Robert Goddard's launch of the
first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926.
Robert
Hutchings Goddard pioneered modern rocketry in the United States and
founded a whole field of science and engineering. The son of a machine
shop owner, he was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on October 5, 1882.
Goddard graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1908 and then
became a physics instructor at Worcester Technical University, where he
received an M.A. in 1910 and a Ph.D. in 1911. Goddard was a research
fellow at Princeton in 1912 and 1913 and then joined the faculty at Clark
University, where he became a full professor in 1919.
Motivated by reading science fiction as a boy, Goddard became excited by
the possibility of exploring space. As a youth in 1901 he wrote a short
paper, "The Navigation of Space," that argued that movement could take
place by firing several cannons, "arranged like a 'nest' of beakers." At
his high school oration in 1904, he summarized his life's perspective: "It
is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the
hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." In 1907, he wrote another
paper on the possibility of using radioactive materials to propel a rocket
through interplanetary space. He sent this article to several magazines,
but all rejected it.
Goddard
had an especially inquisitive mind that became curious about spaceflight
by reading and writing science fiction. For instance, as an undergraduate,
he described in a short story a railroad system between Boston and New
York in which the trains travelled in a vacuum under the pull of an
electromagnetic field and completed their trip in 10 minutes.
As a
young physics graduate student he conducted static tests with small
solid-fuel rockets at Worcester Tech, and in 1912 he developed the
detailed mathematical theory of rocket propulsion. He continued these
efforts and actually received two patents in 1914. One was the first for a
rocket using solid and liquid fuel, and the other for a multistage rocket.
In 1915 he proved that rocket engines could produce thrust in a vacuum and
therefore make space flight possible. In 1916 the Smithsonian Institution
provided funds for Goddard to continue his work on solid-propellant
rockets and to begin development of liquid-fuel rockets as well.
During
World War I, Goddard further explored the military possibilities of
rockets. He succeeded in developing several types of solid-fuel rockets to
be fired from handheld or tripod-mounted launching tubes, which formed the
basis of the bazooka and other powerful rocket weapons of World War II.
After
his stint in World War I, Goddard became a professor of physics at Clark
College (later renamed Clark University) in Worcester, Massachusetts.
There he turned his attention to liquid rocket propulsion, theorizing that
liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen were the best fuels, but learning that
oxygen and gasoline were less volatile and therefore more practical. To
support his investigations, Goddard applied to the Smithsonian Institution
for assistance in 1916 and received a $5,000 grant from its Hodgkins Fund.
His research was ultimately published by the Smithsonian as the classic
study, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, in 1919. There, Goddard
argued from a firm theoretical base that rockets could be used to explore
the upper atmosphere. Moreover, he suggested that with a velocity of 6.95
miles per second (11.2 kilometres per second), without air resistance, an
object could escape Earth's gravity and head into infinity, or toward
other celestial bodies. This became known as the Earth's "escape
velocity." He also argued that humans could reach the Moon using these his
techniques.
These
ideas became the great joke for those who believed space flight was either
impossible or impractical. Some ridiculed Goddard's ideas in the popular
press, which caused the already shy Goddard to become even more so. Soon
after the appearance of his publication, he commented that he had been
"interviewed a number of times, and on each occasion have been as
uncommunicative as possible." The New York Times was especially harsh in
its criticisms, referring to him as a dreamer whose ideas had no
scientific validity. It also compared his theories to those advanced by
novelist Jules Verne, indicating that such musing is "pardonable enough in
him as a romancer, but its like is not so easily explained when made by a
savant who isn't writing a novel of adventure." The New York Times
questioned both Goddard's credentials as a scientist and the Smithsonian's
rationale for funding his research and publishing his results in an
editorial on January 18, 1920.
Such
negative publicity prompted Goddard to become even more secretive and
reclusive. It did not, however, stop his work, and he eventually
registered 214 patents on various components of rockets. He concentrated
on the design of a liquid-fuelled rocket (the first such design), and the
related fuel pumps, motors, and control components. On March 16, 1926,
near Auburn, Massachusetts, Goddard launched his first rocket, a liquid
oxygen and gasoline vehicle that rose 184 feet in 2.5 seconds. This event
heralded the modern age of rocketry. He continued to experiment with
rockets and fuels for the next several years. A spectacular launch took
place on July 17, 1929, when he flew the first instrumented payload—an
aneroid barometer, a thermometer, and a camera (to record the readings).
It was the first instrument-carrying rocket. The launch failed; after
rising about 90 feet the rocket turned and struck the ground 171 feet
away. It caused such a fire that neighbours complained to the state fire
marshal and Goddard was prohibited from making further tests in
Massachusetts.
Fortunately, Charles A. Lindbergh, fresh from his transatlantic solo
flight, became interested in Goddard's work. He visited Goddard and was
sufficiently impressed to persuade Daniel Guggenheim, a philanthropist, to
award Goddard a grant of $50,000. With this, Goddard set up an experiment
station in a lonely spot near Roswell, New Mexico. There he built larger
rockets and developed many of his ideas that are now standard in rocketry.
He designed combustion chambers of the appropriate shape, and he burned
gasoline with oxygen in such a way that the rapid combustion could be used
to cool the chamber walls.
From
1930 to 1941, he launched rockets of increasing complexity and capability.
He developed systems for steering a rocket in flight by using a
rudder-like device to deflect the gaseous exhaust, with gyroscopes to keep
the rocket headed in the proper direction. Goddard described many of his
results in 1936, in a classic study, Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development.
The culmination of this effort was a successful launch of a rocket to an
altitude of 9,000 feet in 1941. In late 1941, Goddard entered naval
service and spent the duration of World War II developing a jet-assisted
takeoff (JATO) rocket to shorten the distance required for heavy aircraft
launches. Some of this work led to the development of the “throttlable”
Curtiss-Wright XLR25-CW-1 rocket engine, which later powered the Bell X-2
research airplane and helped overcome the transonic barrier in 1947.
Goddard did not live to see this; he died in Baltimore, Maryland, on
August 10, 1945.
Goddard
accomplished a great deal but because of his modesty, most people did not
know about his achievements during his lifetime. These included theorizing
on the possibilities of jet-powered aircraft, rocket-borne mail and
express, passenger travel in space, nuclear-powered rockets, and journeys
to the Moon and other planets. He also made the first mathematical
exploration of the practicality of using rockets to reach high altitudes
and achieve escape velocity. He patented numerous inventions associated
with space flight.
When
German rocket experts were brought to America after the war and were
questioned about rocketry, they suggested talking to Goddard, the pioneer
in the field. American officials could not do so because Goddard had
already died and his achievements had been overlooked. In 1960 the U.S.
government recognized Goddard's work when the Department of Defence and
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded his
estate $1 million for the use of his 214 rocketry patents. Although he did
not live to see the space age begin, if any one man had a central role in
its creation, it was Goddard.