The city where Tsiolkovsky was born. Space philosophy of K.E. Tsiolkovsky
Russian Soviet scientist and inventor in the field of aerodynamics, rocket dynamics, airplane and airship theory, founder of modern cosmonautics Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was born on September 17 (September 5, old style) 1857 in the village of Izhevskoye, Ryazan province, in the family of a forester.
Since 1868, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky lived with his parents in Vyatka (now Kirov), where he studied at the gymnasium.
After suffering from scarlet fever in childhood, he almost completely lost his hearing. Deafness did not allow him to continue his studies at the gymnasium, and from the age of 14 Tsiolkovsky studied independently.
From 1873 to 1876 he lived in Moscow and studied in the library of the Rumyantsev Museum (now the Russian State Library), studying chemistry and physical and mathematical sciences.
In 1876 he returned to Vyatka and.
In the fall of 1879, Tsiolkovsky passed exams as an external student at the Ryazan gymnasium for the title of teacher of district schools.
In 1880, he was appointed teacher of arithmetic and geometry at the Borovsk district school in the Kaluga province. For 12 years, Tsiolkovsky lived and worked in Borovsk. In 1892, he was transferred to service in Kaluga, where he taught physics and mathematics at the gymnasium and diocesan school.
Tsiolkovsky, almost from the very beginning of his career, combined teaching with scientific work. In 1880-1881, not knowing about the discoveries already made, he wrote his first scientific work, “The Theory of Gases.” His second work, published in the same years, “Mechanics of the Animal Organism,” received positive reviews from major scientists and was published. After its publication, Tsiolkovsky was accepted into the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.
In 1883, he wrote the work "Free Space", where he first formulated the principle of operation of a jet engine.
Since 1884, Tsiolkovsky worked on the problems of creating an airship and a “streamlined” airplane, and since 1886 - on the scientific substantiation of rockets for interplanetary flights. He systematically worked on the development of the theory of motion of jet vehicles and proposed several of their schemes.
In 1892, his work “Controllable Metal Balloon” (about an airship) was published. In 1897, Tsiolkovsky designed the first wind tunnel in Russia with an open working part.
He developed an experimental technique in it and in 1900, with a subsidy from the Academy of Sciences, he made purging of the simplest models and determined the drag coefficient of a ball, flat plate, cylinder, cone and other bodies.
In 1903, Tsiolkovsky’s first article on rocket technology, “Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments,” appeared in the journal “Scientific Review,” which substantiated the real possibility of using jet instruments for interplanetary communications.
It went unnoticed by the wider scientific community. The second part of the article, published in the journal "Bulletin of Aeronautics" in 1911-1912, caused a great resonance. In 1914, Tsiolkovsky published a separate brochure, “Addition to the Study of World Spaces by Reactive Instruments.”
After 1917, his scientific activities received state support. In 1918, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was elected a member of the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences (since 1924 - the Communist Academy).
In 1921, the scientist left his teaching job. During these years, he worked on creating a theory of jet flight and invented his own gas turbine engine design.
In 1926-1929, Tsiolkovsky developed the theory of multi-stage rocketry, solved important problems related to the movement of rockets in a non-uniform gravitational field, landing a spacecraft on the surface of planets without an atmosphere, considered the influence of the atmosphere on the flight of a rocket, put forward ideas about creating a rocket - an artificial Earth satellite and near-Earth orbital stations.
In 1932, he developed the theory of jet flight in the stratosphere and designs for aircraft at hypersonic speeds.
Tsiolkovsky is the founder of the theory of interplanetary communications. His research was the first to show the possibility of achieving cosmic speeds, the feasibility of interplanetary flights and human exploration of outer space. He was the first to consider questions about medical and biological problems arising during long-term space flights. In addition, the scientist put forward a number of ideas that have found application in rocket science. They proposed gas rudders to control the flight of a rocket, the use of propellant components to cool the outer shell of a spacecraft, and much more.
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) - Russian scientist and inventor, founder of modern cosmonautics, author of famous works in the field of aerodynamics and rocket dynamics, the theory of aircraft and airships.
Biography
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was born on September 17, 1857 (September 5, old style) in the village of Izhevskoye, Ryazan province, into the family of a forester. At the age of ten, Kostya fell ill with scarlet fever and lost his hearing. The boy was unable to study at school and was forced to study on his own.
