History of rockets
When was rocket born? Where was it invented and
by whom???
Truly speaking there are no perfect answers for
these as few say that they were used by the people in BC years, though they don’t
know why and how those rockets are propelled, But they do somehow know that a
body can be propelled by releasing some mass preferably gases and the real
scientific knowledge of rocket propulsion has developed in 17 century.
Aeolipile
So, that was the foundation of rockets and its
propulsion. In the early years of AD, a philosopher named HERON from ALEXANDRIA has
invented a steam powered device AEOLIPILE famously known as HERO ENGINE. Heron
mounted a sphere on top of a water kettle. A fire below the kettle turned the
water into steam, and the gas traveled through pipes to the sphere. Two
L-shaped tubes on opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas to escape, and
in doing so gave a thrust to the sphere that caused it to rotate.
Later on chinese started using rockets for
explosion in the wars without actually knowing the scientific principle beyond it.
They named it as `the arrows of fire’. The journey went on like that for many
centuries without any scientific laws and then came the legendry SIR ISAAC
NEWTON who gave the action- reaction principle which was his third law of
motion.
INITIATION OF MODERN ROCKETRY
Later the leading countries concentrated on
developing rockets for their usage in wars. This gave birth to the modern
rockets.
In 1898, a Russian school teacher, Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), proposed the idea of space exploration by rocket. He suggested
the use of liquid propellants for rockets in order to achieve greater range. He
has been called the father of modern astronautics. Early in the 20th century,
an American, Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), conducted practical experiments in
rocketry, solid propellant and liquid propellant rockets. Goddard, for his achievements,
has been called the father of modern rocketry. A third great space pioneer,
Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) published a book in 1923 about rocket travel into
outer space.
Robbert H.Goddard
Birth of v-2 rocket
Then came the most important step in the rocket
history, the invention of V-2 rocket by VAN BROWN, a German scientist, has really
changed the features of modern rocketry. It is the first rocket used for transporting
the pay loads, which were used in worldwar 2 for mass destruction. After that many
scientists worked on it and now the rockets has become the vehicles to the
space.
v-2 rocket
They were used to impress the people,
They were used for fireworks and small explosions.
They were used for wars,
And now they were used as space vehicles to conquer the universe and no
one knows, where this journey is
destined to……
