Robert Goddard (Bob Goddard),

Robert Goddard was born on the tenth of October, in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1882. When he was young he became fascinated in the idea of going to the moon and he was determined to create some type of real rocket. His story is about seeking knowledge and perseverance.

He didn't go to the moon, but he was the first person to launch a liquid fueled rocket faster than the speed of sound. He launched his first rocket in a rocket tube on a hill on a farm in Alban Massachusetts's, on the 17th of October his grandmother died, on the 19th of January 1920 his mother died and his father died on September 16th 1928. On the 16th of march 1927 his rocket lifts its own weight for the first time. On August 10th 1945 Robert Goddard died. He is best known for his Liquid fueled rocket. He started messing around with tools and pieces in his mom's yard. But he is known for his liquid fueled rocket, his best run had gone 8000 ft high at 800 mph.

Biography:

Robert Goddard was born on the 5th of October 1882 in Worcester Massachusetts. He was the child of a bookkeeper, salesman, and machine-shop owner; he had a genteel upbringing, and when he was young he felt the excitement that happened after the Civil War. Thin and frail as a boy Robert was frequently ill and missed school so much that he had fell years behind in education. His brother had died in infancy.

Section Two - Invention:

When he was young he became fascinated in the idea of going to the moon. In the book The First Men in the Moon, (by H.G. Wells) who had gotten there by using a secret gravity neutralizing material. Robert thought: "If the human mind could conceive of such things couldn't it figure out a way to do it to them." He wondered. The thought was intriguing to him he had wondered if he could actually make a rocket to take him to the moon. This thought started his fascination with rockets.

He launched his first liquid fueled rocket from a launching tube on a hill in a farm in Auburn Massachusetts (the16th of March 1926) It went 41 feet in altitude at about 60 MPH for only 2 seconds. He then started firing the "A" series which exceed a mile in altitude then he fires the "L" series. L13 exceeds 8,000 ft in altitude. Then the "P" series, after P-36 jams in to the tower he stops doing the "attempt flights".

Robert Goddard is best known for his liquid fueled rocket which is powered by LOX (Liquefied Oxygen). His father was a skilled mechanic. As a boy Robert had learned a lot in mechanics. He was then inspired by H.G. Wells. And as an adult he became a professor of physics at Clark University, and studied mechanics and physics for 10 years. He started experimenting in his moms yard and fired his first rocket 1925.One of his runs went 7,500 ft in altitude, faster than the speed of sound. He developed the rocket for the US army which they used it to bomb London during WWI Fortunately the war ended before he had enough time to perfect the outcome of his rockets. By 1948 the US had made a second stage rocket which had gone an altitude of 244 miles. His best run had gone 8,000 ft. in altitude while another 7,500 ft. in altitude going faster then the speed of sound. Most of his rockets were failures around the time he was mocked by his friends.

Question 1: In what ways was the life remarkable?

His life was remarkable because he overcame many illnesses and struggles to make his dream come true. The Major General Archibald H. Sunderland, chief of the Coast Artillery Corps, had asked Goddard about the possibility of developing rocket powered drone planes as antiaircraft targets in the 1920s! And just building and inventing the liquid fueled rocket made Goddard famous and known to this day. Without him we wouldn't have had the rocket we have this day.

As a child he had been very thin and frail as a boy he was frequently ill and missed school so often that he had fell years behind in education.

He had famous people like Charles Lindberg who helped him and encouraged him. At first, he didn't get credit for his inventions, but at the end, he was more famous than Thomas Edison.

Question 3: In what ways was the life admirable?

His life was admirable in many ways he persevered throughout his life to realize his dream of launching a rocket he also had a positive attitude, learning from every experiment and overcoming physical challenges throughout his life, including being held back in school due to illnesses.

For one thing he had never gave up and worked on perfecting his rocket for fifteen years. He consistently kept journals and tested all different elements that would be necessary to succeed in rocket making and over came challenges.

And when his experiments 'didn't work' he hadn't consider them failures he considered them valuable negative information, and constantly met challenges such as overcoming illnesses and setbacks and inventions such as the parachute coming out late or as a child being held back a couple of years because of his severe illnesses. And he worked against them and did what he had to do to get past them. He was a professor in physics at Clark University and is an instructor in physics. He was extremely intelligent and was perhaps more famous in his day then Einstein or Edison. He had stopped at many colleges throughout the US and shared his knowledge with them.

