However, human beings are not without the dream of flying.
When they see swarms of flying insects flying in the sky, how eager they are to fly into the sky one day and look down on the land where they live!
How envious and jealous they are to see birds flapping their powerful wings and singing their own songs flying from one sky to another. They still dream of flying.
This is an ancient and forever young dream, which has inspired generation after generation and also inspired generation after generation. When countless years have drifted across the distant mountains and countless efforts have turned into beautiful bubbles, this dream has not yet become a brilliant reality.
By September, this dream has been integrated into the soul of a newborn baby. His name is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and his life is closely related to the human dream of flying.
Like all children, he is growing up healthily and vigorously. My father is a forest manager. When he was a little older, he and his father went to play in the forest. However, he is very interested in birds flying in the forest.
Once, my father walked in front and he followed the ground. Suddenly, he saw a beautiful thrush flying in front of him, singing while flying. He was stunned. How he wants to fly to the sky, like a thrush!
After a long walk, the father looked back and saw that his son was gone, which frightened him. He quickly looked back along the route. My son was still standing there in a daze, his hands flapping up and down like the wings of a bird.
Tsiolkovsky entered a dreamy state. Although the thrush has disappeared, he will never forget how the bird flew. He wants to fly. Fly all the way to nine days.
He told his father his dream, and his father smiled. He thought the child was a little silly, but silly and cute. The father failed to understand the child's dream.
Later, his father took him to the fields and fields to catch grasshoppers and dragonflies. But tsiolkovsky is most interested in flying kites.
He likes to watch kites flying in the wind in the sky, as if his body is flying in the sky like a kite, but he hates the thin thread holding the kite, so every time he leaves, he throws away the thin thread and lets the kite fly freely in the sky.
However, fate played a very vicious joke on him, pushed him into the abyss of suffering, and made him struggle, making it difficult to determine his own life coordinates.
At the age of 9, he unfortunately suffered from scarlet fever and was completely deaf. He can no longer hear the sounds of nature and human beings. He was in pain, but he had no choice.
He can only go deeper into his inner world, and his heart will surge like the sea all day long, or sit quietly at the door of his house and watch the birds fly away from afar.
Watching other friends skip to school with their schoolbags on their backs, he quarreled with his parents, and their parents ignored him, or they couldn't hear him at all, so they wept silently alone.
Look at him. His mother often buys him all kinds of toys to play with. One day, she bought her son a hydrogen balloon toy. Little tsiolkovsky was very happy. He found a clearing to put the hydrogen balloon.
The hydrogen balloon flew higher and higher in the sky, and tsiolkovsky's heart also flew into the sky. This hydrogen balloon planted the seeds of scientific fantasy flying to the sky and the depths of the universe in his heart, which aroused his strong desire to fly to the sky.
For a long time, he fell asleep as soon as he went to bed, dreaming that he rode the hydrogen balloon into the air, flew out of the earth and flew into the vast universe.
In order to minimize the great pain caused by deafness, mothers spend all their free time teaching their children to read, read and draw.
Tsiolkovsky is a gifted child. Under the careful guidance of his mother, he can quickly understand some easy-to-understand articles and draw some flying things such as dragonflies and kites.
At this time, he wanted to read more books, but he searched all corners of the house and found four books, all about nature and science. There was no choice but to bite the bullet and read them carefully.
Unexpectedly, he became interested in these inscrutable things. Although there is no one to guide him, he can quickly understand all the knowledge. He gradually adapted to the life of the deaf-mute and devoted himself to the spiritual world dominated by thinking.
When he 14 years old, tuberculosis took the life of his beloved mother. This misfortune once again brought him a heavy blow. He couldn't hold on at all, and his mother said goodbye to him forever.
All this makes tsiolkovsky's personality more introverted, and the smile on his face becomes more rare. From then on, he became more lonely. No one talked to him and no one laughed with him.
