Goddard's 1930 Manned Moonship
Pat Flannery
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2010/08/30/rocketing-to-the-moon/
I imagine that unfortunate resemblance was one of the things that turned
Goddard off on the press.
I had serious doubts that he ever built a rocket that reached a speed of
8,000 feet per second, so I checked up on that...the _exhaust velocity_
was 8,000 FPS.
Pat
Quadibloc
to protect astronauts from the cold of space?
Ah, well. He didn't have the benefit of modern research, and, in fact,
perhaps vacuum bottle insulation might actually be a good thing to
have on a space capsule... to protect astronauts from the heat of re-
entry, even as the ablative shielding and aerodynamics protect the
craft itself from being melted.
And, for that matter, there were temperature problems on board Apollo
13, so this might not have been as far-fetched as it seems.
Pat Flannery
Yeah, but this is back in the grand-old-age of vacuum tubes, so once you
get those running, and add the heat of the astronaut's metabolism to the
equation, and things are going to get mighty hot in there in a mighty
big hurry.
I'm still trying to figure out what the windows on the side of the
nosecone are about, as it doesn't look like there's any way for the
astronaut to get up to the front part of the vehicle.
Maybe that's where the cameras are supposed to go?
The concept of shooting something shaped like a giant penis at the
Moon...who is represented in Greco-Roman mythology by the virgin goddess
Diana/Luna, is something Sigmund Freud would have _loved_ to
psychologically analyze.
At least the movie "Flesh Gordon" got the rocketship design right for
attempting this:
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2009/3/3/1236083459176/Flesh-Gordon--002.jpg
Pat
mh...@ohiohills.com
> Looks a bit like a Apollo CSM; looks even more like a flying dildo
> :http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2010/08/30/rocketing-to-the-moon/
> I imagine that unfortunate resemblance was one of the things that turned
> Goddard off on the press.
Did the average person know what a dildo looked like, in 1930? How
old are dildos in the public arena? (The great thing about human
history is how things connect.)
> I had serious doubts that he ever built a rocket that reached a speed of
> 8,000 feet per second, so I checked up on that...the _exhaust velocity_
> was 8,000 FPS.
David Clary's biography of Goddard ("Rocket Man") doesn't seem to
report exhaust velocity of any of Goddard's rockets.
I'm always fascinated by this era's approach to cockpit design. My
guess is that the artist was using as a model the Army's balloon
experiments.
Mike
mh...@ohiohills.com
> I'm still trying to figure out what the windows on the side of the
> nosecone are about, as it doesn't look like there's any way for the
> astronaut to get up to the front part of the vehicle.
> Maybe that's where the cameras are supposed to go?
Or maybe there's a way to go under the instrument panel to get to the
nose. Where's the toilet?
> The concept of shooting something shaped like a giant penis at the
> Moon...who is represented in Greco-Roman mythology by the virgin goddess
> Diana/Luna, is something Sigmund Freud would have _loved_ to
> psychologically analyze.
I had a girl friend who commented once that submarines were phallic.
I pointed out to her that anything that needs to penetrate a fluid or
a very flexible solid would be shaped that way. That would have been
a good start had I not been thinking like an engineer and had her
parents not been listening.
Mike
Pat Flannery
> On Aug 31, 1:40 pm, Pat Flannery<flan...@daktel.com> wrote:
>> Looks a bit like a Apollo CSM; looks even more like a flying dildo
>> :http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2010/08/30/rocketing-to-the-moon/
>> I imagine that unfortunate resemblance was one of the things that turned
>> Goddard off on the press.
>
> Did the average person know what a dildo looked like, in 1930? How
> old are dildos in the public arena? (The great thing about human
> history is how things connect.)
Clean back to the stone age:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dildo#History
>
>> I had serious doubts that he ever built a rocket that reached a speed of
>> 8,000 feet per second, so I checked up on that...the _exhaust velocity_
>> was 8,000 FPS.
>
> David Clary's biography of Goddard ("Rocket Man") doesn't seem to
> report exhaust velocity of any of Goddard's rockets.
