Wars have been going on since the first humanity and gained new dimensions in the last century fed by different objects. As the aerospace and space race increased in the bipolar world, whose tensions increased during the Cold War period, it has become clear that the unpredictable works on rocket technology in the coming years will be at the center of the power focus. Although rocket technology is used in many areas in today's world, the history of these studies is very old and dimensional. In this article, we will examine this history technically.
1.Introduction
Since the first day of humanity, the exploration of space is the biggest field where imagination and realism work together. Rockets are vehicles that serve us by defeating gravity to carry us beyond the known, earth's atmosphere, to achieve this purpose. Rockets are a milestone in human history because they helped us understand the universe and transformed the way we perceive our place within it. However, the area where rockets are used is not limited to these topics. Rockets are also used in wars to direct an explosive power.Although each of them has different features and shapes due to their mission profiles, some features are common. Subsystems and jet propulsion are some examples of commonalities. Also, in fullfilling its purpose, they adhere to the laws of physics and mathematics.
1.1.Rockets
The definition of a rocket is, a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. Hero of Alexandria is credited with inventing the first invent which applies the fundamental principle of a rocket (Aeolipile). He was a mathematician and inventor and devised many machines using water, air pressure and steam.
The aeolipile was a steam-driven device that has a boiler in which steam was produced, connected by a pipe through a rotating joint, to a pivoted jet system with two opposing jets. The steam issuing from the jets caused the system to rotate. It implemented Newton’s Third Law of action and reaction. The device, also called Hero’s engine contains most parts of a simple thermal rocket engine.
1.2.The History of Rockets
The firts used rockets were introduced by Chinese military. Chinese military began to expand on the flying fires and began to use gunpowder as a propellant. The earliest recorded experiments were mortars being fired from bamboo tubes. Around 1232 AD, the Chinese reportedly used the first true rocket in their fight with the Mongols (Figure 1.3.). Also, during this time frame, the English monk and alchemist Roger Bacon improved the formula for gunpowder for rockets. His work notably improved the range of rockets of the period.
In Isaac Newton’s publication, De Motu Corporum in 1684, he had the precursor to his laws of motion that would be later completed and published in Principia in 1687. It was through these laws of motion that other scientists and engineers could understand the whys and hows of rockets and rocket science. In the late 1820s, the Russians used Alexander Zasyadko’s rockets against the Turks in the Russo–Turkish War. In the late 1800s, the era of modern rocketry was about to begin. In 1857 and in 1882, the two true founders of modern rocket science and engineering were born. One of them was Russian and the other an American.
One of them is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, reportedly worked as a high school mathematics teacher until he retired in 1920. In 1903, he published what has become known to the rocket science community as the first true book or treatise on the subject. The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices describes most of the aspects and intricacies of modern rocket science. Over the years, he would publish hundreds of papers on the topic. Mainly, he is noted for the idea of multistage rockets for cosmic rocket trains. For the details and theories in this treatise, Tsiolkovsky is often referred to as the father of modern astronautics.
