Tsiolkovsky
NAME: Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Pioneered Russian rocket and space research and the
development and use of wind tunnels for aerodynamic studies.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: September 5, 1857, Izhevskoye, Ryazan Province,
Russia
DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH: September 19, 1935, Kaluga, Russia. Aged 78
DISCIPLINE: Aerospace engineer
FILED: Astronautics
LANGUAGE: Russian
PARENTS: Eduard Ignatyevich Tsiolkovsky; Mariya Ivanova Yumasheva
SIBLINGS: None
SPOUSE: Varvara Yevgrafovna Sokolovaya
CHILDREN: Ignaty
EDUCATION: Almost entirely self-taught
MAJOR WORK: "Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Reaction Devices"
LIFE AND TIMES:
At 22, Tsiolkovsky took a job teaching arithmetic and geometry at the Borovsk Uyzed School in Kaluga, about 60 miles from Moscow. At 23, he wrote his first scientific paper, "TheGraphical Depiction of Sensations", an attempt to express human sensations
in strict mathematical formulas.
A year later, his second paper, "The Kinetic Theory of Gases", outlined a theory similar to one developed 20 years earlier by physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Tsiolkovsky sent his manuscript to the Russian Physico-Chemical Society in St. Petersburg, and was told by the chemist <knew> Mendeleyev* that his ideas were not original.
Tsiolkovsky's third paper, "On the Theoretical Mechanics of a Living Organism", analyzed the ways in which natural forces, such as gravity, affect the structure and movement of human beings. Though not published either, the paper was impressive enough to win him membership in the Russian Physico-Chemical Society.
In the mid-1880s, still in his 20s, Tsiolkovsky designed an all-metal dirigible with a corrugated metal shell, the volume of which could be varied in flight. A paper he wrote on balloons, "The Theory and Experiment of a Horizontally Elongated Balloon", resulted in an invitation in 1887 to lecture to a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Natural Science.
Tsiolkovsky also began to think about heavier-than-air craft. In a 1890 paper, "On the Problem of Flying by Means of Wings", he completed one of the earliest mathematical studies of the forces operating on the wings and body of an aircraft.
By the late 1890’s, Tsiolkovsky had delved into virtually all aspects of spacecraft and space travel. He designed an instrument to measure gravitational acceleration on the human body, and in 1883, he defined " The Principle of Rocket Motion", which proved that a rocket-propelled craft can travel through the vacuum of space.
It was clear to Tsiolkovsky that his ideas needed to be proved in controlled tests. He designed Russia's first wind tunnel so that the aerodynamic merits of various aircraft designs could be tested.
He built the tunnel with his own funds, in Kaluga, in 1897. He described the first test in the tunnel in an 1897 paper, "Air Pressure on Surfaces Introduced into an Artificial Air Flow". Tsiolkovsky's appeal for funds to the Russian Academy of Sciences resulted in a grant enough to build a larger wind tunnel, which he began to use for experiments by the end of 1900.
While investigating aerodynamics, Tsiolkovsky was also studying the possibilities of space travel. In 1895, his article,"Dreams of the Earth and Sky and the Effects of Universal Gravitation", set forth the concept of an artificial Earth satellite.
In 1897 he came up with his now widely-known formula establishing the fundamental dependence between the velocity of a rocket, the velocity of the expulsion of gas particles from the nozzle of the engine, the mass of the rocket, and the mass of the expended explosive material -- a formula now known as the basic rocket equation.
Tsiolkovsky worked intensively on the kinds of fuels that would work best as rocket propellants, eventually settling on a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. In 1903 he completed his largest and most serious work on astronautics, "Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Reaction Devices".
It set forth his theory of the motion of rockets, established the possibility of space travel by means of rockets, gave the fundamental flight formulas, and dealt with the theoretical problems of using rocket engines in space.
The October Revolution of 1917 changed Tsiolkovsky's life. In 1919, he was elected a member of the Socialist Academy (later the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.), and in 1921, he was given a pension for life by the Council of the Peoples' Commissariats of the Russian Federation in recognition of his services in education and aviation. For the first time, Tsiolkovsky could do his scientific research with a degree of comfort.
By the mid-1920s, Tsiolkovsky was becoming known internationally. <a fan was> Oberth*, the German rocket technologist, wrote him in 1929: "You have ignited the flame, and we shall not permit it to be extinguished."
Tsiolkovsky continued his scientific work almost to his death. In "Reaching the Stratosphere", written three years before he died at 78, he formulated the requirements of explosive fuel for use in jet engines. In an effort to get a pension for his family, Tsiolkovsky, in 1935, bequeathed all his books and papers to the Communist Party and the Soviet government.
He died of cancer at his home in Kaluga.
ASSESSMENT: Tsiolkovsky was of the greatest Russian scientists of the early 20th century, best known for his pioneering work in astronautics.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: His work related to that of <work related to> Goddard*
He laid the groundwork for that of <inspired> Von Braun* and his work made possible the <made possible> V-2 missile*.
ONELINER: Constantin Tsiolkovsy, space-flight pioneer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DSB
Newton, David E., "Konstantin Tsiolkovsky", in Notable Twentieth Century Scientists, New York: Gale Research Inc., 1995