It was from a statement Goddard sent to the Smithsonian in 1916
regarding his work on solid-fueled rockets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H._Goddard#Smithsonian_Institution_sponsorship
>
> I'm always fascinated by this era's approach to cockpit design. My
> guess is that the artist was using as a model the Army's balloon
> experiments.
The big prop spaceship that was originally built for the 1930 musical
comedy "Just Imagine" that later showed up in the Flash Gordon serials
probably inspired a lot of copies as to its cockpit layout:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OUbGkSfaKrs/0.jpg
The cockpit on SpaceShipOne looked like something straight out of a
1930's sci-fi movie, and you almost expect to see the breech of the nose
heat ray sticking into the cabin from its front point:
http://gizmodo.com/5141708/photo-of-spaceshipones-slick-cockpit
Pat
Pat Flannery
> On Sep 1, 2:27 am, Pat Flannery<flan...@daktel.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm still trying to figure out what the windows on the side of the
>> nosecone are about, as it doesn't look like there's any way for the
>> astronaut to get up to the front part of the vehicle.
>> Maybe that's where the cameras are supposed to go?
>
> Or maybe there's a way to go under the instrument panel to get to the
> nose. Where's the toilet?
I know the details of the Apollo one, but how was that problem addressed
on the longer Gemini flights?
>
>> The concept of shooting something shaped like a giant penis at the
>> Moon...who is represented in Greco-Roman mythology by the virgin goddess
>> Diana/Luna, is something Sigmund Freud would have _loved_ to
>> psychologically analyze.
>
> I had a girl friend who commented once that submarines were phallic.
> I pointed out to her that anything that needs to penetrate a fluid or
> a very flexible solid would be shaped that way. That would have been
> a good start had I not been thinking like an engineer and had her
> parents not been listening.
Dr. Helen Caldicott made that resemblence one of the main points in her
book "Missile Envy".
Pat
mh...@ohiohills.com
> > Did the average person know what a dildo looked like, in 1930? How
> > old are dildos in the public arena? (The great thing about human
> > history is how things connect.)
>
> Clean back to the stone age:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dildo#History
Well, that certainly adds to my store of conversation. (American
Science & Surplus used to sell the penis-molding kit but under another
designation.)
> The big prop spaceship that was originally built for the 1930 musical
> comedy "Just Imagine" that later showed up in the Flash Gordon serials
> probably inspired a lot of copies as to its cockpit layout:http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OUbGkSfaKrs/0.jpg
Is "Just Imagine" a lost movie? I keep seeing stills from it, but
never anything about a copy of it. I bet a dozen could be sold
through this list alone.
> The cockpit on SpaceShipOne looked like something straight out of a
> 1930's sci-fi movie, and you almost expect to see the breech of the nose
> heat ray sticking into the cabin from its front point:http://gizmodo.com/5141708/photo-of-spaceshipones-slick-cockpit
Yes, but it's straight from US patent 2081151 ("Flying Machine"),
1937.
Mike
mh...@ohiohills.com
> > Or maybe there's a way to go under the instrument panel to get to the
> > nose. Where's the toilet?
>
> I know the details of the Apollo one, but how was that problem addressed
> on the longer Gemini flights?
I have no idea, and I've not seen that references in any of the Gemini
documents I have. To be honest, I admit I've never looked for it.
> > I had a girl friend who commented once that submarines were phallic.
> > I pointed out to her that anything that needs to penetrate a fluid or
> > a very flexible solid would be shaped that way. That would have been
> > a good start had I not been thinking like an engineer and had her
> > parents not been listening.
>
> Dr. Helen Caldicott made that resemblence one of the main points in her
> book "Missile Envy".
Women are fascinated by the penis. This is, of course, a Very Good
Thing.
Mike
Pat Flannery
> On Sep 2, 2:54 am, Pat Flannery<flan...@daktel.com> wrote:
>
>>> Did the average person know what a dildo looked like, in 1930? How
>>> old are dildos in the public arena? (The great thing about human
>>> history is how things connect.)
