FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

24
Some New Data on Early Work of the Soviet Scientist-Pioneers
in Rocket Engineering
Recent advances in space exploration have
aroused considerable interest in the history of
cosmonautics as well as in the people who founded
this science and developed theories on interplanetary
travel.
Among the pioneers in rocketry in the first third
of the twentieth century, a prominent place is occupied
by the Soviet scientists Kostantin Eduardovitch
Tsiolkovskiy (1857-1932), founder of theoretical
cosmonautics, Fridrikh Arturovich Tsander
(1887-1933), one of the pioneers of Soviet rocketry,
Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk (1897-1942), a gifted
scientist and inventor. Because of their talents and
efforts, as early as in the first third of the century
the Soviet Union had made substantial contributions
toward the development of interplanetary
travel.
In their works are encountered many interesting
proposals, among which the following deserve special
mention:
1. Employment of liquid-propellant rocket engines.
2. Use of highly reactive metal-base fuel.
3. Use of other kinds of energy (atomic and electrothermal
rocket engines, solar light pressure).
4. Creation of intermediate interplanetary bases
utilizing artificial satellites of the Earth and
other celestial bodies.
5. Employment of multistage rockets and development
of their theory.
6. Use of rocket structures as an additional source
of fuel.
7. Fitting the first rocket stages with airfoils, and
employment of airfoils for re-entry to Earth or
for a gliding descend onto planets possessing an
atmosphere.
V. N. SOKOLSKY, Soviet Union
269
8. Use of other planets' gravitational fields to increase
the velocity of space vehicles.
A study of the scientific legacy bequeathed by
these founders is of great scientific and cognitive
interest, for it enables us to trace the development
of this branch of engineering and provides for a
better insight into the psychology of the scientific
creativity of these outstanding scientists, engineers,
and inventors.
Recently, a group of Soviet historians of rocket
and space engineering have studied the scientific
legacy of Tsiolkovskiy, Tsander, and Kondratyuk,
the founders of rocket engineering. Space limitations
do not permit us to deal at great length with
all the results obtained; we shall therefore dwell
only on those aspects associated with the initial
period of the activities of each of these scientists, as
well as on several fundamental principles that will
permit us to clarify certain points in the history of
rocket engineering.
Until recently in many works and especially in
foreign publications, it has been said that Tsiolkovskiy
devoted himself to problems of interplanetary
travel only in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, having been influenced by scientific fiction,
particularly that of Jules Verne.
In reality, he was interested in this problem as
early as 1873-76, during his stay in Moscow, when
he conjectured that cosmic velocities could be
achieved by utilizing the properties of centrifugal
force.
During the years 1878-79, Tsiolkovskiy began to
compile his astronomic drawings. In the same years
he proposed a device for investigating the effect of
gravitational acceleration on living organisms.