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Space Stamp of the Day Archive- Early Space Period

Space Stamp of the Day - Archive

Early Ideas Through 1958

© By Gary Agranat GCA7Sky(at)AOL.Com

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Page Contents

  1. Jules Verne -- From the Earth to the Moon, 1865.
  2. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky 1857-1935.
  3. Robert H. Goddard 1882-1945
  4. The V2 Rocket World War II
  5. Theodore Von Kármán
  6. Sputnik 1 4 October 1957.
  7. Sputnik 2 3 November 1957.
  8. Explorer 1 31 January 1958.
  9. Sputnik 3 15 May 1958.

    Space Flight Before 1957

  1.  


    Jules Verne -- From the Earth to the Moon, 1865.

    Imagine for a moment going outside. Imagine, looking up at the sky and everything around you. Imagine, what would it take you to go so high that you could get off the planet?

    By the mid 19th century some people were already thinking a lot about this. There was some fantasy writing. Since the 18th century there were experiments with balloons. By the early 19th century Cayley in England was experimenting with curved bodies moving through the air -- work that would some day lead to airplanes. But those paths could take you only so far.

    What some other people thought about was the need for more power. The power that was coming to mind more and more was the power from chemical explosives, like gun powder. In 1865 Jules Verne published his first science fiction novel From the Earth to the Moon. In it the crew was launched to the Moon by a very powerful cannon located in Florida. One of the children who read the book was Robert Goddard in the United States. Goddard later became one of the major early rocket pioneers. He is said to have noted in the book's margins where it seemed to violate laws of physics.

  2.  


    Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935)
    Russia

    Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was a school teacher and thinker in Russia about a hundred years ago. His early loss of hearing probably helped foster his individuality and self education. Throughout his life he dreamed of flying to the stars. But not only that, he pursued discovering the scientific principles that would make such a dream a reality.

    By the end of the 19th century an alternative to solid propellants like gun powder was becoming possible. That alternative developed from the work of evacuating air from sealed containers to produce better and better vacuums. The air of our atmosphere is actually composed of a number of gases. It was found that each gas would turn into a liquid at different pressures, as the pressure in those containers was lowered. By achieving lower and lower presures each gas could then be separated out as it became liquid. Eventually, the containers were also cooled to low temperatures to help condense the remaining gasses. In the process, new gasses in the atmosphere were discovered, such as argon. More crucial to our story, by 1898 liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen had been separated and their properties studied. It was discovered that when liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen are burned they release immense amounts of energy.

    Tsiolkovsky was the first to recognize the implications for using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in rockets. In 1903 he published a ground breaking paper, "Exploration Of Space With Reaction Devices." In it he stated the following1:
    1. Space travel is possible.
    2. This can only be achieved with rockets, because only they would work in the vacuum of space.
    3. Solid fuels like gun powder won't work because they don't have enough energy.
    4. Certain liquids do have enough energy.
    5. And, liquid hydrogen would be a very good fuel and liquid oxygen would be a very good oxidizer; together they would make the best known propellant combination.

    The 1903 paper includes the equation in the Polish stamp on the left. The equation says that the speed a rocket can achieve (V) is determined by the exhaust speed of the rocket nozzle (W) and the ratio of the total rocket weight to the final empty weight (with the propellant gone). Knowing that, he naturally looked for the most effecient propellant combination possible, in order to maximize the exhaust speed. That's how he came to his point 5. He also looked for ways to keep the empty weight small to maximize that weight ratio. In later papers he wrote that multi stage rockets, which discarded some of that empty weight on the way up, would be a good technique.

    Tsiolkovsky continued to write papers through the 1930's. He never experimented with what he advocated. Instead he concentrated on developing the scientific principles and thinking about the implications. His work was not widely known outside of Russia during his lifetime. He did influence an early interest in rockets in Russia.
     

    3. 1. I borrowed this way of presenting the 1903 paper from John D. Clark's Ignition, An Informal History of Liquid Propellants, © 1972.

  3.  


    Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945)
    USA


    Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Herman Oberth, and Robert Goddard are considered the three key pioneers who laid the theoretical foundations for astronautics at the beginning of the 20th century. Goddard, though, was the only one able to extensively carry out experiments. He was the first to successfully launch a liquid fueled rocket, in March 1926.

    Goddard was motivated since early childhood:
    "On the afternoon of October 19, 1889, I climbed a tall cherry tree at the back of the barn and, armed with a saw and a hatchet, started to trim the dead leaves from the tree. It was one of those quiet, colorful afternoons of sheer beauty which we have in October in New England and, as I looked toward the fields to the east, I imagined how wonderful it would be to make some device which even had the possiblity of ascending to Mars, and how it would look on a small scale if sent up from the meadow at my feet...."