>>
>> Clean back to the stone age:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dildo#History
>
> Well, that certainly adds to my store of conversation. (American
> designation.)
>
>> The big prop spaceship that was originally built for the 1930 musical
>> comedy "Just Imagine" that later showed up in the Flash Gordon serials
>> probably inspired a lot of copies as to its cockpit layout:http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OUbGkSfaKrs/0.jpg
>
> Is "Just Imagine" a lost movie? I keep seeing stills from it, but
> never anything about a copy of it. I bet a dozen could be sold
> through this list alone.
It showed up on Turner Classic Movies at least once.
It's a very strange thing, a very big budget musical comedy that's
partly Vaudeville, partly slapstick.
Here's the incredibly involved dirigible crew's drinking song from it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL7JJ4rsLR8
Here's some more info on the movie:
http://www.shebloggedbynight.com/2007/11/just-imagine-1930.html
That airplane the girl is riding in and on has extensible VTOL
lift/hover fans in its wings. The people in the strange clothes are
Martians,
Traffic control in the future looks like something straight out of "The
Fifth Element":
http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s120/praghead/justimagine1.jpg
...with traffic officers in flying platforms.
The whole "Space" section of "Modern Mechanix" is a ball to go through
for the old spaceship designs:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/category/space/
Even Goddard had his off days:
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/02/27/amazing-turbine-rocket-to-explore-outer-space/
Pat
Pat Flannery
> On Sep 2, 3:11 am, Pat Flannery<flan...@daktel.com> wrote:
>
>>> Or maybe there's a way to go under the instrument panel to get to the
>>> nose. Where's the toilet?
>>
>> I know the details of the Apollo one, but how was that problem addressed
>> on the longer Gemini flights?
>
> I have no idea, and I've not seen that references in any of the Gemini
> documents I have. To be honest, I admit I've never looked for it.
On the long duration Gemini 7 flight, the astronauts were given special
pressure suits they could take off once in orbit, but that cabin still
looks awfully small to try to defecate and wipe yourself in.
>>> I had a girl friend who commented once that submarines were phallic.
>>> I pointed out to her that anything that needs to penetrate a fluid or
>>> a very flexible solid would be shaped that way. That would have been
>>> a good start had I not been thinking like an engineer and had her
>>> parents not been listening.
>>
>> Dr. Helen Caldicott made that resemblence one of the main points in her
>> book "Missile Envy".
>
> Women are fascinated by the penis. This is, of course, a Very Good
> Thing.
My old girlfriend called mine "The Gobbler" as she thought it resembled
a male turkey head and neck.
Pat
William Mook
derived from systems developed for long-duration bomber flights.
Apollo astronauts had bags to collect feces and urine and dumped it
over-board daily. Shuttle and ISS has a proper bathroom for zero gee
and sponge baths. On Star Trek they go where no one has gone before.
I have given some thought about a modified mechanical counter-pressure
suit that has a MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) based jumpsuit
- that cleans, hydrates, oils and otherwise takes care of all bodily
functions - including sweat and hair growth.
These suits would be built for extremely long duration - perhaps
several years - minimizing the mass of transporting astronauts between
worlds.
William Mook
8,000 ft/sec is about 250 sec Isp.
A propellant weight of 63.21% total vehicle weight would allow rocket
speed to equal exhaust speed.
Goddard's first flight was in 1926 and lasted only 2.5 seconds and
flew 41 feet. It was mostly a frame 4 meters long and had a 0.5 meter
by 0.1 meter diameter fuel tank and oxidizer tank - looks like high
pressure piping sawed off and capped. Don't know thickness or
weight. Not likely a 63.21% propellant fraction.
By 1929 Goddard got Lindbergh's support and then the Guggenheim's.
That's when he moved to New Mexico.
By 1931 he built a gyro guided rocket and more modern looking casings
and tail fins. He broke the sound barrier the next year. He not only
built the gyroscope guided rocket, but also developed regenerative
cooling, thin walled propellant tanks, and turbopump delivery of
liquid oxygen and fuel to the engine.
