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75 Years Ago, Goddard Launchs Space Age
karmma writes "The Boston Globe noted in this story that the space age began 75 years ago today with the launching of a rocket by Robert Goddard on a farm in Worcester, Mass.
" I've been told by a couple people that it's actually Auburn, MA - I think they are right.
Well, you could try the X-Prize team listings. Quite a few amateurish efforts listed there.
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Later came the power politics of the 60's and 70's. The great achievements of that era, like Armstrong walking on the moon in '69, were soured by the terrible emotions and motives that underlay them. If only space exploration had remained an amateur effort, we may have got much farther, in a spiritual sense as well in a technical one.
The problem with the power politics, and the death struggles of Nations that lay beneath, is that it has made us impotent. We no longer believe that amateur space exploration is possible.
Well, the simple fact is that it can be done. Spirited men, untainted by cruel ideaologies, can go forth and challenge our conceptual ideas with needing taxpayers money or approval from Senatorial commissions. Right now, as we speak, people in England, France America and Japan are planning this very thing.
Later shall come the commercial interests, and they will up the scale and challenge even more fronteirs, but in the cold hearted interests of profit and influence.
All these different interests, the amateur, the Government and the corporation, are driven by prestige. But nationalism has no place in space exploration, and nor does profit seeking. The status seeking and curiosity of the private individual is what we want to encourage.
Do we, as a race, have the guts and imagination to pull this through? I hope so, but sometimes it seems that we just don't have the balls :/
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I started doing some research on whether Goddard had any influence on von Braun. I didn't find anything conclusive either way, but I did find out that the character Dr. Strangelove is apparently a parody of Wernher von Braun. I guess people were generally suspicious of a former Nazi all of the sudden working for the U.S.
I think the occasional spasms where Dr. Strangelove starts doing the Nazi hand thing make it pretty clear that the guy is supposed to be an ex-Nazi. (And one who hasn't changed much.)
The source I found said 1500 rockets were fired and 2500 people were killed.
Just to clarify, I was actually wondering out loud if the parent of my original post was a troll. I didn't state that very clearly. I only say this because I personally get tired of people who point out that their own posts might be trolls, or that the moderator might think that they are trolls. It's some weird reverse-psychology on the moderators, I think, and it annoys me.
Anyway, that really has little to with your response.
I too am sad that brilliant people like Goddard and Heisenberg supported the Nazis. But that doesn't change the fact that Goddard was influential to American rocketry, and that Heisenberg was pivotal in the creation of Quantum Mechanics.
(And to those of you in the audience: Before you YHBT YHL HAND me, I realize this might be a troll. At the same time, there are a lot of people in History and English at the college level who think like this poster.)
Okay - I just want to know who the moderator was that said this was informative.
I have to admit, it's a (5, Funny) though.
-"Zow"
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Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Space Age really started in the Nazi fields of Pennemunde. Sad to say this but it is a fact. It was a V2 the first rocket to reach the edge of Space and boost the interest of nations for it. The limit of near 150 kilometers was reached in 1942. Truly Nazis were only able to produce a ballistic orbit. Besides they were only worried about such orbits. One German general who risked to suggest the development of V2s to reach circular near-earth orbits was arrested for treason...
However it is extraordinary that Goddard's homeland didn't seriously cared for his works. It was only after the war and by taking a few german scientists, that the US started its serious rocket program. Yes, US tried to reach Space by progress was slow and had miserable support (the first planned US satellite was the size of an apple)
Russia managed to get three steps in front of the US. And why? Because it had already a rocket program that started in the 30's. It also got its piece of Pennemunde's treasures (in fact Pennemunde stayed in soviet occupied territory). And the most illarious was that USSR got first to Space because... The A-bomb was heavier than the US one! Recently one Russian scientist noted that this was one of the main factors that gave a boost to Soviet Space program. They had to plan and build rockets more powerful than the US because of the weight of the A-bomb. And when the question came to launch the Sputnik, their tasks were much more easier to solve because they had the powerful R-7 already in place.
