Astronautics
Theory and practice of navigation beyond the Earth's atmosphere
Astronautics (or cosmonautics ) is the theory and practice of travel beyond Earth's atmosphere into outer space . Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science its overarching field.
The term astronautics (originally astronautique in French ) was coined in the 1920s by J.-H. Rosny , president of the Goncourt academy , in analogy with aeronautics . [1] Because there is a degree of technical overlap between the two fields, the term aerospace is often used to describe both at once. In 1930, Robert Esnault-Pelterie published the first book on the new research field. [2]
The term cosmonautics (originally cosmonautique in French) was introduced in 1930s by Ary Sternfeld with his book Initiation à la Cosmonautique (Introduction to cosmonautics) [3] (the book brought him the Prix REP-Hirsch , later known as the Prix d'Astronautique, of the French Astronomical Society in 1934. [4] )
As with aeronautics, the restrictions of mass, temperatures, and external forces require that applications in space survive extreme conditions: high-grade vacuum , the radiation bombardment of interplanetary space and the magnetic belts of low Earth orbit . Space launch vehicles must withstand titanic forces, while satellites can experience huge variations in temperature in very brief periods. [5] Extreme constraints on mass cause astronautical engineers to face the constant need to save mass in the design in order to maximize the actual payload that reaches orbit .
History
The early history of astronautics is theoretical: the fundamental mathematics of space travel was established by Isaac Newton in his 1687 treatise Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica . [6] Other mathematicians, such as Swiss Leonhard Euler and Franco-Italian Joseph Louis Lagrange also made essential contributions in the 18th and 19th centuries. In spite of this, astronautics did not become a practical discipline until the mid-20th century. On the other hand, the question of spaceflight puzzled the literary imaginations of such figures as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells . At the beginning of the 20th century, Russian cosmist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky derived the rocket equation , the governing equation for a rocket-based propulsion , enabling computation of the final velocity of a rocket from the mass of spacecraft ( ), combined mass of propellant and spacecraft ( ) and exhaust velocity of the propellant ( ).
By the early 1920s, Robert H. Goddard was developing liquid-propellant rockets , which would in a few brief decades become a critical component in the designs of such famous rockets as the V-2 and Saturn V .
The Prix d'Astronautique (Astronautics Prize) awarded by the Société astronomique de France , the French astronomical society, was the first prize on this subject. The international award, established by aviation and astronautical pioneer Robert Esnault-Pelterie and André-Louis Hirsch, was given from 1929 to 1939 in recognition of the study of interplanetary travel and astronautics.
By the mid-1950s, the Space Race between the USSR and the US had begun.
Subdisciplines
Although many regard astronautics itself as a rather specialized subject, engineers and scientists working in this area must be knowledgeable in many distinct fields.
- Astrodynamics – the study of orbital motion. Those specializing in this field examine topics such as spacecraft trajectories, ballistics and celestial mechanics.
- Spacecraft propulsion – how spacecraft change orbits, and how they are launched. Most spacecraft have some variety of rocket engine , and thus most research efforts focus on some variety of rocket propulsion , such as chemical, nuclear or electric.
- Spacecraft design – a specialized form of systems engineering that centers on combining all the necessary subsystems for a particular launch vehicle or satellite .
- Controls – keeping a satellite or rocket in its desired orbit (as in spacecraft navigation) and orientation (as in attitude control ).
- Space environment – although more a sub-discipline of physics rather than astronautics, the effects of space weather and other environmental issues constitute an increasingly important field of study for spacecraft designers.
- Bioastronautics
Related fields of study
See also
References
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link ) - ↑ "ROBERT ESNAULT-PELTERIE, « l'Astronautique » - Encyclopædia Universalis" . Archived from the original on 2014-04-29 . Retrieved 2017-02-02 .
- ↑ Gruntman, Mike (2007). From Astronautics to Cosmonautics . p. 21. ISBN 978-1419670855 .
- ↑ l'Astronomie, 1934, p. 325–326.
- ↑ Understanding Space: An Introduction to Astronautics , Sellers. 2nd Ed. McGraw-Hill (2000)
- ↑ Fundamentals of Astrodynamics , Bate, Mueller, and White. Dover: New York (1971).
Further reading
- Mike Gruntman (2007). From astronautics to cosmonautics . Booksurge. ISBN 9781419670855 .