grantws...
Certainly one of the most thorough discussions of rockets
would have to be the one available in pdf format from
NASA, from this page on the NASA website:
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/products/Rockets/
...or directly from this link:
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/NASA.Educational.Products/Rockets/Rockets.pdf
It is actually an educator's guide, It's almost 3MB in size,
and has 132 pages, many of which are filled with activities
by which children (or young-at-heart adults) may explore the
principles of rocketry in a hands-on way.
However, the first 34 pages contain a wealth of the type of
information you're seeking. For example:
Inventors:
"One of the first devices to successfully
employ the principles essential to rocket flight was a
wooden bird. The writings of Aulus Gellius, a
Roman, tell a story of a Greek named Archytas who
lived in the city of Tarentum, now a part of southern
Italy. Somewhere around the year 400 B.C.,
Archytas mystified and amused the citizens of
Tarentum by flying a pigeon made of wood.
Escaping steam propelled the bird suspended on
wires. The pigeon used the action-reaction
principle, which was not to be stated as a scientific
law until the 17th century."
"About three hundred years after the pigeon,
another Greek, Hero of Alexandria, invented a
similar rocket-like device called an aeolipile. It,
too, used steam as a propulsive gas. Hero
mounted a sphere on top of a water kettle.
A fire below the kettle turned the water into
steam, and the gas traveled through pipes
to the sphere. Two L-shaped tubes on
opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas
to escape, and in doing so gave a thrust to the
sphere that caused it to rotate."
It goes on to discuss the contribution of Chinese fireworks,
which evolved into a 'fire arrow' weapon, and other major
contributors, including the Russian schoolteacher, Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard and Wernher von Braun.
How They Work:
"A rocket in its simplest form is a chamber
enclosing a gas under pressure. A small opening at
one end of the chamber allows the gas to escape,
and in doing so provides a thrust that propels the
rocket in the opposite direction."
Which is a simple means of applying Newton's 3rd
law of motion: For every action there is always an
equal and opposite reaction. This is elaborated on
in the file.
Evolution:
From the wooden pigeon to the aeolipile to the Chinese
fire arrows to the 16th century step rocket, to the 19th
century Congreve rockets, to liquid propellant rockets in
1926 (which use a fuel, an oxidizer, and a combustion
chamber), this document covers them all.
Uses:
Nearly all uses of rockets have been for warfare (missiles),
fireworks, or space exploration. However, there have been
rocket-powered automobiles, such as the one invented by
Max Valier, German scientist, 1895-1930, as noted on this
page on the astronautix.com website:
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/valier.htm
This page, from the Cary High School site, in North
Carolina, contains a fascinating, and perhaps, true,
story of a lesser-known Chinese official named Wan-Hu who:
"...assembled a rocket-powered flying chair. Attached to
the chair were two large kites, and fixed to the kites
were forty-seven fire-arrow rockets."
http://caryhs.wcpss.net/pages/educational_sites/Rockets/New%20Folder/History.htm
You have to read the page to learn the outcome. I'm legally
limited in how much I can quote from a page.
Start with this page from the same site for another thorough
discussion on the History of Rockets:
http://caryhs.wcpss.net/pages/educational_sites/Rockets/Index.htm
As for how they've changed our lives, I would have to note
that, without rockets, we would have no space program and
no NASA, and it is fairly common knowledge how many very
practical and cutting-edge discoveries in biology, medicine,
and electronics have resulted through NASA research, some of
which is documented on the site of NASA's Fundamental Biology
Outreach Program site, here:
http://weboflife.ksc.nasa.gov/archives.htm
The other major change they've made to our lives is the
impact provided by the various kinds of satellites which
are delivered into orbit by rockets. These include GPS,
or Global Positioning Satellites, communication satellites,
which allow for cell phones and satellite TV, and an era
of global communication the likes of which we've never seen.
Then there's the ever-inspiring pictures and information
which have come to us by way of the Hubble telescope.