    "I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended...."
    He thereafter marked October 19th as his "Anniversary Day."

    Goddard experimented with his ideas as a child and in college. To really progress he realized he had to master physics and math. He got his PhD in physics at Clark University. By 1909 he worked out the idea of multi-stage rockets, as had Tsiolkovsky. In 1914 he filed his first patents, on multistaging and liquid fuel rockets. His patents were to eventually number over 200 and cover almost every aspect of rocket engineering.

    In 1919 the Smithsonian published his paper "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," which developed the mathematical theory of rockets, presented his research, and suggested the scientific usefulness of reaching higher altitudes for weather research. He modestly included the possiblity that it might also be possible to reach the Moon. It was that last point that was taken up by the press (even The New York Times) and thrown back at him in ridicule. Goddard thereafter kept his work more private.

    Over time he systematically studied the efficiencies of various fuels and by 1923 concluded that liquid propellants were the best, especially liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. But liquid hydrogen could not at that time be practically manufactured or stored. In 1926, his first successful liquid fueled rocket to fly used a mixture of kerosene and liquid oxygen.

    Goddard was not able to interest the U.S. government in his work. But he was fortunate to get some funding, with the help of Charles Lindberg, from the Guggenheim Foundation. With that he was able to move to Roswell, New Mexico, from where he launched more and more advanced rockets until 1941.

    Robert Goddard is considered the father of American rocketry. The NASA center built in Greenbelt, Maryland in 1959 was named after him.
     

      4. Some books:
    • The Coming of the Space Age Edited by Arthur C. Clarke. Meredith Press. © 1967.
      Includes an autobiography and the New York Times editorial criticizing Goddard's 1919 paper, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes.
    • The Promise of Space by Arthur C. Clarke. Harper & Row. © 1968.
    • Robert H. Goddard, Pioneer of Space Research by Milton Lehman. © 1963, 1988. Da Capo Press.
  4.  


    V2 Ballistic Rocket
    Germany, World War II
    The V2 was the first man-made object to reach space.


    The story of the German V2 introduces us to the third major rocket pioneer, the Romanian school teacher, Hermann Oberth. Like Tsiolkovsky and Goddard, and independent of them, Oberth worked out the theoretical fundamentals of rocket design and space flight in the 1910's and 1920's. He had limited success in extending his work beyond his own theories. For many years experimenting was beyond his means. A proposal he sent to the German War Department in 1917 for a rocket propelled by alcohol and liquid air was rejected. His doctoral dissertation on rockets in 1922 was rejected by Heidelberg University and he never attempted to get a PhD again. Instead, he slimmed down his paper and published it for the public as The Rocket Into Planetary Space (1923). He later expanded the work to four times the size in The Road to Space Travel (1929).

    Meanwhile, several writers began writing sensational scientific articles for the public about space. Small amateur rocket societies developed in several places in Europe. In 1928 Oberth obtained some small financial support when Fritz Lang made a spaceflight movie called The Girl in the Moon. With Oberth as scientific advisor the film was based on real scientific ideas. Oberth was encouraged to launch a real high altitude rocket for the primier of the film, but within the period of only a few months. He didn't get far with his rocket, but the film was successful and had an important impact.

    Dr. Krafft Ehricke, a senior V2 engineer and later an engineer at Rockwell International, recalled seeing The Girl in the Moon:
    "The film impressed me enormously. I was at that time 12 years old. It shocked me into the awareness that all of a sudden you might be able to leave this planet, to open a whole new world. And since my interests already at that time was in history and astronomy and in the evolution of man, in a very simple way, it gave me a tremendous impulse to interest myself in space. After about two or three years of reading books about it and so forth I became firmly determined that this is an area of technology I wanted to devote my life to."

    - in Hitler's Secret Weapon , WGBH/PBS NOVA (1977).
    Germany was still recovering from the first world war and was hit hard by the depression. The movie, the popular writing, and the small rocket groups attracted future engineers. Meanwhile, the German Army became interested in rockets as well. With rockets it was perhaps possible to bypass the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles. The first who came to work with the Army was Wernher von Braun. Von Braun was then a young engineering student and a member of the Berlin based Society for Space Travel who worked with Oberth. In time many others followed him into the Army. With the resources and money of the German Army, rocket development surged ahead of everyone else in the world, in secret.

    Under the direction of von Braun, the German military eventually developed the V2 ballistic missile in about a dozen years. The engineering accomplishment has been considered comparable to the development of the atomic bomb in the U.S. To achieve its range of about 200 miles, the V2 had to break out of the atmosphere into a ballistic flight, and so became the first man-made vehicle to reach space. From when it was deployed in September 1944 to the close of the war about 3700 V2's were fired against the Allies. Had the V2 been ready six months earlier there was some speculation that the Normandy invasion might not have been possible.

