund his plans to build a real rocket as the advisor for a science fiction film in an unorthodox private public partnership.