Ok let's go to the extremes:
Man on the Moon??? Tell me that America exists... Do you really believe the the USA exists? That they have Coca-Cola, Highways, and Space Shuttles? Look Coke is nothing more than burned sugar. Anyone can do this. Highways? They can film that on Germany. Space Shuttle? Cool, look at Japan's technological powers. They can simulate that! and even have the money for it!
Ohhhhhh!!!! There is the dollar... I heard it is mainly produced here...
Perhaps you mean the LIQUID-FUELED ROCKET AGE? Well, no luck either, because it is totally meaningless, given that the largest payloads launched today (including the Space Shuttle) are launched in part by SOLID-FUELED rockets...
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(Invited to the same TV show as Von-Braun, Isaac Asimov refused to shake a hand that shook Hitler's...)
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ALmost halfway back to the first rockets,
Kubrick and Clarke made the 2001 movie.
Halfway back the APollo program was in full swing.
Not a whole lot of progress since then,
considering most of Kubrick's technology is feasable.
It was 1969 and were several trips to the moon starting with Apollo 11
http://Lenny.com
They ignored Tesla when he said that alternating current was the way to go, and gave edison all the recognition for bringing electricity to the public, even though he tried and failed to do it with DC, and Tesla's proposed AC system ended up being the key. This is another case where the inventer of a cool technology is for the most part ignored. Society tends to do that. It seems to happen a lot too. I wonder what will be remembered and forgotten about our current computer technology and it's creators...
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Play Six Pack Man. I
I never cease to be amazed by those from the USA that seem to thin Neil Armstrong walking on the moon was the crowing achievement in the long an arduous race between the US and the USSR, whre the US emerged triumphant.
It wasn't. The US lost the race when Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space on April 12, 1961, orbiting the Earth for 108 minutes in Vostok 1.
That's why today's astronomy picture of the day features Robdrt Goddard and one of his funky looking rockets.
All your event are belong to us.
Robert Goddard had a good idea, but he held it close to himself and absolutely refused to look at work being done elsewhere. Over the years after his first attempts, he continued to make attempts to get his little candle to work, while others who had a slightly less vapid case of NIH (not invented here) were dropping explosives on London, a couple tons at a time.
He was a selfish, egotistical mean little man, and his attitude resulted in his being remembered for his funny little rocket that almost would.
Don't take life too seriously; it isn't permanent.
Just because something is a religion doesn't mean it has no genetic correlations. And hypocrisy is a very human trait that is selected for genetically so long as people can use tricks to avoid being called on it -- like aggressively calling anyone who would do so an "antisemite" or a "nazi" and then defining "antidefamation" to consist of such aggressive slander/libel.
Seastead this.
It is interesting that both Lindberg and Goddard were funded by the same Jew (Guggenheim), both were pioneers (if not heros) of aerospace and both are accused of being "antisemites" and having their reputations trashed because of it long after their deaths.
Seastead this.
Greenwald, A. G., & Schuh, E. S. (1994) "An ethnic bias in scientific citations" European Journal of Social Psychology 24623-639 demonstrates a pattern of ethnic discrimination in scientific citations whereby Jewish authors were 40 percent more likely to cite Jewish authors than were non-Jewish authors. Jewish first authors of scientific papers were also approximately three times more likely to have Jewish coauthors than were non-Jewish first authors. Although the methods used in the study did not allow determination of the direction of discrimination, the findings reported throughout this volume strongly suggest that a large proportion of the discrimination originates with Jewish scientists.
MacDonald, K. "Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements" p 216
Seastead this.
Also, the web site for the Goddard archives at Clark University has this FAQ that is worth reviewing.
Seastead this.
Really, what has happened? We started out with a bang! A trip to the Moon in 1968, and then what? Absolutely nothing. Incredible. Where did us geeks go wrong? Did we not try hard enough to convince the "suits" that our causes were good enough?
I was expecting a trip to Jupiter by now (2001, doncha know?) It's sad. I was looking forward to a vacation on the moon.
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That's just the way it is
This, of course, is a good example of the weakness of the proprietary world view espoused by Goddard and his like. Note those 200-some patents he filed in his lifetime. That paradigm might have worked for an inventor like Edison, who worked on numerous small projects, but it fails for more complex science, like rocketry (or large-scale software development).
