Dr. Robert H. Goddard- The Father Of Modern Rocketry

There has been a sustained push for “Interactive White Boards” in K-12 schools to “bring lesson plans to life, engage students directly in the learning process and even boost student performance.“

As I posted earlier this year, school districts across the state are pushing for federal dollars to purchase the interactive SMART boards for their classrooms while many educators question the effectiveness of the equipment.

As it has been pointed out many times before, the more money spent on education does not translate into improved results.

Increased spending on education does not increase results

Questions of effectiveness aside, opinion leaders and educators are pushing for the new SMART boards.

Technology has changed everything? How were students able to get by for all these years without finding the lecture notes on their teachers blog.

To me the SMART boards seem like a lot of flash and very little substance.

Reading this makes me wonder how someone like Dr. Robert Goddard was able to get by without ‘having to crane his neck to see what’s going on?’

Via The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force:

Physicist and inventor Dr. Robert H. Goddard is considered the father of practical modern rocketry and space flight. In the early 20th century, he conceived many key concepts for later development of ballistic missiles, earth-orbiting satellites and interplanetary exploration. The U.S. Air Force’s strategic missile and space launch capabilities are built on the foundations laid by this American pioneer.

As a young man, Goddard was inspired by science fiction, and he became convinced that space travel was possible with rockets. In 1914 Goddard patented the concept of multi-stage rockets and liquid-fueled rockets. In 1920 he wrote about the possibility of a rocket going fast enough to leave the earth’s atmosphere, and even reaching the moon. The press ridiculed Goddard’s ideas and the government paid little attention to his work.

His ideas, however, found a following in Germany, which later took many of Goddard’s ideas to develop the V-2 rocket, the only operational ballistic missile used during World War II.

————

Goddard’s ideas established several fundamentals of modern rocketry and space flight. Along with his mathematical calculations establishing the idea of “escape velocity” (the speed required to break away from earth’s gravitational pull), Goddard proved that rockets would provide thrust in a vacuum, that is, they would work outside of the earth’s atmosphere.

In addition to building and launching the first liquid-fueled rocket, Goddard also was the first to put scientific instruments on a rocket. Among his other inventions was the concept of using gyroscopes to stabilize rockets, and steering rockets by using moveable vanes to deflect exhaust gas. Goddard also pioneered “film cooling” using a rocket’s liquid fuel to cool the engine and keep it from melting. This key technical feature can be seen in the German V-2 and many other modern rocket engines, some developed in the U.S. after WW II in part by the same German engineers who were influenced by Goddard’s pre-war work.

———

Finally, the New York Times — having famously ridiculed Goddard’s intellect in 1920 — admitted it was wrong after Apollo 11 lifted off on its way to the moon in 1969.

Men like Dr. Goddard were able to get by without a SMART board, our kids can as well.