This is how the scientist himself recalled his years of youth: “Glimpses of serious mental consciousness appeared when reading. At the age of 14, I decided to read arithmetic, and everything there seemed completely clear and understandable to me. From that time on, I realized that books are a simple thing and quite suitable for me.” accessible. I studied with curiosity and understanding several of my father’s books on the natural and mathematical sciences (my father was a teacher of these sciences in taxi classes for some time). And so I am fascinated by the astrolabe, measuring the distance to inaccessible objects, taking plans, determining altitudes. With the help of an astrolabe, without leaving the house, I determine the distance to the fire tower. I find 400 arshins. I go and check.
My father imagined that I had technical abilities, and I was sent to Moscow. But what could I do with my deafness! What connections should you make? Without knowledge of life, I was blind to career and income. I received 10-15 rubles a month from home. He ate only black bread and didn’t even have potatoes or tea. But I bought books, tubes, mercury, sulfuric acid and other chemical reagents for experiments."
When Konstantin was sixteen years old, his father sent him to Moscow to his friend N. Fedorov, who worked as a librarian at the Rumyantsev Museum. Under his leadership, K. Tsiolkovsky studied a lot and in the fall of 1879 passed the exam for the title of teacher of public schools.
“Finally, after Christmas (1880,” writes Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in his book of memoirs, “I received news of my appointment as a teacher of arithmetic and geometry at the Borovsk district school
At the direction of the residents, I ended up working for bread with a widower and his daughter, who lived on the outskirts of the city, near the river. They gave us two rooms and a table of soup and porridge. I was happy and lived here for a long time. The owner was a wonderful man, but he drank violently. We often talked over tea, lunch or dinner with his daughter. I was amazed at her understanding of the Gospel.
It was time to get married, and I married her without love, hoping that such a wife would not twist me around, would work and would not stop me from doing the same. This hope was fully justified. We went to get married four miles away, on foot, didn’t dress up, and didn’t let anyone into the church. We returned, and no one knew anything about our marriage. Before marriage and after it, I did not know a single woman except my wife. I’m ashamed to be intimate, but I can’t lie. I'm talking about good and bad.
I have attached only practical significance to marriage for a long time, almost from the age of sixteen, and have broken away theoretically from all the absurdities of religions. On the wedding day, I bought a lathe from a neighbor and cut glass for electric cars. Still, the musicians somehow got wind of the wedding. They were forcibly escorted out. Only the officiating priest got drunk. And it was not I who treated him, but the owner...
I never treated anyone, didn’t celebrate, didn’t go anywhere myself, and my salary was enough for me. We dressed simply, in fact, very poorly, but we did not wear patches and never went hungry. There were small family scenes and quarrels, but I always recognized myself as guilty and asked for forgiveness.
Thus the world was restored. Work still prevailed: I wrote, calculated, soldered, planed, smelted, and so on. He made good piston air pumps, steam engines and various experiments. A guest came and asked to see the steam engine. I agreed, but only suggested that the guest chop some kindling to heat the steam engine."
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky worked in Borovsk for several years and in 1892 was transferred to Kaluga. His entire future life passed in this city. Here he taught physics and mathematics at the gymnasium and diocesan school, and devoted all his free time to scientific work. Without the funds to buy instruments and materials, he made all the models and devices for experiments with his own hands.
Tsiolkovsky's range of interests was very wide. However, due to the lack of systematic education, he often came to results already known in science. For example, this happened with his first scientific work devoted to the problems of gas dynamics.
But for his second published work, “Mechanics of the Animal Organism,” Tsiolkovsky was elected a full member of the Russian Physicochemical Society. This work earned positive reviews from the largest scientists of the time, chemist and teacher Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev and physicist Alexander Grigorievich Stoletov.
Alexander Stoletov introduced Tsiolkovsky to his student Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky, after which Tsiolkovsky began to study the mechanics of controlled flight. The scientist built a primitive wind tunnel in the attic of his house, on which he conducted experiments with wooden models.
The material he accumulated was used as the basis for the project of a controlled balloon. This is how Konstantin Tsiolkovsky called the airship, since this word itself had not yet been invented at that time. Tsiolkovsky was not only the first to propose the idea of an all-metal airship, but also built a working model of it. At the same time, the scientist created an original device for automatically controlling the flight of an airship, as well as an original scheme for regulating its lift.
However, officials from the Russian Technical Society rejected Tsiolkovsky's project due to the fact that at the same time the Austrian inventor Schwartz made a similar proposal. Nevertheless, Tsiolkovsky managed to publish a description of his project in the journal Scientific Review and thus secure priority for this invention.
After the airship, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky moved on to studying the aerodynamics of the aircraft. He studied in detail the effect of wing shape on the amount of lift and derived the relationship between air resistance and the required power of an aircraft engine. These works were used by Nikolai Zhukovsky to create the theory of wing calculations.
Subsequently, Tsiolkovsky's interests switched to space exploration. In 1903, he published the book “Explorations of World Spaces by Jet Instruments,” in which he proved for the first time that the only apparatus capable of space flight is a rocket. True, Tsiolkovsky lacked mathematical knowledge, and he was unable to give detailed calculations of its design. However, the scientist put forward a number of important and interesting ideas.
Those first works of the scientist went almost unnoticed. The doctrine of the jet starship was only noticed when it began to be published a second time, in 1911-1912, in the well-known widespread and richly published metropolitan magazine “Bulletin of Aeronautics”. Then many scientists and engineers abroad declared their priority. But thanks to the early works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, his priority was proven.
In these articles and its subsequent sequels (1911 and 1914), he laid the foundations for the theory of rockets and liquid rocket engines. He was the first to solve the problem of landing a spacecraft on the surface of planets without an atmosphere.
The scientist’s discoveries remained unknown to most experts for a long time. His activities did not meet with the necessary support. He had a large family (seven children) and a small salary. For all his work before the October events of 1917, he received 470 rubles from the Imperial Academy of Sciences. And life was difficult, sometimes simply hungry, and there was a lot of grief and tears in it, only two daughters outlived their father, and fate did not bring him a bitter cup of trials. He was a convinced homebody. It took a lot of effort to persuade him to even go to Moscow, when he was solemnly celebrated at the age of seventy-five.
The revolution of 1917 improved the situation of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
“Under the Soviet government, provided with a pension, I could more freely devote myself to my work, and, almost unnoticed before, I now aroused attention to my work. My airship was recognized as a particularly reliable invention. An institute was formed to study jet propulsion. My seventieth birthday was celebrated by the press. Through Five years ago, my anniversary was even solemnly celebrated in Moscow and Kaluga. I was awarded an order and an activist badge from Osoaviakhim.
However, the skating rink of revolutionary terror swept through the life of this outstanding scientist: on November 17, 1919, five people raided the Tsiolkovskys’ house. After searching the house, they took the head of the family and brought him to Moscow, where he was imprisoned in Lubyanka. There he was interrogated for several weeks. According to some reports, a certain high-ranking official interceded for Tsiolkovsky, as a result of which the scientist was released.
In 1926-1929, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky solved a practical question: how much fuel do you need to take into a rocket in order to achieve take-off speed and leave the Earth? Konstantin Eduardovich managed to derive a formula called the Tsiolkovsky formula.
It turned out that the final speed of the rocket depends on the speed of the gases flowing out of it and on how many times the weight of the fuel exceeds the weight of the empty rocket. In practice, one must also take into account the attraction of celestial bodies and the resistance of air, where it exists.
Calculations show: in order for a liquid-propellant rocket with people to develop take-off speed and set off on an interplanetary flight, it is necessary to take a hundred times more fuel than the weight of the rocket body, engine, mechanisms, instruments and passengers combined. And this again creates a very serious obstacle.
The scientist found an original solution - a rocket train, a multi-stage interplanetary ship. It consists of many rockets connected to each other. In addition to fuel, the front rocket contains passengers and equipment. The rockets work alternately, accelerating the entire train. When the fuel in one rocket burns out, it is jettisoned, removing the empty tanks and making the entire train lighter. Then the second rocket begins to work, etc. The front rocket, as if in a relay race, receives the speed gained by all the previous rockets.
It is curious that, having practically no instruments, K. Tsiolkovsky calculated the optimal altitude for a flight around the Earth - this is a range from three hundred to eight hundred kilometers above the Earth. It is at these altitudes that modern space flights take place.
Having learned about Tsiolkovsky’s work, the German scientist Hermann Oberth wrote to him: “Knowing your excellent works, I would have done without much wasted work and would have advanced much further today.”
Space flight and airship construction were the main problems to which he devoted his life. But to speak of Tsiolkovsky only as the father of astronautics means to impoverish his contribution to modern science and technology.
