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One hundred years ago, on March 16, 1926, a rocket rose just 12.5 metres above a cabbage field in Massachusetts (USA) before tumbling back to Earth. The flight lasted just 2.5 seconds, but it marked a turning point in human history. Powered by liquid oxygen and gasoline, Robert H. Goddard’s ungainly machine became the first liquid-fuelled rocket ever to fly – proving a technology that would eventually carry satellites into orbit, astronauts to the Moon and perhaps one day, humans to Mars.
As we mark the centenary of that modest launch, it is worth remembering that Goddard’s rocket was not the beginning of the story. Its roots stretched back centuries, from Chinese fireworks, medieval weapons and the dreams of visionary inventors who imagined travelling far beyond the limits of Earth long before the technology existed to make it possible. Dreaming myths of flight Prehistoric humans had a lot to worry about. There was the mammoth hunt, fish spearing, nut gathering, shelter finding, avoiding becoming sabre-tooth cat food, or becoming a dirty smear on a mastodon’s tusks. Then (if you made it to your thirties) there was old age to worry about. Hunter-gathering was a full-time occupation that left very little time for flights of fancy. Then about 13,000 years ago, humankind came up with a new way of life: they would settle in one place, cultivate crops and bend the landscape to their will. Humans had invented farming. Along with farming, came another invention: free time. Almost overnight, survival wasn’t the only thing on our minds and our imagination was set free. All of a sudden we could indulge in flights of fancy – and many of our fancies settled on flight. Read the rest at Philosophical Magazine Comments are closed.
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