Match the photos of famous scientists and space pioneers to their names. Then choose one and prepare a talk about him

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You don’t have to be great to get started but you have to get started to be great

Match the photos of famous scientists and space pioneers to their names. Then choose one and prepare a talk about him.

      

                                          

 

          1.___________   2.___________  3.____________ 4.____________                              

 

                                                                                                                                                                       

 

          5.___________   6.___________  7.____________ 8.____________

 

1 Isaac Newton                  2 Konstantin Tsiolkovski 3 Yuri Gagarin                  4 Valentin Glushko

5 Wernher von Braun     6 Vladimir Chelomey 7 Galileo Galilei    8 Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov

The mighty space rockets of today are the result of more than 2,000 years of invention, experimentation, and discovery. First by observation and inspiration and then by methodical research, the foundations for modern rocketry were laid.

Building upon the experience of two millennia, new rockets will expand human presence in space back to the Moon, Mars and the asteroids, and beyond. These new rockets will be versatile. They will support Earth orbital missions, such as the International Space Station (ISS), and off-world missions millions of kilometers from home. Already, travel to the stars is possible. Robot spacecraft are on their way into interstellar space as you read this. Someday, they will be followed by human explorers.

Often lost in the shadows of time, early rocket pioneers “pushed the envelope” by creating rocket-propelled devices for land, sea, air, and space. When the scientific principles governing motion were discovered, rockets graduated from toys and novelties to serious devices for commerce, war, travel, and research. This work led to many of the most amazing discoveries of our time.

 

· Galileo Galilei, (1564 – 1642): In addition to his many other accomplishments, this Italian astronomer and mathematician rekindled the spirit of scientific experimentation and challenged old beliefs relating to mass and gravity. He proved that an object in motion does not need the continuous application of force to keep moving. He called this property of matter, which causes it to resist changes in velocity, “inertia.” Inertia is one of the fundamental properties that Isaac Newton would later incorporate into his laws of motion.

· Isaac Newton, (1642 – 1727): English scientist Sir Isaac Newton condensed all rocket science into three elegant scientific laws. Published in Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica his laws, previously understood intuitively by early rocketeers, provided the foundation for all modern rocket science. (The “Rocket Principles” chapter focuses on these laws and the “Practical Rocketry” chapter demonstrates the applications of these laws.)

· Konstantin Tsiolkovski (1857 – 1935): Konstantin Tsiolkovski was a teacher, theorist, and astronautics pioneer. Son of a Polish forester who emigrated to Russia, he wrote and taught extensively about human space travel and is considered the father of cosmonautics and human space flight. Tsiolkovski advocated liquid propellant rocket engines, orbital space stations, solar energy, and colonization of the Solar System. His most famous work, “Research into Interplanetary Space by Means of Rocket Power,” was published in 1903, the same year the Wright brothers achieved powered and controlled airplane flight. His rocket equation, based on Newton’s second law of motion, relates rocket engine exhaust velocity to the change in velocity of the vehicle itself.

· Yuri Gagarin (1934 – 1968):  On April 12, 1961, space became the domain of humans with the launch of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. His space flight lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes. During that time, Gagarin orbited Earth one time inside his Vostok 1 space capsule, reaching a maximum altitude of 315 kilometers (196 miles). Upon reentry, Gagarin ejected himself from the capsule at an altitude of 6,100 meters (20,000 feet) and parachuted safely to the ground.

· Wernher von Braun (1912-1977): One of the leading figures in the development of pre-war Germany’s rocket program and the development of the V2 missile, von Braun (1912-1977) became a leading proponent of America’s space program. He left for the United States after the war. He worked there on the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and led the development team that launched Explorer 1. Dr. von Braun was the chief architect and engineer of the Saturn V Moon rocket. His popular writings and collaboration with Disney on a “Tomorrowland” TV series did much to inspire the next generation of rocket scientists and astronauts.

· Valentin Glushko (1908 – 1989): Soviet rocket scientist, a pioneer in rocket propulsion systems, and a major contributor to Soviet space and defense technology. After graduating from Leningrad State University (1929), Glushko headed the design bureau of Gas Dynamics Laboratory in Leningrad and began research on electro-thermal, solid-fuel, and liquid-fuel rocket engines. Working together from 1932 to 1966, Glushko and renowned rocket designer Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov achieved their greatest triumphs in 1957 with the launching of both the first intercontinental ballistic missile and the first successful artificial satellite, Sputnik I. In 1974 he was named chief designer of the Soviet space program, in which he oversaw the development of the Mir space station. Glushko received numerous official honours.

· Vladimir Chelomey (1914 – 1984): Soviet aerospace designer who was the chief architect of the Proton launch vehicle and the Almaz (Salyut) military space station. After an early career in 1944–53 designing copies of the German V-1 “buzz bomb,” Chelomey formed a new design bureau known as OKB-52, in Reutov, outside of Moscow, in 1955. There he began working on a series of advanced naval cruise missiles. In 1959 he initiated development of new rockets and spacecraft for the emerging Soviet space program. In 1960s Chelomey started working on several intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), military satellites, launch vehicles, cruise missiles, antiballistic missiles, and the transport-Supply Ship (TKS), which was designed as the resupply vehicle for Almaz. He was twice awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour (1959, 1963), the highest award given to civilians during the Soviet era.

· Sergey Pavlovich Korolyov (1907 – 1966). Soviet designer of guided missiles, rockets, and spacecraft. Korolyov was educated at the Moscow N.E. Bauman Higher Technical School, where he studied aeronautical engineering under the celebrated designers Nikolay Zhukovsky and Andrey Tupolev. Becoming interested in rocketry, he and F.A. Tsander formed the Moscow Group for the Study of Reactive Motion, and in 1933 the group launched the Soviet Union’s first liquid-propellant rocket. During World War II Korolyov was held under technical arrest but spent the years designing and testing liquid-fuel rocket boosters for military aircraft. After the war he modified the German V-2 missile, increasing its range to about 685 km (426 miles). He also supervised the test firing of V-2 missiles. In 1953 he began to develop the series of ballistic missiles that led to the Soviet Union’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. Korolyov was placed in charge of systems engineering for Soviet launch vehicles and spacecraft; he directed the design, testing, construction, and launching of the Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz manned spacecraft as well as of the unmanned spacecraft in the Cosmos, Molniya, and Zond series. He was the guiding genius behind the Soviet spaceflight program until his death, and he was buried in the Kremlin wall on Red Square. During his lifetime he was publicly known only as “the Chief Designer.”

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       a) Watch the video “Five reasons Space Exploration matters to You”:

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