He had no choice but to concentrate more on reading and find out what books to read, and he was never picky about geometry, algebra, geography, astronomy, physics and chemistry. It laid a solid foundation for his future research work in aerospace, and further broadened his horizons and enriched his knowledge.
Tsiolkovsky not only likes reading books, but also likes to do some small experiments to cultivate his practical ability, because only by doing so can he forget all the troubles in the world.
One day, he read a book on geometry and made a small measuring instrument just like a simple illustration in the book. To his great delight, this measuring instrument can not only accurately measure his height, but also measure the distance from his home to the front row of houses.
By the age of 15, he has become the top seed player in the village to make all kinds of toys. The kite he made is not only beautiful and fashionable, but also flies very high, so that all the friends in the village who didn't want to play with him surrounded him and asked him for all kinds of toys to play with. Therefore, he became an idol in the eyes of children.
By the age of 16, his deafness symptoms had been obviously alleviated, and he could hear some words in his left ear, which made his father very happy, but he shuddered at the thought of his future life. What can a half-deaf child do?
He wanted to discuss it with his son, so he went to him, but he couldn't find it for a long time. Finally, he found his son in the toilet.
I saw my son with a book in his hand, watching with relish while going to the toilet. Father is really angry and funny. He went up and patted his son on the head and took the book.
This is a book about Moscow, which introduces the politics, economy and culture of Moscow in detail and systematically, focusing on the preparations for Moscow University.
The father took his son home.
Father asked him, son, you have grown up. What are you going to do in the future? You can't stay at home like this for a long time.
Tsiolkovsky said earnestly, Dad, I want to go to Moscow University, where people are knowledgeable and they will definitely give me a lot of help.
Father said, son, don't be silly. How can you live in a strange place?
Tsiolkovsky said, Dad, you can safely let me go. When I get there, I'll just find something to do and make sure I won't starve to death. Then I will go to Moscow University for classes. I won't waste it.
Knowing that his son decided to leave, his father did not discourage him, so he wrote a letter to a fellow villager who worked in Moscow, asking him to help take care of his son, and then sent his son on a long journey to Moscow.
When I arrived in Moscow, I found a fellow villager, but he didn't live well either. Tsiolkovsky decided to rent a house for himself.
It took a lot of effort to rent a small attic. The landlord is a poor washerwoman.
In the dark and damp attic with no windows on all sides, he mainly relied on cold water and black bread to satisfy his hunger, but he still found great pleasure in the book. He works harder than when he was in his hometown.
With the spirit of assiduous study and tenacious self-study, tsiolkovsky taught himself all the physics courses in middle schools and universities. At the age of 23, he passed the conscription examination and became a physics teacher and a geometry teacher in Borov Public Middle School.
A bold dreamer
When he was a teacher, he suddenly fell in love with the study of interstellar flight by an extremely accidental opportunity.
One evening, tsiolkovsky saw four or five sparrows flying fast in the sky before the thunderstorm, and countless fantasies boiled in his mind. He is thinking that humans must fly faster than sparrows.
Suddenly, a strange picture appeared in his mind. It looked like an airship with a fish shape. For at least decades, he has been beyond the normal thinking.
During his 40-year teaching career, he tried his best to be a good teacher, but he also tried to find time to teach himself astronomy and biology, especially aeronautics.
He gets up early every day. After running, he works at home for two or three hours, and then walks a long way to school.
After work, I don't want to stay at school for a minute, but I rush home to do research or concentrate on writing. Everyone calls him a "bold visionary".
The earth where human beings live is wrapped in a thick atmosphere. Therefore, if a starship wants to fly into space, it must first overcome the obstacles in this atmosphere.
So, what shape of aircraft is more suitable for flying in the atmosphere? What is the relationship between the shape of the plane and the drag? What is the relationship between atmospheric flow and the speed of aircraft? Tsiolkovsky's mind is full of such questions about interstellar flight all day.
