2000 April 4, SPS 1020 (Introduction to Space Sciences) - Mid-term Exam 2 on Thursday, April 6 - Read PBD Chs. 6 & 13 for Tuesday, April 11 - Read PBD Chs. 15 & 16 for Thursday, April 13 --------------- Spaceflight Past: A Brief History of Spaceflight, including Why Do This? ---------------- Why learn history? To avoid making the mistakes of the past. Also as a guide to what to do in the future. - 1200s: Gunpowder rockets originated as "fire-arrows" in China. For centuries, used to scare off enemies, and for fireworks. - 1812: Rockets first made into practical weapons by William Congreve (British). Used against the U.S. in the War of 1812. "The Star-Spangled Banner" mentions "the rocket's red glare": these were the same rockets. - 1903: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a nearly deaf Russian schoolteacher, publishes a theoretical study of rocket fuels, including: The Rocket Equation (also known as Tsiolkovsky's equation) ------------------- This treatise emphasizes the usefulness of liquid fuels, especially liquid hydrogen (H_2) and liquid oxygen (O_2). Later, Tsiolkovsky publishes many other theoretical space concepts. Many are remarkably advanced, including solar sails, space elevators, O'Neil colonies, and Dyson spheres. "The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever." -- Tsiolkovsky Throughout his life, Tsiolkovsky is derided as a crank, but he dies in 1935 a Hero of the Soviet Union, since the Russian military has become interested in rockets (later used extensively in World War II). - 1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright fly the first heavier-than-air flying machine, or airplane. Many newspapers do not carry the story, because they don't believe it. At the time, automobiles are uncommon, being less reliable than horses. - 1914-1918: World War I, ends in defeat for Germany - 1923: Hermann Oberth, a mathematics teacher in Germany, publishes a 92-page pamphlet "The Rocket into Interplanetary Space." This pamphlet was at first a vanity printing (he paid the publication costs himself, being unable to convince a publisher to do so). It however became the first theoretical treatise on spaceflight to be taken seriously. It was a huge hit, inspiring movies (especially Frau im Mond, "The Woman in the Moon", by Fritz Lang) and rocket clubs in Germany. In one of these clubs was a teenager, Wernher von Braun. - 1926: Robert Goddard, a physics professor at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, launches the world's first liquid-fueled rocket. Goddard was shy and adverse to publicity. He reacted strongly to ridicule to an early theoretical work of his, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes": "Professor Goddard...does not know the relation of action to re-action, and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react....he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." -- 1920 New York Times editorial The New York Times printed a retraction to this---in 1969, when the Apollo 11 astronauts were launched to the Moon. Goddard would, however, take out at least 214 patents, on liquid-fueled rockets, multi-staged rockets, guidance, gyrostabilization, pumps, valves, and nearly all other aspects of rocketry. "Every rocket that flies is a Goddard rocket." Goddard was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, and helped by Charles Lindberg. Because of his rockets' noise, his neighbors forced him to relocate to Roswell, New Mexico, where there still is a museum on his work---and much better than that OTHER museum in Roswell! Goddard's work had little influence in the U.S., but his patents would be studied carefully by Wernher von Braun and his team in Germany. "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and reality of tomorrow." -- Robert Goddard - 1933: Hitler and the Nazi party come to power in Germany. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, forbade defeated Germany from posessing the long-range artillery that had been important in that war. The German army, led by Captain (later General) Walter Dornberger, becomes interested in rockets. - 1939: Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II. - 1942-1945: Wernher von Braun and his team at Peenemuende, on the Baltic coast in Germany, develop the V-2 missile, the first rocket capable of reaching Outer Space. "Do you realize what we accomplished today? Today the space ship was born!" -- General Walter Dornberger, to Wernher von Braun It was not used to explore space, at least not at first. It is used as a weapon of war, a terrifying one: it was impossible to defend against, it gave no warning (flying faster than sound, one didn't hear it until it hit), and it