A good friend of mine told me a story about when he was a teenager, between WWII and the Korean war. He was visiting a distant cousin who lived on a farm. The two teenagers spent a morning drinking beer and trying to dig a stump out of the ground. Finally, the cousin's father sent my friend into town to buy a case of dynamite at the hardware store. My friend was a stranger in town. The only question the store clerk asked was "Do you need some blasting caps with that?"
This happened less than 50 years ago. If a strange, tipsy teenager tried to buy dynamite today, what kind of reaction do you think he'd get? How long would it take to get him out of jail? The world has changed for the worse, and it has changed recently. That's the point I want to make with this little story: a lot of the bad things we take for granted today are very recent developments.
I don't think that anyone would want to go back to the world of 50 years ago, in which Jim Crow laws were accepted, but the changes between then and now weren't all for the better. Remember Billy the Kid? He's famous because he was so unusual then. He wouldn't stand out the same way today.
See what I've been reading.
Not liquid-fuel rockets, which is what Goddard pioneered.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
Slashdot needs a real editor.
With some of the legislation that's been passing recently (copyright extension, UCITA, DMCA etc), it seems as if that's exactly what you're government is trying to achieve.
Rich
The sad thing about the US government is that although it was supposed to be "by the people for the people", it seems that they're reverting into standard government practice. It will soon get to the point where USAns are no better off than if they hadn't bothered with the whole revolution thing.
Rich
I don't know if anyone is curious, but the article sparked the question for me: How successful were Goddard's launches? I found the following info here in Goddard FAQ.
Which of Dr. Goddard's rockets flew the highest?
Dr. Goddard launched rocket L-13 on March 26, 1937 and the peak altitude that it reached was approximately 1.7 miles off of the ground in 22.3 seconds. By comparison, his first rocket, which he launched on March 16, 1926, reached an altitude of only 41 feet and landed 184 feet away 2.5 seconds after it was launched.
Goddards early rocket flights were faked. I saw it on the FOX network.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
That's rocket age. Not space age. The space age began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik.
All it takes is nukes and nerves.
You would think that the patents would have expired from the 1920's and 30's. Even the 40's
Have the recent changes in the copyright law extended those as well, so that Nasa is in constant violation of patents from over 50 years ago?
Greed runs Rampant!
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
A little Von Braun commentary from the early '60s
"Once the rockets go up who cares where they come down. That's not my department", says Wernher Von Braun
Tom Lehrer's song "Wernher Von Braun"
Von Braun's autobiography was "I Aim for the Stars". Posters for it at bookstores often had the handwritten addition "But, sometimes I hit London"
Today all are owned by obscure companies suing NASA for big bucks. Every satelite launch buys them another Malibu beach house. :)
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
From Nasa's page on Goddard:
Yet, several score of the 1750 copies of the 1920 Smithsonian report [by Goddard about the feasibity of sending a rocket to the moon] reached Europe. The German Rocket Society was formed in 1927, and the German Army began its rocket program in 1931.
The founder of the German Rocket Society was Hermann Oberth, who had done theoretical work on rocketry for his doctoral thesis (although it was rejected) in the early twenties. Oberth would have been one of the few people in Europe who would have been interested in Goddard's work and taken the implications of it seriously. In the early thirties Oberth took on von Braun as an assistant. It seems fairly certain that Oberth would have followed Goddard's career with interest, and that von Braun would therefore have been aware of Goddard's experiments.
Russian schoolteacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was proposing manned and unmanned spaceflight using rockets while Robert Goddard was still in diapers.
Tsiolkovsky, who was self-taught from the age of 10, was inspired by sci-fi pioneer Jules Verne. He became a writer himself but left fiction behind to work on the more theoretical problems of space exploration.
His contributions to the field are too numerous to list here, but here is his seminal "Plan of Space Exploration" of 1926:
Currently, we're about half way down the list.
More info on the recognised father of astronautics can be found at the Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics, which also has a more complete biography. Even NASA recognises that modern rocketry began with his endeavours in this article oriented for kids.
Goddard may have been the first to launch a rocket in modern times (as earlier posters pointed out, the Chinese were using rockets centuries earlier), but he followed and everyone else followed in Tsiolkovsky's footsteps.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg