m****s
发帖数: 7397 | 1 Robert H Goddard 的少年故事 （摘自 尾给屁颠）
He became interested in space when he read H. G. Wells' science fiction
classic The War of the Worlds when he was 16 years old. His dedication to
pursuing rocketry became fixed on October 19, 1899. The 17-year-old Goddard
climbed a cherry tree to cut off dead limbs. He was transfixed by the sky,
and his imagination grew. He later wrote:
On this day I climbed a tall cherry tree at the back of the barn . . . and
as I looked toward the fields at the east, I imagined how wonderful it would
be to make some device which had even the possibility of ascending to Mars,
and how it would look on a small scale, if sent up from the meadow at my
feet. I have several photographs of the tree, taken since, with the little
ladder I made to climb it, leaning against it.
It seemed to me then that a weight whirling around a horizontal shaft,
moving more rapidly above than below, could furnish lift by virtue of the
greater centrifugal force at the top of the path.
I was a different boy when I descended the tree from when I ascended.
Existence at last seemed very purposive.
For the rest of his life he observed October 19 as "Anniversary Day", a
private commemoration of the day of his greatest inspiration. |
|