In 1937 - 11 years after his first flight at his Aunt's farm in
Massachusetts, Goddard launched an L-series, Section-B rocket that
fired for 22.3 seconds and achieved an altitude of 9,000 feet. The
highest achieved by Goddard, and far outclassed by the Germans who
were building rockets by that time.
http://img.timeinc.net/time/time100/images/main_goddard.jpg
http://rlv.zcache.com/robert_goddard_rocket_launch_1932_poster-p228764010584782631t5wm_400.jpg
It seems to me that the L series rockets could have attained 63.21%
propellant weight and achieved their exhaust speed.
After Goddard's death in 1942 the United States government paid Mrs.
Goddard $1 million for all of her husband's patents according to
Arthur Clarke.
Pat Flannery
> Even Goddard had his off days:
> http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/02/27/amazing-turbine-rocket-to-explore-outer-space/
BTW, he wasn't the first person to come up with the idea of driving
propellers by shooting rocket exhaust onto a turbine to drive them.
Meet the Berdan torpedo of the 1880's:
http://www.btinternet.com/~philipr/images/torp12.jpg
I may be being too harsh about Goddard's turbo-rocket plane; it is a
clever solution using rocket power to drive the props at low speed, but
what to make those turbine blades out of that go into the rocket exhaust
is a good question given the materials of the time...graphite could take
the heat, but would it take the structural stress of being spun that
fast? Maybe they were supposed to be some highly conductive metal like
copper and the idea being that they would cool down during their
rotation outside of the exhaust stream as they spun?
It would make on very wild looking model, I'll say that for it. :-)
Pat
William Mook
km/sec to the speed of a vehicle and then slow the vehicle by about
2.4 km/sec - a total of 15.0 km/sec. The vehicle must then impart
another 2.4 km/sec to return to Earth. 17.4 km/sec total.
A three stage vehicle that had an exhaust speed of 4.5 km/sec and a
structural fraction of 12.5% would have to attain 5.8 km/sec per
stage. This requires that 72.5% of each stage be propellant. This
leaves 20.4% for the payload. Thus, each stage is 6.7x its payload.
A 300 kg payload is enough to carry an astronaut in a long-duration
spacesuit for ten days - enough for a journey to the moon and back.
The 'lunar stage' masses 2,000 kg. The inter-stage masses 13,333
kg. The booster masses 88,889 kg.
The three stages, propelled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, are
the following sizes
Lunar Stage
A sphere 1.977 m in diameter within which is a sphere, offset to one
side, where the two drain into a pump system, that is 1.277 m in
diameter - the outer sphere contains 206.9 kg of hydrogen, the inner
one 1,241.8 kg of oxygen. They are propelled by a MEMS based wafer
that is 270 mm in diameter that produces up to 2,000 kgf of thrust at
450 seconds.
Interstage
A sphere 3.721 m in diameter containing a sphere, 2.403 m in diameter,
the larger sphere containing 1,379.9 kg of hydrogen and the smaller
sphere containing 8,279.2 kg of oxygen. This is propelled by 7 MEMS
wafers each 270 mm in diameter - assembled in a hexagonal close packed
array.
Booster Stage
A sphere 7.003 m in diameter containing sphere 4.522 m in diameter,
with the larger sphere containing 9,199 kg of hydrogen and the
smaller sphere containing 55,193 kg of oxygen. This is propelled by
61 MEMS wafers each 270 mm in diameter consisting of 4 rings - 9
wafers across - assembled in a hexagonal close packed array.
Stacked atop one another the stack is 12.7 m tall and 7.003 m across
at the base.
The booster has a terminal velocity of 4 km/sec - and the interstage
takes the vehicle to 9.8 km/sec along a direct ascent trajectory. The
interstage falls back to Earth. The lunar stage boosts until a speed
of 10.8 km/sec is reached. It then makes a direct descent to the
lunar surface - using up to 2.4 km/sec delta vee. Then, it blasts
back to Earth directly, accelerating to 2.4 km/sec - along a
trajectory opposite the incoming one - taking the vehicle back to
Earth.
At $10,000 per kg construction costs, the lunar stage costs $3
million, the interstage $17 million and the booster $112 million. A
total of $132 million.
