As mentioned above, Robert Goddard wrote an article about lunar exploration for the Smithsonian Institution. The media ridiculed it because they believed that it was impossible for rockets to generate thrust in a vacuum. . Of course, Goddard was unconvinced. He wrote a detailed article in 1924, telling everyone why the rocket he designed could still produce thrust in a vacuum. He had already tested it in a vacuum glass tube in 1909. This is a definite fact.
Many people’s feelings about thrust come from common sense in life. If you want to run fast, you have to push your feet on the ground. In the air, you can blow with a propeller. The air itself can be considered a support. But what can you push in space? There is absolutely no place for you to step or pedal. Ordinary people judge intuitively that in space, no engine will work, so there is no need to push it!
However, Goddard told everyone that according to Newton's law, as long as you throw something backward, you will definitely get a forward thrust. Everyone knows about action and reaction forces. At a higher level of theory, this is called conservation of momentum. The misunderstanding of ordinary people's thinking is that they don't take the quality of the gas seriously and completely ignore the quality of the gas itself. They often don't realize that the gas sprayed back also has weight. As long as it is sprayed enough and fast enough, the reaction force will be Very big.
In the past few years, the United States has devoted all its efforts to develop the aviation industry. Because of the outbreak of World War I, the Americans discovered that the European aircraft industry has moved ahead of the United States, even though the aircraft is the Wright Brothers of the United States. invented. But the Wright brothers' patent application was too broad, and they were afraid that others would steal their technical secrets. If the U.S. Army wants to buy one, it has to look at the product first. People don’t know how your aircraft performs. The Wright brothers wouldn't let them see it without paying them, it would be a life-threatening situation.
Until World War I, the U.S. aviation industry was subject to the patents of the Wright brothers. They charge a 20% royalty on each aircraft. It took a lot of effort to get them to lower the patent fee to 2%, but the U.S. aviation industry got up early and stayed late. When they went to Europe to fight, they had to buy French aircraft. Therefore, after World War I, the United States began to encourage the development of the aviation industry. They have no time to care about the Rockets. So for a long time, Goddard led a small group of people to fight in the rocket field.
It is obviously inappropriate to do experiments in universities because rockets are dangerous. He searched around and found the vegetable garden at his aunt's house. This place is relatively open. Her aunt is alone and has a house full of cats. No matter how cute the cats are, they are not human after all. They are usually quite deserted, with no one to talk to. Now there is someone doing experiments in her vegetable patch, which is a bit lively and popular. So Goddard put all the rocket equipment in the henhouse and made do with it. The old lady looked at a group of young people coming and going, not to mention how happy she was. However, the local firefighters are so angry that they explode every now and then. Who can stand this?
In 1923, Goddard developed the world's first liquid rocket engine, which burned liquid oxygen and gasoline. In 1925, he began doing static testing at Clark University, that is, fixing the engine on a stand and then igniting it. Goddard began the first liquid rocket tests in 1926 in Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket only burned for 2.5 seconds and fell into the vegetable patch next to it. The flying height is 41 feet, which is only a dozen meters high; the distance is 184 feet, which is about 56 meters, which is closer than a large firework bomb. Nowadays, the large fireworks produced in some places are like small thermos bottles, but the fireworks bombs are still fired from solid gunpowder. Although Goddard's rocket flew very close, it was a milestone. The place where it launched its rocket later became a National Historic Landmark.
Later Goddard continued to test his liquid rocket. Local newspapers also continued to report on it. In 1929, he built a larger rocket equipped with a barometer, thermometer and camera. This is the world's first rocket carrying instruments.
As the rocket flies higher and higher, farther and farther. His aunt's vegetable garden could no longer accommodate him. The surrounding neighbors didn't want to be attacked by missiles every day, so Goddard had to change places. This all costs money, and experiments require real money.
He originally wanted to go around to attract investment. But I didn’t expect that in 1929, the Great Depression and Wall Street crashed, and it was even harder to attract investment. Goddard's rocket career is about to end.
But at a critical moment, Goddard met a noble person to help him. He was on good terms with Charles Lindbergh. It used to be translated as Charles Lindbergh, who was the first adventurer to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in the "Spirit of Louis" aircraft. This pilot and Goddard, a rocket researcher, had similar interests. Lindbergh was very interested in rockets. Lindbergh met a very, very wealthy man, the Guggenheim family. They are Jews. They made a fortune operating mines in the United States in their early years. Later, they funded the aviation industry and modern art. They were considered generous. The Guggenheim Museum is very famous and was designed by I.M. Pei. Lindbergh brokered the deal and got Godard a $50,000 sponsorship. Later, the Guggenheim family successively invested US$100,000, which is equivalent to about US$1.7 million today.
With this money, Goddard moved, to a small town in New Mexico. This place is relatively spacious, so you can play with alien spaceships, let alone rockets. Goddard accidentally chose the place in Roseville, which would become world-famous 17 years later due to the UFO incident. In 1930, this place was a deserted area. It just so happened that Godard also had a clean ear. He also liked to keep secrets and never communicated with others. From 1930 to 1945, he conducted 31 rocket launch experiments here, but his rockets never flew above 2.7 kilometers. At that time, airplanes could fly to 15,000 meters and balloons could fly to 22,000 meters. Goddard's rocket was obviously not worth mentioning. The speed only exceeds the speed of sound, which is far from the first cosmic speed. The speed of sound under standard atmospheric pressure is about 340 meters/second. If converted, the speed of the first universe is about 23 times the speed of sound, and the difference is obvious.
