Today, I am thankful those who remind us that sometimes the impossible is truly possible.
On this day (Oct 5) in 1951, one of my father’s favorite television shows aired its debut sketch with a 6-minute skit of a New York City bus driver, his wife Alice, and their lovable, quirky neighbors. Although The Honeymooners would not fully air on CBS for another 4 years, this original skit captures the essence of the frustrated, short-tempered employee of the Gotham Bus Company (Ralph Kramden), his levelheaded, sarcastic companion (Alice), and their ever-present, carefree neighbors (Ed and Trixie Norton). Amazingly, the show was cut short after only two years, with production ending after only 39 episodes. Considering how often the reruns were highlighted on the TV set in the Kartsonis household, I would have swore the show must have aired for decades.
I vividly recall how Ralph would get annoyed with Alice (which incidentally happened every episode). Angered and exasperated, he would lash out into one of his epic, empty threats of physical violence: ‘I’ll tell you, Alice. One of these days, Pow! Right in the kisser! Bang, zoom, right to the moon!’ She’s naturally blow him off, with a wave of her hand or an occasional ‘Ah, shut up!’ Clearly, the thought of physical violence against one’s spouse was an attempt at slapstick humor, though admittedly one of somewhat poor taste in our contemporary world. However, I find it interesting how fascinated Americans were with the concept of the moon travel during the first half of the 20th Century, even long before Neil Armstrong set foot on the celestial body in June 1969.
Interestingly, as technology advanced over the early part of the 20th Century, the idea that humans could actually send someone to the moon became more of a fitting reality. Much of the growing enthusiasm to this impossible concept was a byproduct of a scientist, who incidentally was also born on this exact day (Oct 5) in 1882. Robert Hutchings Goddard was the only child to survive to parents living in Worcester, Massachusetts. Despite his own humble beginnings, Goddard’s father encouraged his son’s interest in science by purchasing him a telescope and a subscription to the journal Scientific American at any early age. Robert became fascinated in the concept of flight and space travel, especially after reading H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds. His scientific background made him quickly realize that space travel was entirely possible if only we could discover a way to propel ourselves into the vacuum of space beyond the reaches of gravity. Despite his poor health as a child, Robert did eventually graduate from high school and attend the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where he received a degree in physics in 1908. While there, he began experimenting with makeshift rockets powdered by gunpowder, even firing one off in the basement of the WRI Physics Building. Working thereafter as a physics professor at Clark University in Worcester, he began to dedicate life to the mathematical properties and theorems that would permit efficient rocket propulsion.
As early as 1912, he employed calculus to develop a theory for rocket propulsion into space, even to the far reaches of the moon. In 1913, he applied for and was eventually granted two patents: one for the use of a solid fuel in a multi-stage rocket and the other for the use of liquid fuel to propel a rocket. With the financial backing of the Smithsonian, he began experimenting with different rockets, and, in relatively short order, he demonstrated he could achieve sufficient energy efficiency with increasingly complex designs. In 1919, he authored a report entitled A Method of Achieving Extreme Altitudes, which outlined how liquid fuel could be used to propel a rocket flight to the moon. His report was published in The Smithsonian, and it garnered national attention, thanks to a front page story in the New York Times, ‘Man Believes Rocket Can Reach Moon”. The story created a journalistic controversy that both criticized and ridiculed the physicist for his ‘impossible’ notion. However, over the course of the next two decades, Robert would demonstrate to the world how rockets powered by liquid oxygen, in combination with gasoline, could reach unprecedented heights. His famous first rocket flight on March 16, 1926, would soon be followed by more sophisticated, far-reaching attempts. He’d learn to use movable vanes in the rocket exhaust, controlled by a gyroscope, to control and steer the rocket.
While many in the US mocked him, the German army took his research to heart, creating long-range missiles powered by liquid propellant (V2s) as soon as 1931. By 1940, Robert would eventually have the US Army and Navy knocking at his door to provide assistance to their own long-range missile rockets. Yet, at the age of 62 in 1945, he would pass away from throat cancer. A quiet man, much of Robert’s incredible work was only revealed in patents filed by his wife, Esther, after his demise.
Only years after his death was Robert Goddard recognized for his achievements, eventually earning him the title as The Father of Modern Rocketry. So, as the 1960s came around and talk of heading to the moon became more of a realistic possibility, the idea of sending Alice Kramden (or some other human), to the moon went from an idealistic impossibility into an stark reality.
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