Reusing the vehicle 10x reduces the cost to less than $14 million per
flight.
This is about 10x what the Guggenheim's paid out to Goddard, in
inflation adjusted dollars, to develop the rockets in the first place.
William Mook
mh...@ohiohills.com
> > Or maybe there's a way to go under the instrument panel to get to the
> > nose. Where's the toilet?
>
> I know the details of the Apollo one, but how was that problem addressed
> on the longer Gemini flights?
I just looked it up in SP-121 (Gemini Midprogram Conference including
experiment results). On page 68, we are told that fecal matter was
handled with "individual plasti bags with adhesive-lined circular
tops." There was a disinfectant in the bag. "Use required
considerable care and effort," and there was training.
SP-121 is 186 megs. There's also "Gemini Summary conference" the
final report, SP-138, which looks like the final report. It's 398
megs; I haven't looked in it.
Mike
mh...@ohiohills.com
> I may be being too harsh about Goddard's turbo-rocket plane; it is a
> clever solution using rocket power to drive the props at low speed, but
> what to make those turbine blades out of that go into the rocket exhaust
> is a good question given the materials of the time...graphite could take
> the heat, but would it take the structural stress of being spun that
> fast?
That was one of the plot devices in Heinlein's "Rocket Ship Galileo."
Cargraves was trying to create an atomic turbine, but the blades kept
being sliced off. Then one day it hit him that he has a rocket.
> It would make on very wild looking model, I'll say that for it. :-)
The mind boggles at the thought of Goddard with an unlimited budget.
Mike
Pat Flannery
> On Sep 2, 3:11 am, Pat Flannery<flan...@daktel.com> wrote:
>
>>> Or maybe there's a way to go under the instrument panel to get to the
>>> nose. Where's the toilet?
>>
>> I know the details of the Apollo one, but how was that problem addressed
>> on the longer Gemini flights?
>
> I just looked it up in SP-121 (Gemini Midprogram Conference including
> experiment results). On page 68, we are told that fecal matter was
> handled with "individual plasti bags with adhesive-lined circular
> tops." There was a disinfectant in the bag. "Use required
> considerable care and effort," and there was training.
Sounds like a good way to be shy a few short hairs by the time you are done.
> SP-121 is 186 megs. There's also "Gemini Summary conference" the
> final report, SP-138, which looks like the final report. It's 398
> megs; I haven't looked in it.
I'll bet that Gemini-7 capsule was pretty ripe smelling by the time they
landed.
Astronauts who visited it said Mir smelled like a mildewy old locker
room at a gymnasium.
Pat
Pat Flannery
>> It would make on very wild looking model, I'll say that for it. :-)
>
> The mind boggles at the thought of Goddard with an unlimited budget.
Those first ballistic missiles might have been traveling towards the
Nazis from Britain rather than the other way around.
He would have been better funded if he had been more open with the press
about what he was doing; some of those later rocket experiments would
have made great newsreel material.
Pat
mh...@ohiohills.com
> > Is "Just Imagine" a lost movie? I keep seeing stills from it, but
> > never anything about a copy of it. I bet a dozen could be sold
> > through this list alone.
>
> It showed up on Turner Classic Movies at least once.
> It's a very strange thing, a very big budget musical comedy that's
> partly Vaudeville, partly slapstick.
Thanks for the links. I think I've been cured of my desire to see it.
Mike
Pat Flannery
>
> Thanks for the links. I think I've been cured of my desire to see it.
Best line in the movie, as the blonde floozy addresses the judge:
"He took advantage of me, your honor...I was a farmer's daughter...and
he was a son of a..." :-D
mh...@ohiohills.com
>
> BTW, he wasn't the first person to come up with the idea of driving
> propellers by shooting rocket exhaust onto a turbine to drive them.
> Meet the Berdan torpedo of the 1880's:http://www.btinternet.com/~philipr/images/torp12.jpg
Was this patented? I can't find through Google's patent data base,
but that means little.