Astrobotany had not yet been born, we still had to wait decades for experiments on the synthesis of complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky confidently defended the idea of the diversity of life forms in the Universe. Light, bookcase-like airplanes broke with a crash in front of the hippodrome crowd, and Tsiolkovsky wrote in 1911: “The airplane will be the safest way of transportation.”
Long before this, he was the first to propose “retractable hulls at the bottom” - wheels, ahead of the creation of the first wheeled landing gear in the Wright brothers' aircraft. As if guessing about the future discovery of the laser, he posed the engineering task of today: space communication using “a parallel beam of electromagnetic rays with a short wavelength, electric or even light...”. There was not a single computing machine, and the needs of life had not yet called for the saving power of numerical abstractions, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky predicted: “... mathematics will penetrate into all areas of knowledge.” He was responsible for the development of the principle of hovercraft propulsion, which was implemented only many years later.
Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich(September 5 (17), 1857, Izhevskoe, Ryazan province, Russian Empire - September 19, 1935, Kaluga, USSR) - Russian and Soviet self-taught scientist, researcher, school teacher. The founder of modern astronautics. He substantiated the derivation of the jet propulsion equation and came to the conclusion about the need to use “rocket trains” - prototypes of multi-stage rockets. Author of works on aerodynamics, aeronautics and other sciences.
Representative of Russian cosmism, member of the Russian Society of World Studies Lovers. Author of science fiction works, supporter and propagandist of the ideas of space exploration. Tsiolkovsky proposed populating outer space using orbital stations, put forward the ideas of a space elevator and hovercraft. He believed that the development of life on one of the planets of the Universe would reach such power and perfection that this would make it possible to overcome the forces of gravity and spread life throughout the Universe.
Biography
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was born on September 5 (17), 1857 in the village of Izhevskoye near Ryazan. His father, Eduard Ignatievich, was a Polish nobleman of middle income, and his mother, Maria Ivanovna Yumasheva, had Tatar roots. Usually the mother took care of the children. It was she who taught Konstantin to read and write and introduced him to the beginnings of arithmetic. At the age of nine, Kostya Tsiolkovsky fell ill with scarlet fever. As a result of complications from the illness, he lost his hearing. It was what he later called “the saddest, darkest time of my life.” Hearing loss deprived the boy of many childhood fun and experiences familiar to his healthy peers. In 1869 he entered the gymnasium. The future scientist did not shine with great success. There were a lot of subjects, and it was not easy for a half-deaf boy to study. But for his pranks he was repeatedly sent to punishment cell. In 1870, when Tsiolkovsky was 13 years old, his mother died. Grief crushed the orphaned boy. He feels much more acutely his deafness, which made him more and more isolated. Deprived of support, the boy studies worse and worse... In 1871, he was expelled from the gymnasium with the characteristic “... for admission to a technical school.” But it was at this time that Konstantin Tsiolkovsky finds his true calling and place in life. He is engaged in education on his own. Unlike gymnasium teachers, books generously endow him with knowledge and never make the slightest reproach. At the same time, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky became involved in technical and scientific creativity. He independently makes an astrolabe (the first distance he measured was to a fire tower), a home lathe, self-propelled carriages and locomotives. His son’s abilities became obvious to Eduard Tsiolkovsky, and he decides to send the boy to the capital. Konstantin finds an apartment for himself and, living literally on bread and water (his father sent ten to fifteen rubles a month), works hard. Every day from ten in the morning until three or four in the afternoon, a hardworking young man studies science in the library. During the first year of living in Moscow, I completed physics and basic mathematics. In the second, Konstantin overcomes differential and integral calculus, higher algebra, analytical and spherical geometry.
However, life in Moscow was quite expensive; Tsiolkovsky, despite all his efforts, was unable to provide himself with sufficient funds, so in 1876 his father recalled him to Vyatka. Konstantin becomes a private tutor and earns money on his own, and in his free time continues to study in the city public library. In 1880, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky passed the exams for the teaching title and moved to Borovsk, located 100 kilometers from Moscow, on appointment from the Ministry of Education to his first government position. There he married Varvara Evgrafovna Sokolova. The young couple begins to live separately and the young scientist continues his physical experiments and technical creativity. In Tsiolkovsky's house, electric lightning flashes, thunder rumbles, bells ring, paper dolls dance. Being far from the main scientific centers of Russia, Tsiolkovsky, remaining deaf, decided to independently conduct research in the field that interested him - aerodynamics. He began by developing the foundations of the kinetic theory of gases and sent his calculations to the Russian Physical-Chemical Society in St. Petersburg and soon received a response from Mendeleev: the kinetic theory of gases had already been discovered... 25 years ago. But Tsiolkovsky survived this news, which became a blow for him as a scientist, and continued his research. In St. Petersburg they became interested in the gifted and extraordinary teacher from Vyatka and invited him to join the above-mentioned society.
