106
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
to the level and condition of science and technology at that time, people realized
that to achieve space flight was really difficult. And thus, the emerged space sciencefictions ingeniously integrated science with non-science into a body, to imagine the
space flight ways only with a supernatural force.
By the nineteenth century, with strengthening of the scientific discovery and technological level, the space science fictions emerged new styles. In 1827, George
Tucker, a professor at the University of Virginia, proposed to invent a kind of antigravitation material in one of his science fictions, and thus the spaceship made from
the material could fly to the Moon under the repulsion of the Earth. The spaceship
was sealed and equipped with breathing oxygen and heating system. In 1863, Achille
Eyraud, a French writer, published a science fiction about the voyage to Venus, in
which according to the fact that gunshot bullets to generate recoil force, a new power
device named reaction force motor was presented. It is just now the only feasible
way to realize space flight. To some extent, Achille Eyraud’s fiction is the first scientific prediction work on launch a vehicle engine, which contains profound scientific
significance.
In 1865, a well-known science fiction From the Earth to the Moon, written by Jules
Gabriel Verne (1828−1905) who was a French novelist, poet and playwright, was first
published by the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun
Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, and their attempts
to build an enormous space gun and launch three men in a projectile with the goal of
the Moon landing. When the launch was ready, the club received a telegram from an
eccentric Frenchman, Michel Ardan, claiming that as an explorer, he had not been
interested in any place on the Earth and hoped to travel to the Moon by the projectile.
The club approved his request and redesigned the projectile into a spaceship with
soundproof walls. On December 1, Ardan, Barbicane and captain Nicholl by the
spaceship were launched to the Moon from Colombia by the Gun firing way. The
operation of the spaceship was tracked by Cambridge Observatory utilizing a 20-inch
telescope. It was observed that the spaceship did not land on the Moon, but orbited the
Moon with an altitude of 2300 miles away from its surface, becoming a satellite of the
Moon. It is a typical representative work of modern space science fictions. In order to
write the novel well, Verne consulted and investigated many mathematical, physical
and astronomical problems. The design parameters of the spaceship and the launch
device were obtained through strict mathematical calculation. The novel was popular
all over the world and widely welcomed by readers. Many people were worried about
the safety of the three astronauts and asked Verne to write another sequel. Five years
later, Verne wrote a follow-up, Around the Moon, about the situation that the three
astronauts, Ardan, Barbicane and Nicholl, had to deal with while on their way to the
Moon and back. Launching several auxiliary rockets to get rid of the orbit around the
Moon, the spaceship returned to the Earth and splashed into the Pacific Ocean. When
the capsule was picked up by the U.S. Navy, the three astronauts were playing poker
as if nothing had happened. With rich imagination and rigorous scientific attitude,
Verne correctly predicted the basic process of aerospace activities, including the
rocket’s launch site, the capsule of spaceship, the weightlessness, the rocket flight in
orbital transfer segment, the brake rocket and the splash-down recovery on the sea.
3 A Brief History of Space Flight
to the level and condition of science and technology at that time, people realized
that to achieve space flight was really difficult. And thus, the emerged space sciencefictions ingeniously integrated science with non-science into a body, to imagine the
space flight ways only with a supernatural force.
By the nineteenth century, with strengthening of the scientific discovery and technological level, the space science fictions emerged new styles. In 1827, George
Tucker, a professor at the University of Virginia, proposed to invent a kind of antigravitation material in one of his science fictions, and thus the spaceship made from
the material could fly to the Moon under the repulsion of the Earth. The spaceship
was sealed and equipped with breathing oxygen and heating system. In 1863, Achille
Eyraud, a French writer, published a science fiction about the voyage to Venus, in
which according to the fact that gunshot bullets to generate recoil force, a new power
device named reaction force motor was presented. It is just now the only feasible
way to realize space flight. To some extent, Achille Eyraud’s fiction is the first scientific prediction work on launch a vehicle engine, which contains profound scientific
significance.
In 1865, a well-known science fiction From the Earth to the Moon, written by Jules
Gabriel Verne (1828−1905) who was a French novelist, poet and playwright, was first
published by the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun
Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, and their attempts
to build an enormous space gun and launch three men in a projectile with the goal of
the Moon landing. When the launch was ready, the club received a telegram from an
eccentric Frenchman, Michel Ardan, claiming that as an explorer, he had not been
interested in any place on the Earth and hoped to travel to the Moon by the projectile.
The club approved his request and redesigned the projectile into a spaceship with
soundproof walls. On December 1, Ardan, Barbicane and captain Nicholl by the
spaceship were launched to the Moon from Colombia by the Gun firing way. The
operation of the spaceship was tracked by Cambridge Observatory utilizing a 20-inch
telescope. It was observed that the spaceship did not land on the Moon, but orbited the
Moon with an altitude of 2300 miles away from its surface, becoming a satellite of the
Moon. It is a typical representative work of modern space science fictions. In order to
write the novel well, Verne consulted and investigated many mathematical, physical
and astronomical problems. The design parameters of the spaceship and the launch
device were obtained through strict mathematical calculation. The novel was popular
all over the world and widely welcomed by readers. Many people were worried about
the safety of the three astronauts and asked Verne to write another sequel. Five years
later, Verne wrote a follow-up, Around the Moon, about the situation that the three
astronauts, Ardan, Barbicane and Nicholl, had to deal with while on their way to the
Moon and back. Launching several auxiliary rockets to get rid of the orbit around the
Moon, the spaceship returned to the Earth and splashed into the Pacific Ocean. When
the capsule was picked up by the U.S. Navy, the three astronauts were playing poker
as if nothing had happened. With rich imagination and rigorous scientific attitude,
Verne correctly predicted the basic process of aerospace activities, including the
rocket’s launch site, the capsule of spaceship, the weightlessness, the rocket flight in
orbital transfer segment, the brake rocket and the splash-down recovery on the sea.