fresh energy instead of the energy of their dying luminary."-Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Tsiolkovsky is considered to be the father of cosmonautics and human space flight, and was a truly great thinker. His visionary ideas about the future of humanity in space were magnificent and far ahead of his time. He dreamed about space flight since he was a very young boy. Tsiolkovsky was certain that the future of human life will be in outer space, so he deceded that we must study the cosmos to pave the way for future generations.
Later, he proved mathematically the possibility of space flight, and wrote and published over 500 works about space travel and related subjects. These included the design and construction of space rockets, steerable rocket engines, multi-stage boosters, space stations, life in space, and more. His notebooks are filled with sketches of liquid-feuled rockets, detailed combustion chamber designs with steering vanes in the exhaust plume for directional control, double walled pressurized cabins to protect from meteorites, gyroscopes for attitude control, reclining seats to protect from high G loads at launch, air locks for exiting the spaceship into the vacume of space, and other amazingly accurate predictions of space travel. Many of these were done before the first airplane flight. He determined correctly that the escape velocity from the Earth into orbit was 8 km./second, and that this could be achieved by using a multi-stage rocket fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. He predicted the use of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen or liquid oxygen and kerosene for propulsion, spinning space stations for artificial gravity, mining asteroids for materials, space suits, the problems of eating, drinking, and sleeeping in weightlessness, and even closed cycle biological systems to provide food and oxygen for space colonies.
Some of his works include:
"Astronomical Drawings" (1879). The earliest manuscript of Tsiolkovsky. He drew the Solar System, the distances between the planets, their satellites, etc.
"Free Space" (1883). Manuscript of Tsiolkovsky, first published in 1956. In this work, he described the life and ways of motion in free space, zero gravity, all done without the benefit on any mathematical calculations. It was in this paper that Tsiolkovsky drew the primitive design of a true Space Craft, which moved in outer space with the help of reactive forces.
This was the first drawing of Tsiolkovsky's of a space vehicle, from "Free Space" (1883). It shows cosmonauts in weightlessness, gyroscopes for attitude control, and an airlock for exit into free space.
"The Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation". He created his calculations about space flight theory on May 10, 1897. The first publication of the results was in the article "Exploration of the Universe with Reaction Machines", in the monthly magazine "The Science Review",# 5 (St.Petersburg, 1903). This was the first publication in the world on this subject.
His Classic article "Research into Interplanetary Space by Means of Rocket Power" was published in 1903, the year of the first airplane flight by the Wright Brothers. It accurately described the state of weightlessness and the theoretical function of rockets in a vacume. He demonstrated why rockets would be needed for space exploration, and also advocated the use of liquid propellants that are used today.
This is his book published in 1914 that was the reprint of the 1903 article.
"Plan of Space Exploration". This was published in 1926. It consists of 16 Points, from the very begining of space conquest, until the far distant future, including interstellar travel.
He also wrote science fiction books, including "On The Moon (1895), Dreams of the Earth and Sky (1895), and Beyond the Earth (1920).
"The Space Rocket Trains". (1929). This publication of Tsiolkovsky was about his original idea of a multi-stage rocket, which consisted of several separate rockets, one on top of another. Tsiolkovsky proved that only such a type of rocket would be able to reach escape velocity and fly to Earth orbit.
"Album of Space Travels". (1932). The drawings from this manuscript of Tsiolkovsky show us his brilliant ideas about life in space, including zero gravity, air pressure locking, space habitats, rocket guidance, etc.
Tsiolkovsky's Cosmic Philosophy
"All the Universe is full of the life of perfect creatures." Tsiolkovsky.
Tsiolkovsky was very much as interested in the philosophy of space as he was with the engineering needed to make space flight possible. This was the very begining of Tsiolkovsky's research into space flight problems and was the basis for it. His main work of this subject was "Ethics or the Natural Foundations of Morality" (1902-1918). In 1932 Tsiolkovsky wrote "The Cosmic Philosophy" - the summary of his philosophical ideas. His main idea was to achieve happiness not only for humanity, but also for all the living beings in the Cosmos, for all the Universe. He believed that human occupation of space was inevitable and would drive human evolution.
According to Tsiolkovsky's Cosmic Philosophy, "happiness" is the absence of all kind of suffering in all the Universe, for all