In 1892, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was transferred as a teacher to Kaluga. There he also did not forget about science, astronautics and aeronautics. In Kaluga, Tsiolkovsky built a special tunnel that would make it possible to measure various aerodynamic parameters of aircraft. Since the Physicochemical Society did not allocate a penny for his experiments, the scientist had to use family funds to conduct research. By the way, Tsiolkovsky built more than 100 experimental models at his own expense and tested them - not the cheapest pleasure! After some time, society nevertheless paid attention to the Kaluga genius and provided him with financial support - 470 rubles, with which Tsiolkovsky built a new, improved tunnel. During his aerodynamic experiments, Tsiolkovsky began to pay more and more attention to space problems. In 1895, his book “Dreams of Earth and Sky” was published, and a year later an article was published about other worlds, intelligent beings from other planets and about the communication of earthlings with them. In the same 1896, Tsiolkovsky began writing his main work, “Exploration of outer space using a jet engine.” This book touched upon the problems of using rocket engines in space - navigation mechanisms, supply and transportation of fuel, and others.
The first fifteen years of the twentieth century were the most difficult in the life of a scientist. In 1902, his son Ignatius committed suicide. In 1908, during the Oka flood, his house was flooded, many cars and exhibits were disabled, and numerous unique calculations were lost. The Physicochemical Society did not appreciate the significance and revolutionary nature of the models presented by Tsiolkovsky. Under Soviet rule, Tsiolkovsky's living and working conditions changed radically. He was assigned a personal pension and provided with the opportunity for fruitful activity. Tsiolkovsky's developments became of interest to the new government, which provided him with significant material support. In 1918, Tsiolkovsky was elected as one of the competing members of the Socialist Academy of Social Sciences (in 1923 it was renamed the Communist Academy, and in 1936 its main institutes were transferred to the USSR Academy of Sciences), and on November 9, 1921, the scientist was awarded a lifetime pension for services to the Russian and world science. This pension was paid until September 19, 1935 - on that day the greatest man, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, died in his hometown of Kaluga.
Tsiolkovsky's theory
Tsiolkovsky's first scientific research dates back to 1880-1881. Not knowing about the discoveries already made, he wrote the work “Theory of Gases,” in which he outlined the foundations of the kinetic theory of gases. His second work, “Mechanics of the Animal Organism,” received a favorable review from I.M. Sechenov, and Tsiolkovsky was accepted into the Russian Physico-Chemical Society. Tsiolkovsky's main works after 1884 were associated with four major problems: the scientific substantiation of an all-metal balloon (airship), a streamlined airplane, a hovercraft and a rocket for interplanetary travel. After meeting Nikolai Zhukovsky, who was a student of Stoletov, Tsiolkovsky began to study the mechanics of controlled flight, as a result of which he designed a controlled balloon (the word “airship” had not yet been invented). Tsiolkovsky was the first to propose the idea of an all-metal airship, and built a working model of it, created a device for automatically controlling the flight of the airship and a scheme for regulating its lift. The first published work on airships was “Metal Controlled Balloon” (1892), which provided scientific and technical justification for the design of an airship with a metal shell. The Tsiolkovsky airship project, progressive for its time, was not supported; the author was denied a subsidy for the construction of the model. Tsiolkovsky's appeal to the General Staff of the Russian Army was also unsuccessful. In 1892, he turned to the new and little-explored field of heavier-than-air aircraft. Tsiolkovsky came up with the idea of building an airplane with a metal frame. The article “Airplane or Bird-like (aviation) flying machine” (1894) provides a description and drawings of a monoplane, which in its appearance and aerodynamic configuration anticipated the designs of aircraft that appeared 15-18 years later. In Tsiolkovsky's airplane, the wings have a thick profile with a rounded leading edge, and the fuselage has a streamlined shape. But the work on the airplane, as well as on the airship, did not receive recognition from official representatives of Russian science. Tsiolkovsky had neither the funds nor