FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

274 SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT
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FIGURE 7.—Excerpt from Kondratyuk's second manuscript, in
which he discusses "Reaction from repulsion by electrical
charges of material particles . Based on such a method,
I am thinking of inventing a powerful vehicle. Only suitable
when the rocket reaches the void of outer space."
from the viewpoint of their importance to the
history of science and technology, it should be
borne in mind that these manuscripts were not
published in time, and their contents did not
become known earlier than 1925. Consequently,
before 1925, they could not have had any influence
in the development of rocket engineering, and,
as far as that period is concerned, they are of
interest only as part of the evolutions of ideas of
interplanetary travel.
Let us now return to Tsiolkovskiy's works. As
is known, they were published in 1903, 1911-12,
and 1914 (we are considering here only his research
works, not his scientific fiction). Then, after a tenyear
interval, in 1924, his first work (1903) was
republished as a separate brochure, with minor
corrections and additions. This caused some historians
to suppose that Tsiolkovskiy had ceased
working on the problems of rocket engineering and
interplanetary travel after 1914, and returned to
these problems only in 1923 after the publication
of H. Oberth's Die Rakete zu den Planetenrdumen
(The Rocket into Interplanetary Space).
In fact, this last statement is erroneous, as evidenced
by the unpublished notes, "Extension of
Man into Outer Space," dated 1921. Until recently,
these notes were probably not within the reach of
researchers, because they were kept, not with his
manuscripts devoted to the problems of reaction
propulsion and interplanetary travel, but with his
manuscripts on the universe. They came to light
only when a research group of the Institute of the
History of Natural Science and Technology of the
USSR Academy of Sciences began a systematic
study of all his manuscripts.
These notes cannot be considered as completed
work. Rather, they are rough drafts which nevertheless
are of considerable interest, for they evidently
represent the first attempt made by Tsiolkovskiy
after the first world war to return to the
problems of conquering outer space with reaction
(jet-propelled) vehicles.
In the very beginning of the manuscript (dated
21 September 1921), Tsiolkovskiy enumerated the
possible methods for attaining cosmic velocities.
He points out that the following means can be
used to achieve this aim:
1. Repulsion of gases, solids, and liquids (reaction vehicles).
2. Electric flux . . Outflow of negative or positive electricity.
3. Pressure of light rays.
4. Radiation of matter, for example, radium .1°
Somewhat later (11 October 1921), Tsiolkovskiy
returned to this problem again and answered his
own question (what can the engines be used for?)
as follows:
1. Direct light-pressure provides motion in space, making it
possible to move away from the Sun, to approach it, to
restore velocities.
2. Motors serve for movement in gaseous medium, to obtain
a velocity or the first impulse . A 1
It is notable that here Tsiolkovskiy touches upon
the use of various types of engines. He points out
that for the purpose of overcoming gravity and
atmospheric resistance, use should be made of reaction
engines operating on chemical fuel, but
once the spacecraft travels beyond the Earth's
gravitational field and is in a dynamically balanced
state, it is more appropriate to make use of low-