The Space Renaissance is a series of articles that will delve deeper into the history of rocket science and space exploration, examining the "boom" that these fields have experienced in the past 15 years.
For thousands of years, humans gazed upon the starry skies, unable to grasp the complexities of the universe. The night sky tantalized curious minds throughout history, playing a game of tug-of-war; each advancement in our ability to observe the sky was met with new, more intense, and initially incomprehensible questions. The stars above were so unreachable that we deemed them heavenly and named the most prominent celestial bodies after gods. The trajectory of our astronomical abilities followed a relatively linear curve, from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment and through the early modern era.
It was the relative era of peace that the Western world experienced during The Concert of Europe and the post-Civil War period that propelled science into a new era. Science-Fiction took off with Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, with striking accuracy, and the fields of physics, astronomy, and chemistry experienced great innovation. The 1920s saw groundbreaking developments in these fields, with the greatest minds in the history of these sciences working contemporaneously.
Among those pioneering minds was Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who contributed significantly to the understanding of space travel. Tsiolkovsky's work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries laid the foundation for astronautics. He developed the concept of using multi-stage rockets to achieve space travel and formulated the famous Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, which relates a rocket's mass, exhaust velocity, and change in velocity.
The burgeoning field of rocket science experienced its first significant surge of innovation during the first three decades of the 20th century when American Rocket Scientist Robert Goddard entered the stage. Goddard's early work in aerodynamics naturally led to his experimentation with solid-fueled rockets during the 1910s. This, in turn, resulted in dozens of patents, including important work on the De Laval nozzle, which allowed more efficient supersonic exhaust flow, and the gyroscope-guided steering system that contributed to the later development of the bazooka made famous by its use in World War II.
The close of the First World War led Goddard away from war-time influenced research and towards the possibility of rocketry in outer space. In 1919, he published A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitude. This report made headlines due to Goddard's suggestion that a rocket could propel itself in a vacuum and, with a large enough rocket, could reach the moon. Newspapers across the country, most notably the New York Times' A Severe Strain on Credulity, attacked Goddard on the basis that a rocket could not perform in a vacuum. He later addressed this misconception in an article in Popular Science.
Goddard continued his experiments, developing a multi-staged solid-fuel rocket and inspiring German scientist Hermann Oberth. He also explored the concept of regenerative cooling in rocket engines, which became an essential technology for later rocket designs. Eventually, in 1926, Goddard achieved his most notable accomplishment by launching the first liquid-fueled rocket, known as the Nell rocket. This technological advancement allowed for finer control over thrust and revolutionized the field.
Goddard's advancements in both the mathematical and physical aspects of rocket science, while monumental, were largely unrecognized in his day. He fought for funding throughout his career, with the foremost funding provided in 1930 by the Guggenheim family. This support sustained him through the final phase of his career in the 1930s. At the outbreak of WWII, Goddard attempted to convince an apathetic Army and Navy of the usefulness of liquid-fueled rockets for long-range missiles. However, his proposals were declined in favor of work on solid-fueled rockets. Goddard died in 1945 with over 200 patents to his name and remained largely unrecognized.
Goddard, along with Tsiolkovsky and German scientist Hermann Oberth, represented the first generation of rocket scientists, blazing the trail for all to follow. These pioneers laid the groundwork for the rapid advancements in rocketry and space exploration that would come in the following decades. Their contributions not only allowed humanity to reach beyond the confines of Earth's atmosphere but also set the stage for the incredible achievements in space exploration witnessed during the 20th and 21st centuries.
The legacy of these early rocket scientists lives on in the modern era of space exploration, as new generations of engineers and scientists build upon their work. The Space Renaissance series will continue to explore the fascinating history and evolution of rocket science and space exploration, celebrating the progress that has been made and looking ahead to the future of humanity's journey among the stars.
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