“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in the cradle forever.” – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
In 1903, Tsiolkovsky wrote an article called, “Exploration of outer space by means of rocket devices,” in The Science Review.
Born in September 1857 in the village of Izhevskoye, Russia, Tsiolkovsky was the fifth child in a family of Polish descent. A bout of scarlet fever at the age of ten left him with significant hearing loss, limiting his formal education. Undeterred, he became an autodidact, immersing himself in physics and mathematics. The imaginative works of Jules Verne, especially “From the Earth to the Moon”, ignited his fascination with space travel. In 1876, Tsiolkovsky began his career as a schoolteacher in Borovsk, where he started crafting aeronautical experiments. In 1882, he moved to the town of Kaluga, dedicating his life to teaching and scientific inquiry. Working in virtual obscurity and without institutional support, he went into creating theory of space flight.
1883, Tsiolkovsky came up with an idea for reactive propulsion with the principle that a vehicle could propel itself by expelling part of its mass at high speed in the opposite direction. This insight was revolutionary, laying groundwork for modern rocket science. He mathematically derived the fundamental equation of rocket motion, now known as the Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation, is the final total mass (after propellant is expended). This equation describes how rockets achieve velocity change, factoring in the expulsion of mass (still taught today by some historically minded faculty).
In 1903, Tsiolkovsky published his seminal work, “Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices”, in the Russian magazine Science Review (Nauchnoye Obozreniye) (see ref). He proposed the use of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants. He envisioned multi-stage rockets, space stations, airlocks for spacewalks, and colonization of the Solar System (though not the originator of these ideas). Despite his new theories, Tsiolkovsky did not have resources to create experimental research or practical applications. His thoughts were unrecognized and remained in a small circle within Russia.
In 1919, his contributions were formally acknowledged when he was elected to the Socialist Academy, the precursor to the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was granted a government pension, allowing him to focus on research. His research inspired a new generation of engineers and scientists, including Sergei Korolev, the chief designer of Soviet space program (who was not known outside the Soviet Union for a long time and there are wonderful documentaries online about Korolev).
Suggest reading the biography by Kosmodemyansky, A. (2000), “Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: His life and work,” 2000.
References
- Tsiolkovsky, K. S. (1903). Exploration of outer space by means of rocket devices. The Science Review, 5. (primary ref).
- https://www.nasa.gov/history/sputnik/
- Siddiqi, A. A. (2000). Challenge to Apollo: the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945-1974 (Vol. 4408). National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Division, Office of Policy and Plans.
- Kosmodemyansky, A. (2000). Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: His life and work. The Minerva Group.