contribution of development of space exploration (1 Viewer)

[Forbidden.]

identify data sources, gather, analyse and present information on the contribution of one of the following to the development of space exploration: Tsiolkovsky, Oberth, Goddard, Esnault-Pelterie, O‘Neill or von Braun

To many of you, it's probably given to you as an assignment by your teacher.
My Physics teacher on the other hand won't, we have to do it ourselves.
I proposed to research von Braun, who worked on V-2 rockets, but they were for military applications, not space exploration.

Which of these people do you find contributed most to space exploration ?

 

[alcalder]

Actually that's not entirely true. von Braun is a mega name in getting the Americans to the Moon! The recent TV series on ABC about the Race to Space was fantastic and outlined a lot of that. It also mentioned his Russian counterpart (whose name escapes me now) but between them they made it posible for man top actually get into space.

It blows my mind to think of the difficulties they actually had synchronising all those rockets at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

You could not have chosen a better research topic!

EDIT: Russian Counterpart = Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov

 

[Forbidden.]

Actually that's not entirely true. von Braun is a mega name in getting the Americans to the Moon! The recent TV series on ABC about the Race to Space was fantastic and outlined a lot of that. It also mentioned his Russian counterpart (whose name escapes me now) but between them they made it posible for man top actually get into space.

It blows my mind to think of the difficulties they actually had synchronising all those rockets at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

You could not have chosen a better research topic!

EDIT: Russian Counterpart = Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov

So you personally prefer von Braun as a subject of research in this syllabus dot point ?

 

[Dark Phoenix]

i agree with alcalder von braun is a good one to choose.

In 1952 he developed the idea of the space station, saying that it would be the perfect jumping off point for lunar expeditions

He also joined Disney to make films about space exploration

He built US army's Jupiter ballistic missile that launched the first US satellite, explorer 1

He developed giant saturn rockets which were capable of taking astronauts to the moon

He was then chosen to head NASA's strategic planning in washington

 

[alcalder]

If you wanted to choose someone who has contributed to space exploration in a MAJOR MAJOR way in many different ways, then von Braun is perfect.


HOWEVER, my personal preference is always to choose the little guy whose contribution seems, at first, so small and insignificant but it was instrumental in letting the big guys do what they wanted to do. I always do this to myself and find that the information on these guys is always the hardest to find (but always the most rewarding).

Take, for example, Tsiolkovsky. A theorist, mostly, and yet his vision and the work he did allowed others to go so much further. It is those guys that are my personal preference for research.

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From Wikipedia: Isaac Newton famously remarked in a letter to his rival Robert Hooke dated February 5, 1676 that:

"What Des-Cartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, and especially in taking the colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."
​

 

[2vague]

i have the same assignment as you. . .
ive been reading stuff on goddard and it is soooooo boring. . .. i dont know about you but i can only find limited information on achievements. by any chance, were u advised a preferred layout for the assignment? and im assuming you have the second half of the assignment on space probes yeah?

 

[Forbidden.]

lol most teachers would set this out as a project, our teacher gave it to us as a homework question. just a tick in the book for completion. we are very likely to be assessed on this in our half-yearlies.

 

[2vague]

wow, thast a pretty boring homework task. . . well, its worth 20% for me. . i think. .. but its alot >.<"
hope u dont fall asleep reading it, like me

 

[cuppy]

i got this assignment last year and most of my class did von Braun. the teacher probably got sick of reading the same thing over and over since we all got our info from the same sources!

i found that von braun was ideal to research as he was a pioneer for so many significant projects related to space exploration, and this opened us to a new universe of knowledge which continues to grow today.

the main achievements i focused on were -

- his development of the v-2 war missile. while it was used for military applications, it was significant in expanding scientists knowledge of rocket technology. this had many implications for space travel as it enabled better and more efficient rockets to be developed and used to explore the univserse, thus saving money and time + greater advances in examining all that was beyond our planet.

- he also led the development of the Saturn V which took mankind to the moon. (his contribution here is obvious as it had never been done before. scientists now had closer access to the moon and could gather valuable info etc etc... increased our understanding of what was out there, thus space exploration had been taken to new level and we gained a new dimension of insight blah blah blah...)

- he also played an important role in the development and launch of the Explorer 1 Satellite. this led to greater knowledge of the universe which was now open for exploration...more extensive research could be conducted which enabled some questions to be answered and for amazing discoveries to be made (e.g van allen belts!) ...this subsequently shaped future technologies for space travel and the launch of more rockets and satellites - so the exploration continues and we continue to build on our knowledge.

ok i'm rambling on a bit now but you get the point! von Braun made a MASSIVE contribution to the development of space exploration - as long as that keeps coming through in your assignment (and you don't fall into the trap of just describing or listing what he did in his career) it should work out very nicely =]

 

[2vague]

one of the questions on my assignment sheet was "problems he had to overcome in his work." ive read a couple of sites and all ive picked up was him being accused by the nazi's and his work not being recognised while in the US until later. which i dont think are the major problems in terms of space exploration. do u know any problems or any sites which can help me fill in the blank??? thanks =D

 

[alcalder]

Trying to get all those rockets to fire at the same time to get that thing into the air was a major problem. They had such rudimentary electronics and computers. It's a wonder we ever made it to the moon in the 1960's!!!!