H.Goddard

Goddard. Robert. H. is an American professor and inventor born in 1882, who is generally considered to be “Father of Rocketry” as he is “foremost among the first generation of rocket and space pioneers to credit with launching the world's first liquid-propellant rocket”, (World of Earth Science, December 1, 2006). Goddard developed the technique of liquid oxygen cooling the combustion chamber on its way from the fuel tank which is still in use in modern spacecraft. Goddard is also the man who proved the possibility of rocket working in vacuum based on Newton’s third law, as well as putting Tsiolkovsky’s theory of rocketry into practice. (Unknown, Wiki answers, ID2573934999, http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_Robert_Goddard's_contribution_to_rocket_science)

Goddard began to work on rocket development in early 1909 while studying physics and continued after becoming a professor. Goddard first experimented with a rocket powdered by gunpowder in the basement of the physics building when he was still a college student. He then continued his exploration in 1914 with 2 rockets designed, “one is two-stage powder rocket, followed by patents for a cartridge-loading rocket and a rocket that burned a mixture of gasoline and liquid nitrous oxide.”(Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present. Ed. Brigham Narins. Detroit: Gale Group, 2008. Gale Science in Context. Web. 12 Nov. 2010) He then explored more on achieving higher rates of energy efficiency by using steel combustion chamber and a sleeker exhaust nozzle (Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present, 2008)

In 1915, Goddard, as an assistant professor proved that Newton’s reaction principle worked in the vacuum mathematically, showing that rockets “put the reaction principle to maximum use by creating high-pressure gas which will push the rocket in the opposite direction. “ (M.K.Carson, 2006, exploring the solar system, unknown, Chicago) As the rocket fuel burns, it produces a large volume of hot gas, which becomes its...