Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: Robert H. Goddard, one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry, was born in Worcester Massachusetts in 1882. As a 16 year old, Goddard read H.G. Wells' science fiction classic "War Of The Worlds" and dreamed of spaceflight. By 1926 he had designed, built, and launched the world's first liquid fuel rocket. During his career he was ridiculed by the press for suggesting that rockets could be flown to the Moon, but he kept up his experiments in rocketry supported in part by the Smithsonian Institution and championed by Charles Lindbergh. Pictured above in 1937 in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, Goddard examines a nose cone and parachute from one of his test rockets. Widely recognized as a gifted experimenter and engineering genius, his rockets were many years ahead of their time. He died in 1945 holding over 200 patents in rocket technology. A liquid fuel rocket constructed on principles developed by Goddard landed humans on the Moon in 1969.

1882年出生於美國麻薩諸塞州、烏斯特市的哥達德，是現代火箭的奠基者之一。 在16歲時，哥達德閱讀了威爾斯(H.G. Wells)的科幻名著世界大戰("War Of The Worlds")，從此便響往太空飛行。 到了1926年，他設計，製造並發射了世界上的第一艘液態燃料火箭。 由於他致力於提倡以火箭飛到月球的構想，在他的職業生涯中，他常因此而被恥笑。 但是他持續進行著火箭學上的研究，這個研究部分是由史密生研究院所贊助，及林白的支持。 上面的照片是在1937年攝於新墨西哥州．羅斯威爾鎮的沙漠中，當時哥達德正在檢查他的實驗火箭之一的鼻錐及降落傘。 一般咸認他是一個傑出的實驗者及工程天才，他的火箭超前當時的水準數年。 他死於1945年並擁有超過200個火箭科技的專利。 1969年，一艘以哥達德發展出來的理論所建造的液態燃料火箭把人類送上月球。