did not discriminate between military and civilian targets. The V-2 has an even more unsavory history. Most of the V-2 rockets were made by slave laborers, over 30,000 of whom would die in horrifying conditions---more victims than on the receiving end of the weapon. Although Sagan calls von Braun a "Nazi-American" in "Pale Blue Dot", von Braun was never a Nazi: he never joined the Nazi party. He was also never directly responsible for the slave labor camps---although he surely did know of them. Over the years, though, he would say strange things, e.g.: "Once [the rockets] go up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department." I am telling you this perfectly awful story because if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, I hope you handle it better than he did. Also, technical people often treat people afraid of technology as cranks. This is a mistake, since sometimes their fears are real. - 1945: Shortly before he died, Robert Goddard got to inspect a captured V-2. Except for its size, the design was almost identical to his own---and he and his staff knew it immediately. (The Germans were amazed at the U.S. government's lack of interest in Goddard's work.) - 1945: World War II ends with the nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasake, dropped by aircraft. The Cold War between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. begins almost immediately. The government of Josef Stalin, head of the U.S.S.R., publicly states they seek to impose his "totalitarian system of government on the entire world." Stalin also orders Soviet scientists to develop nuclear weapons, long-range bombers, and long-range missiles. In America, reaction to long-range missiles is less than universal: "People have been talking about a 3,000 mile high-angle rocket shot from one continent to another, carrying an atomic bomb and so directed as to be a precise weapon... I think we can leave that out of our thinking." -- Dr. Vannevar Bush, 1945 - 1945: Operation Paperclip: Knowing Germany is on the brink of defeat, the von Braun team willingly surrenders to the U.S. Some German rocket scientists were captured by the Soviet Union; as predicted, they were treated not nearly as well. Von Braun and team are taken to Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas. Relocated in 1950 to Huntsville, Alabama, where they continue developing rockets for the U.S. Army, becoming the Redstone Arsenal (and later, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center). - 1950: First rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, Bumper 8 (a V-2 with a WAC Corporal second stage). - 1952-1954: Colliers magazine articles, "Man Will Conquer Space SOON!" Text by von Braun; illustrations by Chesley Bonestell. These condition the American public to the idea that space travel isn't so fantastic, after all. They also outline the plan for human space exploration that NASA is still following: Space Shuttle -> Space Station -> Moon Base -> Flight to Mars - 1954: Both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. produce operational Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, or ICBMs. US: Atlas, by U.S. Air Force (not von Braun) USSR: R-7, by team directed by Sergei Korolev (The U.S.S.R.'s secret "Chief Designer") Both countries have thermonuclear weapons, or hydrogen bombs, much more powerful than the fission weapons used against Japan. The Cold War becomes chilly indeed. Through the 1950s, many pads on The Cape would be built along "ICBM row", for Atlas, Titan, and Thor (which would eventually become the Delta), all still in service as commercial launchers, and for other missiles. "Space travel is utter bilge." -- Sir Richard Woolley, Astronomer Royal, 1956 - 1957 October 4: Korolev launches Sputnik, the first artifical satellite. The American public reacts STRONGLY, with FEAR and ANGER at the U.S. Government: "We definitely should have been the first, if there are such things!" Part of this fear was of the unknown. Many people had to have what a satellite is, and why it stays up, explained to them. They instantly realized, however, that this thing was flying over their heads: if the Soviets could do this, they could launch a nuclear bomb into America's heartland. It also set an important precedent: the Soviets established freedom of space. They asked no one's permission to launch Sputnik, they just did it. Sputnik did not carry weapons. It had something far more effective: a beeping radio transmitter any ham radio hobbyist could pick up. - 1957 November 3: Sputnik 2, Soviets orbit a dog in a 6000-lb capsule. This was definitely big enough for a weapon; American public dreads it. - 1957 December 6: