SHOT AT THE MOON

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 10169, 28 July 1924, Page 8

SHOT AT THE MOON

HIGH SPEED STEEL ROCKET, AMERICAN SCIENTIST’S PLAN. Professor Robert H. Goddard, head of the Physics Department at Clark University, Worcester, U.S.A., proposes to shoot a rocket at the moon next summer. This rocket, according to the “New York Tribune, is to be a continuous combustion rocket emitting powerful gases that will propel it at terrific speed through the atmosphere. . “There is no conjecture m my mind,” Professor Goddard says, “ concerning the results of next summei s experiment. We have already woiked the tlijing out time and time again m the laboratory, but we wish to arrive at certain conclusive findings and show I the simplicity of the undertaking. Whatever we do must be done tins year. The time is ripe for it. I have certain facilities at my disposal that I may not have later. If the support we have continues, we- will be ready to make our first trial next summer. “ Besides the feat itself, the information gained will be of tremendous benefit to applied science, and the apulication of the scientific principles learned will be of commercial value beyond immediate comprehension. The professor states that these things have all been gone into, hut that he cannot yet make them public. “Such information,” he says, is zealously guarded until the opportune time. The thing is really very simple. Wo will release the rocket, and the continuous combustion of gas and liquids will propel the projectile at a speed of six or seven miles a second through the atmosphere. The mam tiling, of course, is to develop the tremeifdous speed. You must have a high rate of speed to cover the first several hundred miles included in the snhere of the earth’s gravitation. When we have broken through our own. realm of gravity, the projectile should proceed without interruption to the other planet. * ‘ The development of six or seven miles a second, I believe, will be simply a matter of a little more laboratory worki We already have obtained a ; ruife and a-half per second with gases and liquids. The last two nnd a-half 'years have been the most fruitful or my research. Nine years ago the plan suggested itself to me, and I nave been working on it pretty steadily since t lion The rocket he will use, Professor Goddard declares, will be of light steel, j It will be narrow and tapering like a i r.jfjar will weigh about lolb, and will be sft long. No high-powered machinery will “shoot off” the projectile. The rocket propels itself. In this instance the rocket will kick itself along by means of an internal combustion engine, ignited by smokeless nitro-cellulose, and ejecting gases at a high velocity. The rocket operates as does a rapid-fire gun. Successive charges are fired in the same chamber, and the entire internal structure of the rocket involves a delicate reloading mechanism thoroughly protected by Professor Goddard by four different patents. The scientist said tliat a force ol mechanism would be necessary to assist in working out certain details for the next few months. At the recent Cincinnati meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science the plan came up for minute discussion, and won the approval of many men whose previous attitude had been one of scepticism. A rocket equipped as the Goddard rocket will be can cover the distance to the moon—approximately 240,000 miles —in slightly more than a day and a half, says Professor Goddard. Instead of crashing into the moon, he says, the speed of the rocket will be regulated to temper itself when it has escaned from the earth’s gravitation and lands itself upon the other planet. The flight of the projectile will he watched by powerful telescopes, says the paper quoted. Combustile material will be provided, enabling the contact with the planet and the rocket to be marked by a flare.