July 14, 2009
From Clark to the moon
On July 16, the nation will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the liftoff of the Apollo 11 mission that landed humans on the moon just four days later.
Walking on the moon still seems somewhat miraculous. Can you imagine how far-fetched the notion of space travel must have seemed in 1920?
Then, Clark University physicist Robert H. Goddard's paper "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes"was getting attention in the press. The New York Times even ran an article titled "Aim to Reach Moon with New Rocket."
But skeptics abounded. The Times also ran a scathing editorial mocking Goddard's assertion that a rocket's thrust would be effective beyond the earth's atmosphere. In January 1920, the Times wrote, "professor Goddard, with his 'chair' in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not know the relation of action to reaction; and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react - to say that would be absurd. Of course, he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."
The Times regrets the error
Perhaps it's never too late to admit a mistake, especially after Apollo 11's televised proof. On July 17, 1969, the Times printed one of its most famous corrections and set right its attack on Goddard, known today as the Father of the Space Age: "It is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error."
In his own time, however, Goddard never seemed to doubt his research. He offered demonstrations to his Clark undergraduates and published responses to his critics, telling one reporter that "every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace."
First book on the moon
It is fitting that the first book to the moon was "Robert Hutchings Goddard: Father of the Space Age." A special, miniature edition of Goddard's autobiography was carried aboard Apollo 11 by astronaut Edwin "Buzz"Aldrin. The book, signed by Aldrin, was presented to Goddard's widow, Esther, along with a framed U.S. flag, NASA mission patch, and certificate signed by all three of the moon mission astronauts. These reside in the archives of the Goddard Library.
Visitors to the Goddard Library at Clark-in person and online-can view Robert Goddard's personal account of his historic rocket launch on March 16, 1926, as well as access papers, articles, drawings and accounts of the day. The original deposit of Goddard papers, concerning Dr. Goddard's life and work, was given to Clark University by Mrs. Goddard in 1964.
http://www.clarku.edu/research/goddard/
Into history - and beyond!
An interesting Clark footnote to the anniversary of the moon landing: Aldrin's father, born in Worcester, was a graduate of Clark's Class of 1915. Edwin E. Aldrin Sr. could not have imagined the connection he, his son and Clark's professor Goddard would have to the "giant leap"that put men on the moon.
http://www.dmairfield.com/people/aldrin_ee/index.html
Click here to read the AP article in the July 18 issue of the Boston Herald.