He once thought it was possible to fly out of the earth by centrifugal force. His heart almost jumped out of his chest when he suddenly realized the great result that this great discovery might produce.
At that time, there was no way to do scientific experiments in the wind tunnel. He could only make full use of the natural wind and do experiments with kites and bamboo dragonflies. Soon, after painstaking efforts, he finally wrote a paper on aerodynamics, and later, he wrote a paper on all-metal spacecraft.
With these two papers, he directly found the famous Russian physicist Toche. After reading these two articles, Toche Novo marveled that he could write such a high-level paper without any expert guidance and complete instruments.
He also strongly recommended tsiolkovsky to zhukovsky, a leading figure in Russian aviation at that time, and zhukovsky also spoke highly of it. Tsiolkovsky was recommended by these two scientists and became a member of the Physical Chemistry Association.
Just as tsiolkovsky was in a good mood and ready to go all out on the road of science, a big fire destroyed his home, and a large number of books, notes and first drafts of papers saved in the past were all set on fire. The shock was so great that he fell ill.
However, he is not ill, and he still cares about his space career. When he could eat a little, he found a lot of books about opening up air avenues in interstellar space, read them carefully and conducted experiments.
His persistent belief enabled him to quickly overcome natural and man-made disasters, and soon completed the design of all-metal airships and interstellar rockets, and put forward unique opinions on opening up cosmic channels.
At that time, many people around him didn't understand him, saying that he was a madman and a complete visionary.
Tsiolkovsky ignored these comments. He took a good look at the goals he had set and kept going.
Become the "Father of Star Trek"
1895, after years of research, tsiolkovsky, a poor boy from Ryazan province, finally put forward the idea of "launching rockets from this' post' to the moon and other planets".
This bold and persistent visionary borrowed some money from the East and the West to design, install and manufacture a wind tunnel.
The invention of wind tunnel laid the foundation of experimental aerodynamics. Since then, wind tunnel has become an indispensable experimental device for modern manufacturing of rockets, satellites and other aircraft, making it possible for scientific workers engaged in aircraft research to test the reliability and accuracy of theoretical calculation through experiments.
The so-called wind tunnel is actually a high-power blower, which sends the model of the aircraft into the wind tunnel, and then introduces a high-pressure airflow to measure the comprehensive factors such as the force on the aircraft. It simulates the actual situation of aircraft flight through airflow, and the aircraft model is static, thus obtaining various data of various flight situations.
Tsiolkovsky has studied more than 100 spacecraft models by using the wind tunnel device invented by himself, and obtained a lot of valuable first-hand data of aerodynamic experiments.
Through a large number of experiments, he deeply realized that if human beings want to fly to the sky and become the masters of the universe, they must first conquer the obstacle of gravity.
After several years of painstaking research, he published the book "Pilotable Metal Spacecraft", which put forward the theory of rocket flight for the first time in human history.
In this book, he pointed out that the rocket is the most ideal and reliable tool to overcome the gravity of the earth and fly out of the earth. He also carefully conceived the appearance and internal structure of the rocket.
According to his vision, the outer shell of the future rocket should be steel, and the inside is an egg-shaped oval cabin, and the head can accommodate passengers, instruments and materials. At the same time, most of the space in the cabin is divided into two parts, namely liquid fuel and oxidant. Fuel and oxidant are discharged into the combustion chamber in the center of the rocket through a pump, and the combustion produces high-temperature and high-pressure gas, which is ejected from the tail nozzle, generating strong propulsion capability and pushing the rocket to fly at high speed. The tail wing is installed at the edge of the nozzle to control the flight direction.
Tsiolkovsky's bold conception and design laid a solid theoretical foundation for the emergence of modern rockets. He named himself "citizen of the universe", and he firmly believed that "interstellar travel is possible" with the joint efforts of several generations.
However, a harsh fact is that the speed of the rocket he designed at that time did not exceed 2.5 kilometers per second, and he could not get rid of the gravity of the earth at all. That is to say, the rocket he designed could not fly into space at all.
