Many people's feelings about thrust come from common sense of life. If you want to run fast, you must pedal. In the air, you can blow it with a propeller. Air itself is still a kind of support. But what can you push in space? There is no place for you to step on. Ordinary people intuitively judge that in space, I am afraid that any engine will not work, there is no need to push!
However, Goddard told everyone that according to Newton's law, as long as you throw something backwards, you will definitely get a forward thrust. We all know the action and reaction. Theoretically, to a higher level, this is called conservation of momentum. The misunderstanding of ordinary people's thinking is that they don't take gas quality seriously and completely ignore the quality of gas itself. They often don't think that the gas sprayed back is heavy. As long as you spray enough and the speed is fast enough, the reaction will be great.
In recent years, the United States has fully developed the aviation industry. Because of the start of World War I, Americans found that the aircraft industry in Europe had reached the front of the United States, even though the aircraft was invented by the Wright brothers in the United States. However, the Wright brothers' patent applications are too wide, and they are afraid that others will steal their own technical secrets. If the US Army wants to buy, it always has to look at the goods first. People don't know how your plane performs. The Wright brothers won't let me see it until they pay. Not fatal.
Until the first world war, the aviation industry in the United States was subject to the patents of the Wright brothers. They charge a royalty of 20% for each plane. Later, it took a lot of effort to get them to reduce the patent fee to 2%, but the American aviation industry got up early and caught up with the evening gathering. They went to Europe to fight and had to buy French planes. Therefore, after World War I, the United States began to encourage the development of the aviation industry. They don't care about rockets at all. So Goddard fought with a small group of people in the rocket field for a long time.
It is obviously inappropriate to do experiments in universities, because rockets are dangerous. He looked around and found the vegetable garden for menstruation. This place is relatively open. She menstruates alone and has a room full of cats. No matter how cute a cat is, it is not a person after all. Usually, they are strange and indifferent, and no one talks. Now someone is doing experiments in her vegetable field, which is a bit lively and popular. So Goddard put all the rocket equipment in the henhouse to make do with it. Watching a group of young people go in and out, the old lady was very happy. However, the local firemen were very angry. Instead of fighting, they exploded from time to time. Who can stand this?
1923, Goddard developed the world's first liquid rocket engine, burning liquid oxygen and gasoline. 1925 began to do static test in Clark university, that is, fix the engine on a shelf and then ignite the experiment. 1926, Goddard started the first liquid rocket test in Auburn, Massachusetts. The rocket burned for only 2.5 seconds and then fell into a nearby vegetable field. The flying height is 4 1 ft, only a dozen meters high; The distance is 184 feet, about 56 meters, which is closer than a large fireworks display. At present, fireworks and firecrackers produced in some places are as large as thermos bottles, but they are still set off with solid powder. Although Goddard's rocket flew very close, it was a milestone. The place where it launched the rocket later became a national historical landmark in the United States.
Later, Goddard continued to test his liquid rocket. Local newspapers are also constantly reporting. 1929, he made a bigger rocket with a barometer, thermometer and camera on it. This is the world's first rocket with instruments.
As the rocket flies higher and higher, it flies farther and farther. The garden of menstruation is almost entirely his. Neighbors don't want to be attacked by missiles every day, so Goddard has to change places. It all needs money, and experiments need real money. He wants to invest somewhere. But I didn't expect 1929 Great Depression and Wall Street crash, and I couldn't get any investment. Goddard's rocket career is coming to an end.
But at the critical moment, Goddard met with the help of nobles. He has a good relationship with Charles Lindbergh. It used to be translated as charles lindbergh, who was the first adventurer to fly the Spirit of Louis across the Atlantic. This pilot has the same interests as rocket researcher Goddard, and Lindbergh is very interested in rockets. Lindbergh met a very, very rich man, the Guggenheim family. They are Jews. They made a fortune in mining in the United States in their early years, and later funded the aviation industry and modern art. They were generous. Guggenheim Art Museum is very famous. It was designed by I.M. Pei. Lindbergh contributed to the competition and won a sponsorship of $50,000 for Goddard. Later, the Guggenheim family successively invested 65,438+million dollars, which is equivalent to about 65,438+0.7 million dollars now.
With this money, Goddard moved to a small town in New Mexico. This place is very spacious, not to say that you can play with rockets, but with alien spacecraft. Goddard chose roswell as the location for a strange reason. 17 later, this place will be famous for the UFO incident. 1930, this place is still deserted. As it happens, Goddard is observant, likes to keep secrets and never communicates with others. From 1930 to 1945, he conducted 3 1 rocket launch experiments here, but his rocket never flew above 2.7 kilometers. At that time, planes could fly to 1.5 million meters, and balloons could fly to 22,000 meters. Goddard's rocket is obviously not worth mentioning. The speed only exceeds the speed of sound, which is far from the speed of the first universe. The speed of sound at standard atmospheric pressure is about 340 meters per second. Converted, the speed of the first universe is about 23 times the speed of sound, and the gap is obvious.
