3.2 Ideas and Technologies of Ancient Space Flights
107
As a curious fact, the novel finished in Verne’s serialized form in 1869; exactly a
hundred years later, man would land on the Moon.
A space fiction The Brick Moon, written by American writer Edward Everett
Hale (1822−1909), was published serially in The Atlantic Monthly from 1869 to
1871. It tells a story about a young Boston man who imagined to erect a tremendous
ring around the Earth’s poles over the Greenwich Meridian Line, with a diameter
large enough to be seen anywhere on the Earth. And thus, the local longitude could
be determined by observing the ring, and the distance between the local site and
the Greenwich be calculated. However, because of the extremely huge scale of the
project, he wanted to replace it with an artificial satellite, the so-called “brick moon”
built with bricks. The speculative science fiction pays more attention to scientific
facts, especially in which the implementation plan of artificial satellite and its application were first presented. Kurd Lasswitz (1848−1910), a German author, scientist
and philosopher, wrote an influential science fiction novel, On Two Planets, which
was first published in two hardcover volumes in 1897. It tells that three earthlings
went to the Arctic by balloon to explore, where they found a strange building. At this
time, the balloons began to open and rise vertically, as if falling into a vortex, so they
entered a reversed gravitational field. At the lower end of the gravitational field was
the building, and at the upper end, about a radius of the Earth was another building.
The three earthlings eventually knew that the two buildings were the bases established by the Martians as they first came to the Earth. The Martians rescued them
from the reversed gravitational field and told that the buildings over the Arctic was
an orbital capsule made from anti-gravity materials, which were located just right at
the balance point of the gravity between Earth and Mars. Some space technological
details, such as photoelectric sensor, photoelectric battery, orbital station, reaction
engine and orbital transfer controller, are described in this novel, and its scientific
value can be compared completely with Verne’s novel.
From the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century is the golden age of writing
space science fictions. On the basis of the remarkable imagination and prediction
of space flight from the science fictions, the concepts of space flights have been
established in people’s mind and the confidence of achieving space flight strengthened
further. Inspired by the space science fictions, many pioneers were decided to devote
themselves to the greatest cause for human beings, the researches on space science
and technology, so as to usher in the era of the great development of space flight in
the twentieth century.
3.3 Four Founders of Modern Rocketry and Astronautics
The early scientific fantasy laid the ideological and technical foundation for the
development of modern aerospace technology, and further, it would be realized to
leap from quantitative change to qualitative change. The creative ability of scientists
should not only have rigorous scientific methods but also the imagination of artists.
Bold imagination and speculation often become the source of motivation for scientists to create. The Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the French Robert Albert Charles
107
As a curious fact, the novel finished in Verne’s serialized form in 1869; exactly a
hundred years later, man would land on the Moon.
A space fiction The Brick Moon, written by American writer Edward Everett
Hale (1822−1909), was published serially in The Atlantic Monthly from 1869 to
1871. It tells a story about a young Boston man who imagined to erect a tremendous
ring around the Earth’s poles over the Greenwich Meridian Line, with a diameter
large enough to be seen anywhere on the Earth. And thus, the local longitude could
be determined by observing the ring, and the distance between the local site and
the Greenwich be calculated. However, because of the extremely huge scale of the
project, he wanted to replace it with an artificial satellite, the so-called “brick moon”
built with bricks. The speculative science fiction pays more attention to scientific
facts, especially in which the implementation plan of artificial satellite and its application were first presented. Kurd Lasswitz (1848−1910), a German author, scientist
and philosopher, wrote an influential science fiction novel, On Two Planets, which
was first published in two hardcover volumes in 1897. It tells that three earthlings
went to the Arctic by balloon to explore, where they found a strange building. At this
time, the balloons began to open and rise vertically, as if falling into a vortex, so they
entered a reversed gravitational field. At the lower end of the gravitational field was
the building, and at the upper end, about a radius of the Earth was another building.
The three earthlings eventually knew that the two buildings were the bases established by the Martians as they first came to the Earth. The Martians rescued them
from the reversed gravitational field and told that the buildings over the Arctic was
an orbital capsule made from anti-gravity materials, which were located just right at
the balance point of the gravity between Earth and Mars. Some space technological
details, such as photoelectric sensor, photoelectric battery, orbital station, reaction
engine and orbital transfer controller, are described in this novel, and its scientific
value can be compared completely with Verne’s novel.
From the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century is the golden age of writing
space science fictions. On the basis of the remarkable imagination and prediction
of space flight from the science fictions, the concepts of space flights have been
established in people’s mind and the confidence of achieving space flight strengthened
further. Inspired by the space science fictions, many pioneers were decided to devote
themselves to the greatest cause for human beings, the researches on space science
and technology, so as to usher in the era of the great development of space flight in
the twentieth century.
3.3 Four Founders of Modern Rocketry and Astronautics
The early scientific fantasy laid the ideological and technical foundation for the
development of modern aerospace technology, and further, it would be realized to
leap from quantitative change to qualitative change. The creative ability of scientists
should not only have rigorous scientific methods but also the imagination of artists.
Bold imagination and speculation often become the source of motivation for scientists to create. The Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the French Robert Albert Charles