After countless sleepless nights, I sent away countless sunrises and sunsets. After careful calculation, tsiolkovsky concluded that if we want to get rid of the gravity of the earth, we must have a speed of11.2km per second. This is called "escape velocity".
Only when the rocket has the "escape speed" can it fly away from the earth along the parabolic orbit and fly to the endless interstellar space.
After long-term observation, tsiolkovsky finally realized that the rocket speed depends on the exhaust speed, and the exhaust speed is related to the selected fuel and oxidant. The exhaust velocity obtained by using liquid oxygen as oxidant and liquid hydrogen as fuel is higher than that obtained by using gasoline.
At the same time, he concluded from studying the basic laws of rocket dynamics that in order to make the rocket reach a higher speed, it is necessary to improve the ratio of the mass of the rocket when it is fully loaded with fuel to the mass of the rocket body.
But it is absolutely impossible for a 1 ton shell to hold about 30 tons of fuel, not to mention the quality of the shell, including the quality of rocket engines and other equipment, and the firmness of the shell must also be considered.
Tsiolkovsky fell into deep confusion again. However, he did not walk into the dead end of his mind, but tried to solve this problem through various methods.
1929, tsiolkovsky, who is 72 years old, published the article "Space Rocket Train". In this paper, which quickly caused widespread sensation, he put forward the great idea of multistage rocket.
Tsiolkovsky called this kind of rocket a "rocket train" because it is connected section by section, just like a train.
The reason why this multi-stage rocket can reach the escape speed and make the rocket fly away from the earth is that each stage rocket will automatically fall off after completing its mission, thus reducing the load. The rockets in the upper stages increase their speed on the basis of the speed reached by the rockets in the lower stages, so they fly faster than the first stage, and the cabin and scientific instruments are all in the top stage rocket.
The realization of the idea of "rocket train" finally solved the speed problem needed for spacecraft to get rid of the gravity of the earth.
The old horse lurks, aiming at a thousand miles. At this time of tsiolkovsky, the research on interstellar travel is getting deeper and deeper, and the idea of flying out of the earth is becoming more and more mature.
He also put forward the design of artificial satellite. In this design, the artificial satellite is cylindrical and orbits the earth at a speed of 8 km/s, which he calls "a post station for interstellar travel, a rocket dock set up outside the earth".
According to tsiolkovsky's design, the starship can dock, add fuel and food here, and then fly to more distant interstellar space.
There are streets, comprehensive scientific research stations, houses, greenhouses, fuel depots and factories on the satellite. At the same time, considering that it is difficult for people to live under the condition of weightlessness on the satellite, he proposed that the satellite must rotate around the axis and use centrifugal force instead of gravity.
Tsiolkovsky also pointed out that on satellites, we should make full use of inexhaustible solar energy, or use photoelectric devices as the power source on satellites.
1932 in September, tsiolkovsky also accepted the appointment of the government as the commander-in-chief for the construction of stratospheric balloons. After nearly a year of intense work with colleagues, he successfully completed the task.
The stratospheric balloon was successfully tested once, and its altitude reached 19000m, which provided a powerful tool for studying stratospheric atmosphere, cosmic radiation and temperature.
Tsiolkovsky was hailed as "the father of interstellar travel" by later generations. Since 1930s, he has been working on the important problem of how rockets and spaceships return to Earth, which eventually led to the birth of recoverable satellites and space shuttles.
1September, 935 19, tsiolkovsky left this planet forever with infinite yearning for interstellar travel, and a wisp of his necromancer wandered into the depths of the universe.
Since then, generations of scientists have inherited his legacy of sailing in interstellar space, creating jets, intercontinental missiles, satellites, spaceships and so on. Man has transcended the atmosphere and is gradually conquering the whole solar system.
Because, people will never forget his words:
"The earth is the cradle of mankind, and mankind will never stay on the earth!"