In the final analysis, it's because Goddard is alone, doesn't communicate much with others, and seems to only care about having fun. The American government does not attach importance to rocket research. 194 1, several of his assistants were transferred. He doesn't know how hard Germany and the Soviet Union, two big countries in continental Europe, have made on rockets and what progress they have made. 1934 German A2 rocket flew to 3.5 kilometers, 1939 A5 rocket flew to 12 kilometers, 194 1 year A4 rocket flew to 84 kilometers, which is already the edge of the atmosphere.
The United States does not attach importance to Goddard, while Germany and the Soviet Union do. They sent spies to spy on information. They found that some of Goddard's designs are valuable, but overall they still lag behind these two big countries. After all, what can Goddard's hairy man do? Goddard died of cancer from 65438 to 0945. He has never seen a rocket fly into space in his life, but his friend Lindbergh witnessed the launch of the first artificial satellite in the United States. Faced with this situation, Lindbergh can't help but sigh that Goddard showed him the design scheme of multi-stage rocket. I don't know whether he was dreaming then or Lindbergh is dreaming now. Yes, the dream will come true one day.
It was not until 196 1 that Goddard's widow published all his manuscripts for 30 years. Unfortunately, these manuscripts only have historical value and no longer have guiding significance, because Gagarin has gone into space and the relics of his ancestors can only be put into museums. NASA named a research center after Goddard, which is the famous Goddard Space Flight Center. The Hubble Space Telescope is managed by the center, which is also a memorial to pioneer Goddard.
1969 July 17, The New York Times published an article the size of a tofu block, apologizing to Goddard. The article summarizes The New York Times's editorial mocking Goddard, and then makes a solemn apology. The article said that further investigation and experiments confirmed that isaac newton's discovery in17th century was absolutely valid. Rockets can run in a vacuum, just like in the atmosphere. How did The New York Times remember what happened 50 years ago? Because the day before, at 9: 32 on July 16, Apollo 1 1 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. For example, Herman Obote was also at the launch site of Apollo 1 1 spacecraft.
This Obote was born in Romania under the rule of Austria-Hungary. He was fascinated by Verne's book, and like tsiolkovsky, he was also fascinated by the book From the Earth to the Moon. But he also knows that it is unrealistic to use artillery, and rockets are king. He studied medicine in college, but he was preoccupied with rockets. In World War I, he joined the army and went to the eastern front. He is still obsessed with rockets. 19 17 years, he also designed a liquid rocket scheme for the german minister of war. Of course, his design was completely ignored. After the war, he went to Germany to study physics, and his doctoral thesis was about rockets. As a result, when the instructor looked at it, he wrote a cloud mountain fog cover, which was simply nonsense. So, he failed his doctoral thesis, so he can't be a scientist without a doctorate? I don't know, but he is still more energetic. He lashed out at the German education system. However, in the end, he got his doctorate on the basis of that paper, which was a good ending.
At that time, a group of German rocket enthusiasts set up an organization called "Space Flight Association", and Obote was also a member of this organization. Obote published many popular science books about space travel, which influenced many people. Someone wanted to make a sci-fi movie called "The Lady on the Moon" and invited Obote as a scientific consultant. He took the opportunity to trick people into giving money to build rockets, launch real rockets at the premiere, and also create momentum for the film. This wishful thinking is loud.
The shape of the rocket in the movie is also designed by Obote, including the launching process of the rocket. Well, movies are always very dramatic. This is a silent film, and it can't attract people without exaggeration. Obote designed a countdown link, which was really brilliant. This countdown process has become the standard for rocket launch, which is actually from this movie.
The movie premiere was very lively, and politicians came to join in, so why the German government was willing to support rocket research later had something to do with Obote's propaganda at this time. But until the movie premiered, Obote didn't make a rocket. The day lily was cold when he filmed it, and the movie was not easy to sell. But it does affect a large number of people who like rockets. He studied liquid rocket engines in Imperial College London, London, and asked a 18-year-old college student for help. This student is even better than the teacher. His name is Wernher wernher von braun.
Later, Obote participated in Nazi rocket research. He prefers solid rockets, so he was transferred to study air defense rockets. After the war, he was also censored and imprisoned in the United States for some time. After coming out, I will be a consultant to people all over the world, to Italy and to Atlas Hercules rocket in the United States. Later, I participated in the Apollo program and witnessed the Apollo spacecraft landing on the moon and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. I can't help it I lived a long time. He was the only rocket pioneer who lived to the space age. He lived to be 95.
Actually, I'm really emotional. Not long after the rocket was a toddler, it was so primitive and crude that it carried people into the sky. The key point is that the Soviet Union and Germany, two big countries on the European continent, are using their national strength to promote the development of rockets, which is the key to the rapid development of rocket technology. Strangely, the rockets on the European continent are all made by prisoners, which is also a very wonderful scene in the development of rockets. What's going on here? We'll talk about it next time.
# Aerospace # # Rocket #