Vanguard: First U.S. attempt to launch a satellite. Pad explosion, dismal failure. Press: "Oh, what a flopnik!" - 1958 January 31: First successful U.S. satellite launch, Explorer I, by Wernher von Braun and his Redstone team. First scientific satellite: discovers the Van Allen radiation belts. - 1958: NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency, is founded. It is a civilian agency, chartered to explore space in full view of the world. - 1957-1965: Soviets enjoy many successes (see inside cover of Pale Blue Dot). U.S. rockets blow up a lot. Of course, this perception is helped by the U.S.S.R. being a totalitarian state with tight media censorship: no one hears of many failures until the 1990s. - 1959 Luna 1, Luna 2: first spacecraft to fly by, impact Moon. - 1961 April 12: Yuri Gagarin becomes first human to fly in space, making one orbit of Earth in Vostok 1. - 1961 May 5: Alan Shepard becomes first American in space: Mercury-Redstone sub-orbital shot. "We sent some dogs up and down, just like Alan Shepard!" -- Yuri Gagarin - 1961 May: Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba. U.S.-supported coup to topple Communist leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, ends in total defeat. This embarrassed U.S. President John F. Kennedy greatly. He needed to save face politically. He made the following announcement, with his characteristic charisma: "...I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind or more important for the long-range exploration of space, and none will be so difficult, or expensive to accomplish." -- President John F. Kennedy, 1961 May 25 A comment by his Vice President, who being V.P. was head of NASA, also summed up the spirit of the times: Space is clearly the great breakthrough of human knowledge---for centuries to come...We have a long and undistinguished record of America failing to anticipate the promise and potential of each new age of science, invention, and discovery...Even so far-sighted an American as Woodrow Wilson spent time denouncing the automobile. The steamboat, the locomotive, the airplane, all brought prophecies of doom and gloom. We have learned a lesson we surely do not need to be be taught again. -- Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, June 1963 - 1962 February 20: John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth, on first Mercury-Atlas. Project Mercury was documented well by "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe. - 1963: Von Braun begins development of the Saturn V Moon rocket. Brief period of "budgetless financing": NASA expanding rapidly! This period was documented well by "If the Sun Dies", by Oriana Fallaci. - 1963: First woman in space, U.S.S.R.'s Valentina Tereshkova. - 1964: Anticipating U.S. two-man Gemini spacecraft, U.S.S.R. flies first multi-person spacecraft, 3-man Voskhod 1. - 1963 November: Kennedy assassinated; Johnson becomes president, until 1968. - 1964: Rainbow test: U.S. detonates a nuclear bomb in space. World reacts with shock and outrage: the Outer Space Treaty of 1964, forbidding nuclear weapons in space, soon signed. Other Outer Space Treaties, of 1967 and 1970, forbid territorial claims by any nation: the American flags planted during the Moon landings were strictly ceremonial. - 1965: Soviets kick our butts yet again. Alexei Leonov makes first spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Almost becomes first space fatality, since he has serious trouble getting back into his Voskhod 2 spacecraft! - 1965-1966: U.S. Gemini program, 2-man spacecraft, perform EVAs, long-duration (1-2 week) missions, first orbital rendezvous (meeting between two spacecraft), docking, fuel cells, tethers. Rapid technology development: for the first time, U.S. surpasses U.S.S.R. - 1966 Soviet Luna 9: first soft landing on Moon. Luna 10: first spacecraft to orbit Moon. - 1966-1967: U.S. Lunar Orbiter (mapping), Surveyor (lunar softlander) series, highly successful - 1966: Sergei Korolev dies during a routine gall bladder operation. The Soviet space program doesn't get over it soon. - 1967: First space fatalities: 1967 January 27: The Apollo 1 Fire: Gus Grisson, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee die of asphyxiation as their spacecraft, pressurized with pure oxygen, catches fire. Apollo and NASA are almost shut down by Sen. Walter Mondale. NASA gets an important lesson: the public does not readily forgive accidents that kill astronauts. 1967 May: Vladimir Kozyrev becomes U.S.S.R.'s first space fatality, and the first to die during a space flight. The new Soyuz spacecraft has non-stop problems, and upon landing, its parachute tangles, slamming him into the ground at high speed.