Rocket Science Page 5   The real scientist ... Robert H. Goddard was the first American to advance the science of rocketry. Goddard begain experimenting with rocket propulsion in 1906 or 1907. In 1914 he received two U.S. patents, one for a liquid-fueled rocket engine and the other for a two or three-stage solid fuel rocket. In January of 1920, he wrote a report for the Smithsonian entitled "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." The report was mostly technical but in it he also outlined how a rocket might reach the moon. The press went wild on the lunar story. Goddard, the scientist, felt he was being regarded as a crackpot. Two things came of the incident. Goddard moved to Roswell, N.M. to conduct his experiments in relative seclusion. (This was before the aliens arrived.) His Smithsonian pamphlet found its way to Germany. Scorned or ignored at home, in Europe Robert Goddard's science played an important part in what would become the rocket program of the German Army. Goddard, who had developed the concept of the bazooka in the waning days of World War I, worked for the U.S. Navy in World War II. Rockets have four major systems: an airframe, the propulsions system, guidance system, and control system. They exist to deliver a payload. Goddard was awarded 200 patents, including important advances in liquid fuel (propulsion, 1926), the first use of vanes in the rocket motor blast for control (1932), and the first gyro guidance system for rocket flight (1932). He also launched the first scientific payload, a barometer and a camera, in 1929. Many of his principles are still in use today. < Previous page 1  2  3  4  5
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