Robert H. Goddard facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Robert H. Goddard
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| Born | October 5, 1882 Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.
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| Died | August 10, 1945 (aged 62) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S
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| Nationality | American |
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| Occupation | Professor, aerospace engineer, physicist, inventor |
| Known for | First liquid-fueled rocket |
| Spouse(s) |
Esther Christine Kisk
(m. 1924–1945) |
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Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was a rocket scientist who helped make space travel possible.
Contents
Early life
Robert Hutchings Goddard was born on October 5, 1882, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Even as a young boy, Robert was fascinated by the idea of space travel. He dreamed of building machines that could soar through the sky and reach the stars.
One day, when Robert was 16 years old, he climbed a cherry tree in his backyard. As he looked up at the sky, he imagined traveling to Mars. This moment was like a spark that ignited his passion for rockets. From that day on, he dedicated his life to making his dream a reality.
Robert was a bright and curious student. He studied hard and loved to learn about science and math. After high school, he went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute and later to Clark University, where he earned his Ph.D. in physics.
While he was studying, Robert began experimenting with rockets. He knew that to travel to space, rockets needed to be powerful enough to escape Earth's gravity. He started by testing different types of fuel and rocket designs.
But building rockets wasn't easy. Robert faced many challenges. He didn't have much money, and some people didn't believe that rockets could ever travel to space. But Robert was determined to prove them wrong.
The First Liquid-Fueled Rocket
One of Robert's biggest achievements was building the first liquid-fueled rocket. Before Robert, most rockets used solid fuel, like gunpowder. But liquid fuel, like gasoline or liquid oxygen, is much more powerful.
On March 16, 1926, Robert launched his liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. It was a small rocket, only about 10 feet tall, and it flew for just a few seconds, reaching a height of 41 feet. But it was a historic moment. It proved that liquid-fueled rockets could work, and it paved the way for future space travel.
Developing Rocket Technology
After his first successful launch, Robert continued to improve his rockets. He developed new designs, experimented with different fuels, and invented new technologies.
One of his important inventions was the turbopump, a device that pumps fuel into the rocket engine. Turbopumps are still used in rockets today. He also developed a way to steer rockets using vanes in the exhaust stream.
Robert's work was groundbreaking, but it wasn't always easy. He often worked alone, with limited resources. He faced criticism and skepticism from people who didn't understand his vision.
Moving to Roswell, New Mexico
In 1930, Robert moved to Roswell, New Mexico. The wide-open spaces and dry climate of New Mexico were perfect for testing rockets. With the support of the Guggenheim Foundation, Robert built a research facility and continued his work.
In Roswell, Robert and his team launched many rockets, pushing the boundaries of what was possible. They developed larger and more powerful rockets, reaching higher altitudes and greater distances.
World War II and the Military's Interest
During World War II, the military became interested in Robert's work. They saw the potential of rockets for military applications. Robert and his team worked on developing rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO) units for airplanes and other military technologies.
Although Robert's work was important to the war effort, he always dreamed of using rockets for peaceful purposes, like space exploration.
Death and Recognition
Robert H. Goddard died on August 10, 1945, at the age of 62. He didn't live to see humans travel to space, but his work laid the foundation for the space age.
After his death, Robert's contributions to rocketry were finally recognized. He was awarded numerous patents for his inventions, and he became known as the "father of modern rocketry."
In 1959, NASA established the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in his honor. The Goddard Space Flight Center is one of NASA's major research centers, and it plays a vital role in space exploration.
Personal life
On June 21, 1924, Goddard married Esther Christine Kisk (March 31, 1901 – June 4, 1982), a secretary in Clark University's President's office, whom he had met in 1919. She became enthusiastic about rocketry and photographed some of his work as well as aided him in his experiments and paperwork, including accounting. They enjoyed going to the movies in Roswell and participated in community organizations such as the Rotary and the Woman's Club. He painted the New Mexican scenery, sometimes with the artist Peter Hurd, and played the piano. She played bridge, while he read. Esther said Robert participated in the community and readily accepted invitations to speak to church and service groups. The couple did not have children. After his death, she sorted out Goddard's papers, and secured 131 additional patents on his work.
Key Achievements
- First Liquid-Fueled Rocket: Launched on March 16, 1926, this was a pivotal moment in rocket history.
- Turbopumps: These pumps are essential for feeding fuel into rocket engines efficiently.
- Steering Mechanisms: Goddard developed vanes in the exhaust stream to control the direction of rockets.
- Multiple-Stage Rockets: He conceptualized and experimented with rockets that could shed stages to reach higher altitudes.
Why Robert H. Goddard Matters
Robert H. Goddard was a visionary who dared to dream big. He faced many challenges, but he never gave up on his dream of space travel. His inventions and ideas paved the way for the rockets that would eventually carry humans to the Moon and beyond.
Robert's story teaches us that anything is possible if you have passion, determination, and a willingness to work hard. He is an inspiration to scientists, engineers, and dreamers all over the world.
Interesting facts about Robert H. Goddard
- The young Goddard was a thin and frail boy. He suffered from stomach problems, pleurisy, colds, and bronchitis, and he fell two years behind his classmates.
- He was a voracious reader, regularly visiting the local public library to borrow books on the physical sciences.
- As a child, Goddard loved the outdoors and hiking with his father on trips to Worcester and became an excellent marksman with a rifle.
- Goddard's father encouraged Robert's scientific interest by providing him with a telescope, a microscope, and a subscription to Scientific American.
- Goddard became interested in space when he read H. G. Wells' science fiction classic The War of the Worlds at 16 years old.
- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center was named in Goddard's honor in 1959.
- Two of Goddard's 214 patented inventions, a multi-stage rocket (1914), and a liquid-fuel rocket (1914), were important milestones toward spaceflight.
- He was also inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame and National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1966, and the International Space Hall of Fame in 1976.
- The crater Goddard on the Moon is named in his honor.
Legacy
Influence
- Goddard was credited with 214 patents for his work; 131 of these were awarded after his death.
- Goddard influenced many people who went on to do significant work in the U.S. space program, such as Robert Truax (USN), Milton Rosen (Naval Research Laboratory and NASA), astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell, NASA flight controller Gene Kranz, astrodynamicist Samuel Herrick (UCLA), and General Jimmy Doolittle (US Army and NACA). Buzz Aldrin took a miniature sized biography of Goddard on his historic voyage to the Moon aboard Apollo 11.
- Goddard received the Langley Gold Medal from the Smithsonian Institution in 1960, and the Congressional Gold Medal on September 16, 1959.
- The Dr. Robert H. Goddard Collection and the Robert Goddard Exhibition Room are housed in the Archives and Special Collections area of Clark University's Robert H. Goddard Library.
- Robert H. Goddard High School was completed in 1965 in Roswell, New Mexico, and dedicated by Esther Goddard; the school's mascot is titled "Rockets".
- The Goddard Rocket Launching Site in Auburn, Massachusetts, is a National Historic Landmark. The location was formerly the Asa Ward Farm, and is now a golf course.
- In season 11, episode 10 of Murdoch Mysteries, Goddard is played by Andrew Robinson and is described as a rocket scientist and chief scientist for a pneumatic tube public transport system in 1900s Toronto, Canada.
- New Goddard prototype experimental reusable vertical launch and landing rocket from Blue Origin is named after Goddard.
- Rocket, an ale made by the Wormtown Brewery of Worcester, Massachusetts is named in Robert Goddard's honor.
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Goddard honored on a 1964 U.S. airmail stamp
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Bronze plaque in Auburn, Massachusetts marking the town in which Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926.
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Insignia of the 50th Anniversary of the Goddard Space Flight Center, a NASA facility in Maryland
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Robert H. Goddard High School in Roswell, New Mexico.
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Goddard Hall at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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Goddard Library at Clark University
Patents of interest
Goddard received 214 patents for his work, of which 131 were awarded after his death. Among the most influential patents were:
- U.S. Patent 1,102,653 – Rocket apparatus
- U.S. Patent 1,103,503 – Rocket apparatus
- U.S. Patent 2,395,113A – Mechanism for feeding combustion liquids to rocket apparatus
- U.S. Patent 2,397,657A – Control mechanism for rocket apparatus
- U.S. Patent 2,397,659A – Control mechanism for rocket apparatus
- U.S. Patent 2,511,979A – Vacuum tube transportation system – E. C. Goddard
The Guggenheim Foundation and Goddard's estate filed suit in 1951 against the U.S. government for prior infringement of three of Goddard's patents. In 1960, the parties settled the suit, and the U.S. armed forces and NASA paid out an award of $1 million: half of the award settlement went to his wife, Esther. At that time, it was the largest government settlement ever paid in a patent case. The settlement amount exceeded the total amount of all the funding that Goddard received for his work, throughout his entire career.
Important firsts
- First American to explore mathematically the practicality of using rocket propulsion to reach high altitudes and to traject to the Moon (1912)
- First to receive a U.S. patent on the idea of a multistage rocket (1914)
- First to static test a rocket in a systematic, scientific manner, measuring thrust, exhaust velocity and efficiency. He obtained the highest efficiency of any heat engine at the time. (1915-1916)
- First to prove that rocket propulsion operates in a vacuum (which was doubted by some scientists of that time), that it needs no air to push against. He actually obtained a 20% increase in efficiency over that determined at ground-level atmospheric pressure (1915–1916).
- First to prove that an oxidizer and a fuel could be mixed using injectors and burned controllably in a combustion chamber, also doubted by physicists.
- First to develop suitable lightweight centrifugal pumps for liquid-fuel rockets and also gas generators to drive the pump turbine (1923).
- First to attach a DeLaval type of nozzle to the combustion chamber of a solid-fuel engine and increase efficiency by more than ten times. The exhaust flow became supersonic at the narrowest cross-sectional area (throat) of the nozzle.
- First to develop the liquid propellant feed system using a high-pressure gas to force the propellants from their tanks into the thrust chamber (1923).
- First to develop and successfully fly a liquid-propellant rocket (March 16, 1926)
- First to launch a scientific payload (a barometer, a thermometer, and a camera) in a rocket flight (1929)
- First to use vanes in the rocket engine exhaust for guidance (1932)
- First to develop gyroscopic control apparatus for guiding rocket flight (1932)
- First to launch and successfully guide a rocket with an engine pivoted by moving the tail section (as if on gimbals) controlled by a gyro mechanism (1937)
- Built lightweight propellant tanks out of thin sheets of steel and aluminum and used external high-strength steel wiring for reinforcement. He introduced baffles in the tanks to minimize sloshing which changed the center gravity of the vehicle. He used insulation on the very cold liquid-oxygen components.
- First in U.S. to design and test a variable-thrust rocket engine.
- First to fly a rocket with an engine having multiple (four) thrust chambers.
- First to test regenerative cooling of the thrust chamber in March 1923 (first suggested by Tsiolkovsky but unknown to Goddard).
See also
In Spanish: Robert Goddard para niños