I did find that Hiran Berdan is credited with the invention of the
"bread machine," too, based on other patents in that name. He must
have been an interesting character, if he was one person.
Mike
mh...@ohiohills.com
>
> > Thanks for the links. I think I've been cured of my desire to see it.
>
> Best line in the movie, as the blonde floozy addresses the judge:
> "He took advantage of me, your honor...I was a farmer's daughter...and
> he was a son of a..." :-D
The Code has lost us much humor.
Mike
Pat Flannery
ges/torp12.jpg
>
> Was this patented? I can't find through Google's patent data base,
> but that means little.
Here's info on it; it may have been patented in Turkey:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jaaHQ4FlKS4C&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=berdan+torpedo&source=bl&ots=7aqWbtgygN&sig=nZJQwBve8cCPx2_UVdeAc6k_3tg&hl=en&ei=0S-BTJHhMYSAnwe66bxf&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=berdan%20torpedo&f=false
>
> I did find that Hiran Berdan is credited with the invention of the
> "bread machine," too, based on other patents in that name. He must
> have been an interesting character, if he was one person.
That's the boy; had a sharpshooter brigade in the Civil War:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Berdan
I got a kick out of his patented musket ball design...I picture this
patent with three circles drawn on it, labeled "Front", "Side", "Top". ;-)
Pat
Bill Higgins
> On 9/2/2010 4:13 AM, mh...@ohiohills.com wrote:
>
> > Is "Just Imagine" a lost movie? I keep seeing stills from it, but
> > never anything about a copy of it. I bet a dozen could be sold
> > through this list alone.
>
> It showed up on Turner Classic Movies at least once.
> It's a very strange thing, a very big budget musical comedy that's
> partly Vaudeville, partly slapstick.
> Here's the incredibly involved dirigible crew's drinking song from it:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL7JJ4rsLR8
Another number: "Never Swat a Fly."
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE3-KcDzGDA>
I first heard this song covered by Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, sung
by Maria Muldaur. She was still singing it on solo albums decades
later.
--
"There's darkness inside everyone's head-- | Bill Higgins
well, except during trepanning!" | Fermilab
--Jo Walton | hig...@fnal.gov
| http://beamjockey.livejournal.com
Pat Flannery
>> It showed up on Turner Classic Movies at least once.
>> It's a very strange thing, a very big budget musical comedy that's
>> partly Vaudeville, partly slapstick.
>> Here's the incredibly involved dirigible crew's drinking song from it:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL7JJ4rsLR8
>
> Another number: "Never Swat a Fly."
>
> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE3-KcDzGDA>
Oh God, I'd forgotten that awful part of it.
On the version shown on TCM, they actually show the two flies screwing,
which is a particularly low point in musical cinema.
Pat
William Mook
Hearst's Metrotone News list newsreels under Robert Hutchings Goddard
1882 - 1945. They're not available on line. Selznick News and
Vitagraph, were both active in the 1920s and 30s the period where
Goddard through Lindbergh's influence got Guggenheim (the one the
museum is named after) to give him $100,000 per year. Since
Guggenheim lived in NYC, and since Selznick and Vitagraph lived in
NYC, they both went down and filmed Goddard's efforts in New Mexico.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcGaMEXDWVk
http://www.5min.com/Video/Robert-Goddard-Biography-119827278
These biographies made in the 60s and 70s were taken from these
newsreels.
William Mook
Go to USPTO data base - you'll need to install their TIFF viewer to
see them - its free and complete if you click 'since 1790' check box -
the last nine for 'Robert Goddard' 'Inventor Name' is;
1,879,186 Apparatus for Igniting Liquid Fuel
1,860,891 Apparatus for Pumping Low Temperature Liquids
1,834,149 Means for Decelerating Aircraft
1,809,271 Propulsion of Aircraft
1,809,115 Apparatus for Producing Ions (Ion rocket)
1,700,675 Vaporizer for Use With Solar Energy (solar rocket)
1,661,473 Accumulator for Radiant Energy
1,609,540 Sound Reproducing Device
1,341,053 Magazine rocket
There are 100 more - which may cite him as well as be by him.
mh...@ohiohills.com
> Go to USPTO data base - you'll need to install their TIFF viewer to
> see them - its free and complete if you click 'since 1790' check box -
> the last nine for 'Robert Goddard' 'Inventor Name' is;
Thanks.