In the final analysis, it is because Goddard is working alone. He does not communicate much with the outside world and seems to only care about having fun himself. The U.S. government also does not pay attention to rocket research. In 1941 several of his assistants were transferred. He didn't know how much effort Germany and the Soviet Union, the two major powers on the European continent, had put into rockets and what progress they had made. In 1934, the German A2 rocket had flown to an altitude of 3.5 kilometers, the A5 rocket in 1939 had flown to an altitude of 12 kilometers, and the A4 rocket in 1941 had flown to an altitude of 84 kilometers, already at the edge of the atmosphere.
The United States did not take Goddard seriously, but Germany and the Soviet Union did. They sent spies to spy on intelligence. They found that some of Goddard's designs were valuable, but overall they still lagged behind the two major powers. After all, what can these hairy men under Goddard do? Goddard died of cancer in 1945. He had never seen a rocket fly into space in his life, but his friend Lindbergh witnessed the launch of the United States' first artificial satellite. Faced with this situation, Lindbergh couldn't help but sigh. Goddard showed him the design of a multi-stage rocket. I don't know if he was dreaming back then or if Lindbergh is dreaming now. Yes, dreams can come true one day.
It was not until 1961 that Goddard's widow released all of his 30 years of manuscripts. It's a pity that these manuscripts have only historical value and no longer have any guiding significance. Because Gagarin has gone into space, the relics of the ancestor can only be placed in museums. NASA in the United States named a research center after Goddard, which is the famous Goddard Space Flight Center. The Hubble Space Telescope is managed by this center, which is also a memorial to Goddard, a pioneer.
On July 17, 1969, the New York Times published a tofu-sized article apologizing to Goddard. The article summarized the New York Times editorial that ridiculed Goddard and then solemnly apologized. The article said that further investigation and experiments confirmed that Isaac Newton's discovery in the 17th century was absolutely true. Rockets can operate in a vacuum as well as in the atmosphere.
Why did The New York Times remember what happened 50 years ago? Because the day before, at 9:32 on July 16, the Apollo 11 spacecraft was successfully launched and headed for the moon. Goddard's dream finally came true. Of course, there were still many people who were filled with emotion at that time. For example, Hermann Obote was also at the launch site of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.
This Obote was born in Romania under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was also fascinated by Verne's books. Like Tsiolkovsky, he was also particularly fascinated by the book "From the Earth to the Moon". But he also knew that using cannons was unrealistic, and rockets were the way to go. He went to college to study medicine, but his mind was entirely on rockets. During World War I, he joined the army and went to the Eastern Front. He still couldn't forget rockets, and in 1917 he designed a liquid rocket plan and presented it to the German Minister of War. Of course, no one paid any attention to his designs. After the war, he went to Germany to study physics and wrote his doctoral thesis on rockets. As a result, when the instructor took a look at it, he found that the writing was so misty and unrestrained that it was sheer nonsense. So, he failed his doctoral thesis, so he can’t be a scientist without a doctorate title? Not necessarily, he got even more aggressive and violently criticized the German education system. But in the end, he still got a doctorate based on that paper, which was a good ending.
At that time, there was a group of rocket enthusiasts in Germany who formed an organization called the "Space Flight Association", and Obote was also a member of this organization. Obote published many popular science books about space travel and influenced many people. Someone was going to make a science fiction movie called "The Lady on the Moon" and asked Obote to be a scientific consultant. He took the opportunity to trick people into giving him money to build a rocket and launch a real rocket at the premiere, which would also build momentum for the movie. This wishful thinking is a snap.
The shape of the rocket in the movie was also designed by Obote, including the launch procedure of the rocket. Movies always have to have strong drama. This is a silent movie, and it won't attract people if it doesn't have some exaggeration. Obote designed a countdown session, which was really brilliant. This countdown process has become a standard feature of rocket launches, and it actually comes from this movie.
The movie premiere was very lively, and dignitaries also came to support it. Therefore, why the German government was willing to support rocket research later had something to do with Obote's propaganda at this time. However, until the premiere of the movie, Obote still failed to build the rocket. By the time he did, the day lilies were cold and the film did not sell well. But it does influence a large number of people to like the Rockets. He was studying liquid rocket engines at the Imperial College in Germany and found an 18-year-old college student to help him. This student turned out to be more powerful than the teacher. His name was von Braun.
Later, Obote participated in the Nazi rocket research. He preferred solid rockets, so he was transferred to research anti-aircraft rockets. After the war he also came under scrutiny and was imprisoned for a while in the United States. After I came out, I worked as a consultant everywhere, including in Italy and the American Atlas Hercules rocket. Later I participated in the Apollo program and witnessed the Apollo spacecraft landing on the moon and the Challenger space shuttle. of explosion. There is no way, people live a long time. He was the only rocket pioneer to survive into the space age, and he lived to be 95 years old.
Actually, I am quite emotional. The rocket went from being a toddler, so primitive and simple, to carrying people into space. In fact, the distance is not long. The key is that the two major powers on the European continent, the Soviet Union and Germany, are using their national power to promote the development of rockets. This is the key to the rapid development of rocket technology. The strange thing is that rockets on the European continent are all made by prisoners. This is also a very strange scene in the history of rocket development. What's going on? Let’s talk about it next time.
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