Hist. of Space Travel

History of Space Travel

History of Space Travel Dangers of Space Travel The Columbia Tragedy S'pore's Furture in Space More About Our Group Feedback	History of Space Travel The Theory To design and build a spacecraft, you need to be able to figure out how big to make it, how heavy it can be, how fast it will have to go, how much fuel it needs and so forth. For that, you need a theory of how objects move in space and how to make the calculations. Almost all theory of space flight was worked out by three brilliant men over a period of nearly three centuries - from 1600 to 1900.
	Johannes Kepler The German mathematician who, in 1609, figured out the equations for orbiting planets & satellites. In particular, he determined that the planets move in ellipses (flattened circles) rather than true circles.
	Isaac Newton In 1687, he wrote what is probably the single greatest intellectual achievement of all time. In a single book he established the basic laws of force, motion, and gravitation and invented a new branch of mathematics in the process (calculus). He did all this to show how the force of gravity is the reason that planet’s orbits follow Kepler’s equations.
	Konstantin Tsiolkovsky A Russian school teacher who, without ever launching a single rocket himself, was the first to figure out all the basic equations for rocketry - in 1903! From his very broad and extensive reading, including Jules Verne’s "From the Earth to the Moon", he concluded that space travel was a possibility, that it was in fact man’s destiny, and that rockets would be the way to pull it off. He anticipated and solved many of the problems that were going to come up for rocket powered flight and drew up several rocket designs. He determined that liquid fuel rockets would be needed to get to space, and that the rockets would need to be built in stages (he called them "rocket trains"). He concluded that oxygen and hydrogen would be the most powerful fuels to use. He had predicted how, 65 years later, the Saturn V rocket would operate for the first landing of men on the moon.
	The Three Great Rocketry Pioneers Robert Goddard The Builder of the First Rockets An American who is now called "the father of modern rocketry". By contrast to Tsiolkovsky, Goddard was the man who designed, built, and flew the rockets. He was a university professor who also developed the theory of rocketry and although he didn't know about Tsiolkovsky's work, reached the same conclusions as Tsiolkovsky did. Goddard proved the theory was true. He was also heavily influenced by the science fiction of Jules Verne, and he worked hard to develop rockets because he wanted to see them take us into space. When he first published his superbly written study, proposing that rockets could possibly be used to travel to the moon, people thought he was a nut. In fact, the criticism was so harsh, Goddard maintained a low profile and said little about his work after that. In 1926 he launched the world’s first liquid fueled rocket. In the course of his experiments in Massachusetts and Roswell, New Mexico, he virtually developed the entirety of rocket technology. He invented everything required for modern rocketry and earned over 200 patents. By himself he developed the same components and designs that took the Germans hundreds of scientists and engineers and millions of dollars to develop independently at Peenemunde during World War II
	Hermann Oberth Managed to Convince the World that the Rocket was Something to Take Seriously as a Space Vehicle Yet another one who, after reading Jules Verne’s "From Earth to the Moon" as a young boy (age 11 in this case), became determined to find a way to travel space. He independently determined the same rocketry principles as Tsiolkovsky and Goddard. The difference with Oberth is that in 1929 he published "The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space", a highly influential book which was internationally acclaimed and persuaded the world that the rocket was something to take seriously as a space vehicle. Oberth was also Wernher Von Braun’s teacher, bringing him into the German rocket program. Of the three great rocketry pioneers, Oberth was the only one who lived to see men travel through space and land on the moon.
	Wernher Von Braun The Last of the Three Rocketry Pioneers and Led the Development that Took Man to Space Together with Oberth and an enormous team of scientists and engineers at Peenemunde, he developed and launched the German V2 rocket, the first rocket capable of reaching space. At the end of World War II, Von Braun led the top scientists and engineers out of Germany to the Americans (he didn't want to be captured by the Russians). He led the US development of military and space exploration rockets. Von Braun was crucial in the effort to convince the US government to pursue a landing of men on the moon, and guided US efforts to success. He led the development of the Saturn rockets, the only series of rockets ever developed to have worked perfectly on every launch (that is, never blew up on the pad). If he hadn’t been so successful, we may never have made it to the moon.
	The Pioneers of Space Travel Yuri Gagarin The First Man in Space… Yuri Gagarin was born near Moscow, Russia on March 9, 1934. He died on March 27, 1968. Yuri joined the Soviet Air Force in 1955. By 1959, he was training to become a cosmonaut. On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth! The name of his spacecraft was Vostok 1. Vostok 1 had two sections. One section was for Yuri. The second section was for supplies needed for Gagarin to live such as oxygen and water. Vostok 1 circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour. The flight lasted 108 minutes. Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer. Yuri Gagarin did not land inside of Vostok 1. He ejected from the spacecraft and landed by parachute. Yuri Gagarin was killed in a plane crash before he could travel in space a second time.
	Neil Alden Armstrong The First Man on the Moon Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He holds a degree in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California. From 1949 to 1952, Armstrong was a naval aviator. Upon leaving military service, he became a test pilot. While serving as a test pilot, he was chosen to be a member of the astronaut corps. Though he was on the backup crew of many previous flights, his first space flight occurred in 1966 aboard Gemini 8. During this flight, he and fellow astronaut David Scott successfully performed the first docking in space between two vehicles. In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong was the commander of Apollo 11, America's first attempt to land a manned vehicle on the Moon. On July 20, 1969 Commander Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin Aldrin successfully touched down on the lunar surface. As Armstrong became the first person to touch the Moon's surface, he spoke the unforgettable phrase, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind". He and Aldrin explored the Moon's surface for 2.5 hours. Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his accomplishments and his contributions to the space program. Neil Armstrong left NASA in 1971 to join the faculty of the University of Cincinnati. He remained there as a professor of aerospace engineering until 1979. Armstrong served on the National Commission on space from 1985 to 1986. In 1986, he was appointed as vice chairman of the presidential commission that investigated the Challenger explosion. Neil Armstrong is married and has two children. He currently lives quietly in Ohio and works with AIL, Inc.