even moral support for further research. Many years later, already in Soviet times, in 1932, he developed the theory of the flight of jet aircraft in the stratosphere and the design of aircraft for flight at hypersonic speeds. Tsiolkovsky built the first wind tunnel in Russia with an open working part in 1897, developed an experimental technique in it, and in 1900, with a subsidy from the Academy of Sciences, he made blowing of the simplest models and determined the drag coefficient of a ball, flat plate, cylinder, cone and other bodies. Since 1896, Tsiolkovsky systematically studied the theory of motion of jet vehicles. Thoughts about using the rocket principle in space were expressed by Tsiolkovsky back in 1883, but he outlined a strict theory of jet propulsion in 1896. Tsiolkovsky derived an ingenious formula (it was called the “Tsiolkovsky formula”), which established the relationship between:
rocket speed at any moment
speed of gas flow from the nozzle
rocket mass
mass of explosives
Of course, he did not suspect for a second how much joy the discovery of yellowed and crumpled sheets of paper would later bring to historians. After all, by writing the date of the calculations, Tsiolkovsky, without knowing it, secured his primacy in matters of scientific space exploration. In 1903, he published the book “Explorations of World Spaces by Jet Instruments,” where he proved for the first time that the only apparatus capable of space flight is a rocket. In this article and its subsequent sequels (1911 and 1914), he laid the foundations for the theory of rockets and liquid rocket engines. In this pioneering work, Tsiolkovsky:
completely proved the impossibility of going into space by balloon or with the help of an artillery gun,
deduced the relationship between the weight of the fuel and the weight of the rocket structures to overcome the force of gravity,
expressed the idea of an on-board orientation system based on the Sun or other celestial bodies
analyzed the behavior of a rocket outside the atmosphere, in an environment free of gravity
The problem of landing a spacecraft on the surface of planets without an atmosphere was solved.
Thus the dawn of the space age rose on the banks of the Oka. True, the result of the first publication was not at all what Tsiolkovsky expected. Neither compatriots nor foreign scientists appreciated the research that science is proud of today. It was simply an era ahead of its time. In 1911, the second part of the work “Exploration of World Spaces by Reactive Instruments” was published. Tsiolkovsky calculates the work to overcome the force of gravity, determines the speed required for the device to enter the Solar System (“second cosmic speed”) and the flight time. This time, Tsiolkovsky’s article caused a lot of noise in the scientific world. Tsiolkovsky made many friends in the world of science. In 1926-1929, Tsiolkovsky solved a practical question: how much fuel should be taken into a rocket in order to obtain the liftoff speed and leave the Earth. It turned out that the final speed of the rocket depends on the speed of the gases flowing out of it and on how many times the weight of the fuel exceeds the weight of the empty rocket. Calculations show: in order for a rocket with people to develop take-off speed and set off on an interplanetary flight, it is necessary to take a hundred times more fuel than the weight of the rocket body, engine, mechanisms, instruments and passengers combined. And this again creates a very serious obstacle. The scientist found an original solution - a multi-stage interplanetary spacecraft. It consists of many rockets connected to each other. In addition to fuel, the front rocket contains passengers and equipment. The rockets work alternately, accelerating the entire train. When the fuel in one rocket burns out, it is jettisoned, removing the empty tanks and making the entire train lighter. Then the second rocket begins to work, etc. The front rocket, as if in a relay race, receives the speed gained by all the previous rockets. During these same years, he assessed the influence of atmospheric resistance on the flight of a rocket and the additional fuel costs during this process. Tsiolkovsky is the founder of the theory of interplanetary communications. His research was the first to show the possibility of reaching cosmic speeds, proving the feasibility of interplanetary flights. He was the first to study the issue of a rocket - an artificial satellite of the Earth and expressed the idea of creating near-Earth stations as artificial settlements using solar energy and intermediate bases for interplanetary communications; examined medical and biological problems arising during long-term space flights.