    By the close of the war, the Soviets overran the German's rocket development base at Peenemuende on the Baltic Sea, and captured hardware and many low-level engineers and technicians. But the top 124 German engineers surrendered to the Americans. The Americans meanwhile also captured partially assembled V2's at the underground factory at Nordhausen as well as V2's in transit in the field. Both the Soviets and Americans then used what they gained to develop the core of their own military missile programs during the postwar period. Many of the German engineers who stayed in America went on to play key roles in American space work.
     

      5. Some relevant books:
    • The Rocket Team by Fredrick Ordway III and Mitchell Sharpe. © 1979. Crowell.
    • The Rocket's Red Glare, an Illustrated History of Rocketry through the Ages by Wernher von Braun and Fredrick Ordway III. © 1976. Doubleday.
    • Events in Space by Willy Ley. © 1969. Popular Library.
    • V2 by Walter Dornberger. © 1952 Bechtle Verlag, © 1954 Viking Press.
      General Dornberger oversaw the German army's development of its rockets.
    • The Coming of the Space Age Edited by Arthur C. Clarke. Meredith Press. © 1967.
      Includes an autobiography by Oberth plus article excerpts by von Braun and Dornberger.
  5.  


    Theodore Von Kármán
    USA


    6. 1957

  6.  
     

    Sputnik 1 USSR
    Launched 4 October 1957 - Earth Orbiter
    The World's first artificial satellite.

    After World War II rocket programs in both the Soviet Union and the United States accelerated. Both had some help from the German rocket engineers. By the mid 1950's both countries developed Intercontinental Balistic Missiles (ICBM's) that could deliver their nuclear warheads in suborbital balistic trajectories across the planet. The Soviet missiles, though, were more powerful, because their warheads were heavier.

    For the 1957 International Geophysical Year both countries planned to contribute the world's first orbiting satellites. The Soviets utilized their military R-7 rocket, but the Americans chose to develop a rocket more separate from the military with their Vanguard program. On the recommendation of their Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, the Soviets accelerated satellite development to jump ahead of the Americans. They succeeded, lauching Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. The consequences were immense.
     
  7.  


    Sputnik 2 USSR
    Earth Orbiter. Launched 3 November 1957.

    One month after Sputnik 1 the Soviets launched a heavier satellite, this time with a dog named Laika. The Soviets were not yet able to recover satellites, and so the spacecraft was designed to put Laika to sleep after 10 days. However, several problems during orbit insertion allowed the temperature to rise too high. Laika probably died within several days. In addition to the live passenger, Sputnik 2 also carried instruments to measure high energy particles and solar radiation. It re-entered the atmosphere after 162 days.
     

    8. 1958

  8.  


    Explorer 1 USA
    First US Earth orbiting satellite. Launched 31 January 1958.

    The United States planned to contribute to the International Geophysical Year with its non-military Vanguard satellite. But after the first launch attempt ended in flames in December 1957, Wernher von Braun's Army group was authorized to go ahead with its back up plan that it had actually been advocating for several years. At the end of January 1958 they successfully launched the 14 kg Explorer 1 on a modified Juptier C IRBM.

    Unlike Sputnik 1, Explorer 1 had some instruments for measuring the space environment. And also unlike Sputnik 1, its orbit was more eccentric (elliptical), with a maximum altitude of about 2500 km. James van Allen was the principle investigator for the cosmic ray detector (a Geiger counter). He was interested in measuring the lower energy cosmic rays that cannot penetrate Earth's atmosphere to the surface. At lower altitudes the detector counts were about what was expected. But at higher altitudes the counter was overwelmed. Later satellites revealed zones of charged particles trapped in our Earth's magnetosphere. These became known as the Van Allen Radiation Belts. This was the first scientific discovery made by satellite.
     
  9.  


    Sputnik 3 USSR.
    Earth Orbiter. Launched 15 May 1958.

    In just about half a year after Sputnik 1, the Soviets launched its third Earth orbiting satellite, Sputnik 3. It was more sophisticated and heavier than the earlier spacecraft. (1327kg versus 83kg of Sputnik 1). It was designed from the start primarily for the International Geophysical Year, rather than for beating the Americans. Its instruments measured the composition of the upper atmosphere, including the charged particles and fields. It was placed in a more eccentric orbit than the previous Sputniks (216 x 1863 kilometers). That enabled it to confirm the radiation fields first discovered by the U.S. Explorer 1. Sputnik 3 continued to send back data for almost 2 years.
     

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Space Stamp Picture of the Day- Early Space Flight. © Gary Agranat, all rights reserved.
Created April 10, 2003. Updated April 10, 2004.
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