Despite his challenges, he turned out to be one of the smartest people who ever lay foot on earth!

Question four: What human qualities were most influential in shaping the way this person lived?

The two or three most important lessons in shaping the way Robert Goddard lived would be:

Perseverance - He worked on perfecting his prototype and constantly met challenges which he overcame for fifteen years. He tried many different inventions even though he was very sick and he had a lot of experiments that didn't work.

Knowledge seeking- He would read anything about rockets, physics and mechanics. He became a professor in physics at Clark University and studied for 10 years on physics and mechanics. He earned his bachelor's degree from Worcester Polytechnic. After being hired as a physics instructor at the college he began graduate studies at nearby Clark University he received a doctorate from Clark in 1911, then became a research instructor in physics at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey He then was promoted as assistant professor in 1915. He then became a full professor in 1934. He loved to learn.

Question 7: What are the two or three most important lessons that you or any other young person might learn from the way this person lived?

Never give up, and follow your dreams are the two most important lessons I or any young person could learn from the way Robert Goddard lived. He had never gave up throughout his life such as in 1913 he got extremely ill and only had had and was told to have two weeks to live but that didn't stop him he didn't take "no" for an answer he worked more, studied more and worked full time hours inventing, and he was so interested in what he was doing and inventing that he forgot all about his sickness and he fully recovered. He then got his bachelors degree in physics at Clark University.

He had followed his dreams all the way throughout his life time and never gave up. One morning when he was a child, Robert went out back and climbed a cherry tree and day dreamt about going to Mars in a rocket. He wondered if he could make this possible, his parents say they remembered him shooting in, and running to his room without saying "good morning" they knew something was going on and they wondered. By his senior year at College he had begun experimenting with rockets in a small basement laboratory at the college. At that time the only rockets available were fired with powder (basically gunpowder) ignited by a flame, so they were basically Fireworks (FPK's were the only rockets at the time). He had experimented more and more and eventually the school ran out of FPK's and he got bored and started to study in physics and that's when he got his Bachelor's degree. Robert Goddard then started to make rockets and fire them. He then met Archibald H. Sunderland Chief of the Artillery Land Corps, and then started to develop rockets for the army. WWI had started around and he had started developing rockets and went thru the "A" series and the "L" series L-13 had been his best run it had gone 9000 ft in altitude (275,641 CM) then the "M" series and then the "P" series and P-36 jams into the flight tower and that's the end of the 'attempt' flights.

Conclusion:

Robert Goddard is very important and famous for developing and creating the liquid fueled rocket that helped served as a base for modern rocketry and aviation. He died on August 10, 1945, of throat cancer. Many streets, buildings, and awards were named in his honor, perhaps the most significant is the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center, it was dedicated on March16, 1961, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the first flight of Goddard's liquid-propelled rocket. Nine years later Clark University had named its library after Goddard. Since 1958, the National Space Club in Washington, D.C. has awarded a Goddard Memorial trophy for achievements in missiles, rocketry, and space flight.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Baker, Sarah, Nagel, Rob and Saari, Peggy. "Robert H. Goddard." Detroit: 2005 Gale U.X.L®, P79-86.
• Pearce, Lynn. Encyclopedia of American Industries VOL.2: Service & Non-Manufacturing Industries. 4th ed. Detroit: Gale, 2005 p1613-1621.
• Space Sciences. Ed. Dasch, Pat. Vol. 3: Human in Space. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. P162-166.
• ROCKET MAN ROBERT H. GODDARD. AND THE BIRTH OF THE SPACE AGE. Clary, David. Copyright © 2003 by DAVID A. CLARY. All rights reserved no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information address: Hyperion 77 W. 66th Street, New York, New York 100236298-1st Edition. Robert H. Goddard and the birth of the space age / by David A. Clary. 1st ed. p, cm. (Includes bibliographical references in index) ISBN: 0-7868-6817-1. First edition.

Robert Goddard is credited with creating and making the first liquid-fueled rocket.