Tsiolkovsky put forward a number of ideas that found application in rocket science. They proposed: gas rudders (made of graphite) to control the flight of the rocket and change the trajectory of its center of mass; the use of fuel components to cool the outer shell of the spacecraft (during entry into the Earth's atmosphere), the walls of the combustion chamber and the nozzle; pumping system for supplying fuel components; optimal descent trajectories of a spacecraft when returning from space, etc. In the field of rocket fuels, Tsiolkovsky studied a large number of different oxidizers and fuels; recommended fuel pairs: liquid oxygen with hydrogen, oxygen with hydrocarbons. Tsiolkovsky worked a lot and fruitfully on creating the theory of flight of jet aircraft, invented his own gas turbine engine design; in 1927 he published the theory and diagram of a hovercraft train. He was the first to propose a “bottom-retractable chassis” chassis. Space flight and airship construction were the main problems to which he devoted his life. But to speak of Tsiolkovsky only as the father of astronautics means to impoverish his contribution to modern science and technology. Tsiolkovsky defended the idea of diversity of life forms in the Universe, was the first ideologist and theorist of human exploration of outer space, the ultimate goal of which seemed to him in the form of a complete restructuring of the biochemical nature of thinking beings generated by the Earth.
Science fiction writer
Tsiolkovsky's science fiction works are little known to a wide range of readers. Perhaps because they are closely related to his scientific works. His early work “Free Space,” written in 1883 (published in 1954), is very close to fantasy. Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky is the author of science fiction works: “Dreams of Earth and Heaven”, “On Vesta”, the story “On the Moon” (first published in the supplement to the magazine “Around the World” in 1893, reprinted several times in Soviet times) .
Work on rocket navigation and interplanetary communications
- 1903 - “Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments. (Rocket into outer space)"
- 1911 - “Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments”
- 1914 - “Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments (Addition)”
- 1924 - “Spaceship”
- 1926 - “Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments”
- 1927 - “Space rocket. Experienced training"
- 1928 - “Proceedings on the space rocket 1903-1907.”
- 1929 - “Space Rocket Trains”
- 1929 - “Jet Engine”
- 1929 - “Star Voyage Goals”
- 1930 - “To Starfarers”
- 1932 - “Jet Propulsion”
- 1932-1933 - “Fuel for the rocket”
- 1933 - “A starship with its predecessor machines”
- 1933 - “Projectiles acquiring cosmic velocities on land or water”
- 1935 - “The highest speed of a rocket”
Tsiolkovsky's awards and perpetuation of his memory
For special services in the field of inventions of great importance for the economic power and defense of the USSR, Tsiolkovsky was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1932. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tsiolkovsky in 1954, the USSR Academy of Sciences established a gold medal named after. K. E. Tsiolkovsky “3a outstanding works in the field of interplanetary communications.” Monuments to the scientist were erected in Kaluga and Moscow; a memorial house-museum was created in Kaluga; The State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics and the Pedagogical Institute (now Kaluga State Pedagogical University), a school in Kaluga, and the Moscow Aviation Technology Institute bear his name. A crater on the Moon is named after Tsiolkovsky.
TSIOLKOVSKY, KONSTANTIN EDUARDOVICH(1857–1935), Russian scientist, pioneer of astronautics and rocketry. Born on September 17 (29), 1857 in the village of Izhevskoye near Ryazan. After suffering from scarlet fever in childhood, he almost completely lost his hearing, which deprived him of the opportunity to enter an educational institution. He received his education independently, and in 1879 he passed the exams for the title of teacher as an external student. He taught physics and mathematics at the Borovsky district school in the Kaluga province, and then at the gymnasium and diocesan school in Kaluga, where he worked until his retirement in 1920. Tsiolkovsky conducted his research in a kind of intellectual vacuum, although he was supported by some prominent scientists (one of his works received a favorable review from I.M. Sechenov). The first works were devoted to the development of designs for an all-metal controllable airship, a streamlined airplane, and a hovercraft train. In 1897, Tsiolkovsky built the first wind tunnel in Russia and tested the simplest models.
In the 1890s, Tsiolkovsky began to engage in research related to the use of jet propulsion to create interplanetary aircraft. In 1903 his article was published Exploration of world spaces using jet instruments. In it and subsequent works (1911 and 1914), the scientist derived the now widely known equation of motion of a rocket as a body with variable mass, substantiated the possibility of using rockets for interplanetary communications, predicted the phenomenon of weightlessness, outlined the fundamentals of the theory of liquid rocket engines, examined and recommended various fuels for use (the most effective is a mixture of liquid oxygen and hydrogen). He expressed the idea of creating near-Earth orbital stations as intermediate bases for interplanetary flights.
