Page 67 - Intro to Space Sciences Spacecraft Applications

54
Introduction to Space Sciences and Spacecraft Applications
Foundation arranged by pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, continued his
work with liquid-fueled rockets (in seclusion from the press), solving
many of the practical problems involved with such an endeavor.
The third rocket pioneer of note was Hermann Oberth, a German
schoolteacher, whose paper “The Rocket into Interplanetary Space”
(1923) gained him the attention of his country and whose research culmi-
nated in the development of the V-2 rocket used by Hitler to terrorize Eng-
land during the second world war.
Also instrumental in the development of the V-2 was Wernher von
Braun, who surrendered to American troops in 1945 and went on to
become a driving force in U.S. rocket development efforts. Von Braun’s
first U.S. rocket, the Redstone (which later carried America’s first man
into space), was ready for launch in 1956 but, for military and political
reasons, was not allowed to launch until much later. Nonetheless, von
Braun was instrumental in the development of the Jupiter C rocket that
placed America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit in January 1958 and
the development of the Saturn family of rockets which were the mainstay
of the Apollo program’s goal to reach the moon.
But it was early in the morning of October 4,1957, that the “Space Age”
truly began when the first beeps from the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik I could
be heard around the globe. In those Cold War days, America was alarmed
by the obvious potential this represented for a power possessing nuclear
capabilities. The main U.S. space effort at that time was the Navy’s Pro-
ject Vanguard, which was suddenly pressured to match the Soviet
achievement. The attempt proved premature as the rocket blew up on the
pad on December 6, 1957, in front of a television audience of millions.
Although Vanguard was eventually successful, it was the Army’s Explor-
er program, headed by von Braun, which brought America into the Space
Age and began the efforts, fueled by national competition, to create larg-
er and more capable rockets for purposes of launching machine and man
into the environment of space.

FIRST PRINCIPLES

Whatever space mission is undertaken, the spacecraft must first be put
into an orbit and, secondly, may need to maneuver as well. For this it
requires some sort of propulsion system and, in most cases, more than
one. While there are a number of advanced types in development, the vast
majority of propulsion systems today produce thrust by the expulsion of