Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
the early days. In the early 1800s, an Italian named Claude Ruggieri entertained people by rock-
eting small animals into the air and recovering the animal-carrying payloads by parachute.
Up until the early twentieth century, rockets were typically powered by gunpowder. In
1903, a Russian schoolteacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovskii published a manuscript titled
“Exploration of Cosmic Space by Rocket Devices” in which he suggested the possibility of using
liquid propellants for rocket propulsion. Tsiolkovskii's manuscript also introduced the idea of
using rockets for space travel. Robert Goddard, an American, flew the first liquid-fueled rocket
in 1926. The rocket, shown in Figure 11-1, was powered by gasoline and liquid oxygen and
reached an altitude of 41 feet.
Figure 11-1.
Robert Goddard with his liquid-fueled rocket (Photo courtesy of Clark University
Archives)
After Goddard's pioneering work, the development of liquid-fueled rockets proceeded at a
rapid pace. German scientists designed and built sophisticated V2 rockets and used them
against England in World War II. After the war, the Russian and American governments “borrowed”
the Germans' expertise (by moving the German scientists to their countries) and began devel-
oping large rockets to move satellites and men into Earth's orbit. Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet, became
the first man in space in 1961. The Americans Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin flew a rocket to
Earth's moon in 1969.
Today rockets are routinely used to transport satellites, experiments, and people into space.
They still have widespread military uses as well, as every branch of the military includes missiles
as part of their weaponry. In addition to liquid and solid propulsion, some modern rockets
make use of nuclear propulsion and other exotic types of propulsion.
Before we dive into the physics of how rockets work, let's spend a little time and learn
some terminology that will be used in the rest of the chapter.