He was influenced by the “philosophy of the common cause” of N. Fedorov. In his philosophical writings, the scientist developed the doctrine of “panpsychism” (“monism”), according to which the cosmos is a living and animate being. Atoms form an infinite variety of life forms in the Universe, including humans (this was discussed in the works of 1898–1914: Scientific foundations of religion, Ethics or Natural foundations of morality, Nirvana etc.). In Tsiolkovsky’s late work, a grandiose planetary and cosmic utopia occupies a central place. In creating an ideal society, Tsiolkovsky assigned a decisive role to science and its new, truly fantastic possibilities (his works are devoted to social design: Grief and genius, 1916; Ideal way of life, 1917; Social order, 1917; Sociology(fantasy), 1918; Adventures of the Atom, 1918). The scientist’s disappointment in civilization and the possibilities of scientific knowledge are associated with his religious and mystical quests in the last period of his life and the experience of building a new ethical system ( Living Universe, 1923; Will of the Universe, 1928; The future of the earth and humanity, 1928; Scientific ethics, 1930; Space philosophy, 1935).
Tsiolkovsky’s work did not receive recognition, and only after the appearance of G. Oberth’s article on the theory of space flight in Germany in 1923, the USSR began to popularize Tsiolkovsky’s research. In 1924, Tsiolkovsky was elected honorary professor of the Air Fleet Academy. A.E. Zhukovsky. Tsiolkovsky died in Kaluga on September 19, 1935.
The biography of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky began in the village of Izhevskoye near the city of Ryazan. The father, Eduard Ignatievich, worked as a local forester, and his wife Maria Ivanovna was involved in raising children and doing housework.
In 1860, the Tsiolkovsky family moved to the provincial center, where the mother began teaching her sons to read and write.
In 1868, the Tsiolkovskys moved again. This time, so that their children could study at the gymnasium, they settled in Vyatka. At the age of 9, young Konstantin fell ill with scarlet fever, which made him deaf for the rest of his life. That same year, the older brother in their family, Dmitry, also died. The next year Maria Ivanovna also died.
Such blows of fate affected the educational process and the development of deafness.
In 1873, Tsiolkovsky was expelled from the gymnasium for poor academic performance. For the rest of his life he will study at home, reading books.
Path to knowledge
At the age of 16, Tsiolkovsky moved to Moscow. He independently comprehends chemistry, mechanics, astronomy, mathematics and visits the Chertkovsky library. There he met N.F. Fedorov, one of the first who began to develop the ideas of Russian cosmism. He was practically deaf and carried a hearing aid with him everywhere.
All the money that Konstantin Eduardovich had at his disposal was spent on buying books. When his financial reserves ran out, the young man returned to Vyatka in 1876, where he began working as a tutor. He always tried to show the operation of mechanisms with clear examples. He made mechanisms for children himself. Due to constant reading, he developed myopia and the future scientist had to wear glasses.
In 1878, Tsiolkovsky returned to Ryazan. There he receives a teacher's diploma after passing all the necessary exams. Tsiolkovsky’s short biography contains such sad pages: the fire of 1887 and the flooding of his house by the river during the spring flood. Then the most important works of the scientist were lost - modules, drawings, models and other property.
The scientist devoted a large amount of free time to studying the theory of balloons. He outlined his theoretical research in the work “Theory and Experience of the Balloon,” written in 1885-1886.
Kaluga period
Konstantin Eduardovich changed his place of residence to Kaluga in 1892. Here he could study science related to space and earn a living by teaching arithmetic and geometry. For his experiments, he built a special tunnel where he studied jet propulsion.
Tsiolkovsky, while living in Kaluga, compiled an invaluable work on space biology. He believed that astronautics was the future and worked fruitfully in this direction.
His savings were not always enough to conduct new experiments, and Tsiolkovsky asked for financial support from the Physicochemical Society, which refused this, not seeing the point in his research. Only when practical experiments began to produce visible results, he was allocated 470 rubles.
In 1895, he wrote the work “Dreams of Earth and Sky”, and a year later - “Exploration of outer space using a jet engine”. In his works, he was more than half a century ahead of the scientific thought of mankind.
Last years of life
The content of Tsiolkovsky's works aroused genuine interest among the Soviet authorities. In November 1919 he was arrested and sent to the Lubyanka. They remembered him after G. Oberth began to present similar scientific research in Germany. The USSR leadership highly appreciated the scientist's scientific achievements and provided Tsiolkovsky with optimal conditions for productive work and awarded him a lifelong pension.
Tsiolkovsky died in Kaluga in 1935. The cause of death was stomach cancer.