> 1,341,053 Magazine rocket
This is very near to the basic idea of Orion.
Mike
Pat Flannery
>> Go to USPTO data base - you'll need to install their TIFF viewer to
>> see them - its free and complete if you click 'since 1790' check box -
>> the last nine for 'Robert Goddard' 'Inventor Name' is;
>
> Thanks.
>
>> 1,341,053 Magazine rocket
>
> This is very near to the basic idea of Orion.
You can also go to it via the new Google patent search engine:
http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=E9E-AAAAEBAJ&dq=1,341,053
The multiple explosion design goes back further than Goddard, at least
as far as one of the assassins of Czar Alexander II in 1881:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Kibalchich
Pat
Pat Flannery
>At least as far as one of the assassins of Czar Alexander II in 1881:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Kibalchich
Okay, how about Cyrano De Bergerac in his "A Voyage To The Moon" from
1647?: http://www.princeton.edu/~stengel/cyrano.html
"Bruised as I was, however, I returned to my Chamber without loosing
courage, and with Beef-Marrow I anointed my Body, for I was all over
mortified from Head to Foot: Then having taken a dram of Cordial Waters
to strengthen my Heart, I went back to look for my Machine; but I could
not find it, for some Soldiers, that had been sent into the Forest to
cut wood for a Bonefire, meeting with it by chance, had carried it with
them to the Fort: Where after a great deal of guessing what it might be,
when they had discovered the invention of the Spring, some said, that a
good many Fire-Works should be fastened to it, because their Force
carrying them up on high, and the Machine playing its large Wings, no
Body but would take it for a Fiery Dragon. In the mean time I was long
in search of it, but found it at length in the Market-place of Kebeck
(Quebec), just as they were setting Fire to it. I was so transported
with Grief, to find the Work of my Hands in so great Peril, that I ran
to the Souldier that was giving Fire to it, caught hold of his Arm,
pluckt the Match out of his Hand, and in great rage threw my self into
my Machine, that I might undo the Fire-Works that they had stuck about
it; but I came too late, for hardly were both my Feet within, when whip,
away went I up in a Cloud.
The Horror and Consternation I was in did not so confound the faculties
of my Soul, but I have since remembered all that happened to me at that
instant. For so soon as the Flame had devoured one tier of Squibs, which
were ranked by six and six, by means of a Train that reached every
half-dozen, another tier went off, and then another[8], so that the
Salt-Peter taking Fire, put off the danger by encreasing it. However,
all the combustible matter being spent, there was a period put to the
Fire-work; and whilst I thought of nothing less than to knock my Head
against the top of some Mountain, I felt, without the least stirring, my
elevation continuing; and adieu Machine, for I saw it fall down again
towards the Earth."
Pat
GordonD
news:hIGdnVpD56v5lh3R...@posted.northdakotatelephone...
> On 9/2/2010 4:15 AM, mh...@ohiohills.com wrote:
>> On Sep 2, 3:11 am, Pat Flannery<flan...@daktel.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> Or maybe there's a way to go under the instrument panel to get to the
>>>> nose. Where's the toilet?
>>>
>>> I know the details of the Apollo one, but how was that problem addressed
>>> on the longer Gemini flights?
>>
>> I have no idea, and I've not seen that references in any of the Gemini
>> documents I have. To be honest, I admit I've never looked for it.
>
> On the long duration Gemini 7 flight, the astronauts were given special
> pressure suits they could take off once in orbit, but that cabin still
> looks awfully small to try to defecate and wipe yourself in.
Before sealing the bag, the astronaut had to pop in some sort of
anti-bacterial capsule then, for want of a better word, knead the contents
to make sure it was spread throughout. Lovell claims that Borman once handed
him a just-filled bag and asked him to do this for him as he was busy!
--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland
"Slipped the surly bonds of Earth...to touch the face of God."