Some of the best images are available on the Hubble site:
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/showcase/text.shtml
And, of course, the art of pyrotechnics has continued to
evolve, and we are the happy participants in the most
spectacular fireworks displays ever seen.
Additional information can be gleaned from an exploration of
the links resulting from the Google searches, outlined below.
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by way of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.
A user's guide on this topic is on skermit-ga's site, here:
http://www.christopherwu.net/google_answers/answer_guide.html#how_clarify
sublime1-ga
Searches done, via Google:
"all about rockets"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22all+about+rockets%22
"uses of rockets" -book
://www.google.com/search?q=%22uses+of+rockets%22+-book
"benefits of NASA research"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22benefits+of+NASA+research%22&btnG=Google+Search |
Clarification of Answer by
sublime1-ga
on
21 Mar 2004 12:32 PST
grantws...
You said, "Please tell me just a little bit more (maybe 3-5
sentances) about each of the three main modern-day
rocket inventors (Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, and von Braun)".
I can hardly summarize these three giants in a few sentences,
however Randy Culp has done just that on the following page
from his site, which "provides you with all the information
you need to complete the Boy Scout Space Exploration Merit
Badge, along with links to more information that is either
useful or way fun." - from:
http://my.execpc.com/~culp/space/space.html
...and also includes Hermann Oberth, Goddard's mentor.
These summaries can be found on this page:
http://my.execpc.com/~culp/space/history.html
There are also some extended biographies available online:
Konstantin Eduardovitch Tsiolkovsky
Written and Edited by Cliff Lethbridge on Spaceline.org:
http://spaceline.org/history/21.html
Wernher von Braun, and his mentor, German physicist
Hermann Oberth
from TheSpacePlace.com:
http://www.thespaceplace.com/history/rocket2.html#ovb
Robert Goddard
from TheSpacePlace.com:
http://www.thespaceplace.com/history/rocket2.html#goddard
You asked, "Please tell me more (a short paragraph) about
different types of rockets and more (a short paragraph)
about how they (each type) work".
Again, a more excellent summary than I could compose has
already been created by Paul Woodmansee, a rocket scientist,
on his extensive website, on the page at the following link:
"The following is a brief overview of the types of rockets
and their common uses. Liquid, Solid, Arcjet and Ion are
the four types of rocket engines in use today. Others,
such as Nuclear, Magneto Plasma Dynamic, Pulse Detonation,
etc., have been proposed, some have even been tested, but
to my knowledge not been used operationally."
©1999, 2000 Paul Woodmansee. All Rights Reserved.
http://woodmansee.com/science/rocket/r-other/rb-types.html
You wrote, "Please tell me a little more (a paragraph each)
about the warfare and the space exploration uses of rockets".
The Marshall Space Flight Center History Office website has
an excellent page which provides links to the following
pages, which include summaries and images:
Rockets in Ancient Times (100 B.C. to 17th Century)
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl1.html
Rockets for Warfare (18th through 19th Centuries)
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl2.html
Rockets as Inventions(Late 19th Century)
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl3.html
Rockets in Science Fiction (Late 19th Century)
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl4.html
Rockets Enter the 20th Century (Early to Mid-20th Century)
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl5.html
Rockets for the Army (1950s)
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl6.html
Rockets for the Moon Race(1960s)
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl7.html
Rockets for Space Exploration (1970s -1990s)
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/tl8.html
The link page, 'A Timeline of Rocket History', is here:
http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/rocketry/
Let me know if any of the links don't work, or if there's
anything I omitted.
sublime1-ga
Additional searches done, via Google:
Tsiolkovsky Goddard von Braun
://www.google.com/search?q=Tsiolkovsky+Goddard+von+Braun
"types of rockets" -book
://www.google.com/search?q=%22types+of+rockets%22+-book
"rockets for space exploration"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22rockets+for+space+exploration%22
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