Spacex's Falcon 1
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SpaceX’s Falcon 1: a History of Rocket Technology and an Interview with Guidance, Navigation, and Control Engineer Chris Wilkins By Jake Lee 2/10/19 Lee 1 Table of Contents Interviewer Release Form..…………………………………………………………2 Interviewee Release Form…………………………………………………………..3 Statement of Purpose………………………………………………………………..4 Biography…………………………………………………………………………...5 Historical Contextualization – Missiles, Duopoly, and the Falcon 1…………….…6 Interview Transcription……………………………………………………………22 Interview Analysis…………………………………………………………………32 Bibliography…...…………………………………………………………………..40 Appendix 1 – Additional Information…....………………………………………..43 Appendix 2 – Definitions……....…………………………………………………..44 Lee 2 Lee 3 Lee 4 Statement of Purpose I drew interest in writing about space travel and rocket science because space, astrophysics, and astronomy are all interests and passions of mine. The Falcon 1 specifically interested me because SpaceX is a very innovative and interesting company today and learning about its past seemed enticing. SpaceX is trying to make humans a spacefaring species, and the Falcon 1 was where this mission began. Lee 5 Biography Chris Wilkins was born in 1982 outside of New York City. Since then he has moved to many places all over the United States, and he currently lives in the DC area. He grew up during the Gulf War and, in the 1990s, lived in Cincinnati and Morgantown, West Virginia. He went camping every year near a winery in upstate New York where he remembers liking the grape juice. In high school, he took many AP classes and decided that he wanted to study engineering in college. He applied to early admission at RPI Polytechnic/NYU Poly and was admitted. He studied there for undergrad and majored in Aerospace Engineering, as well studying abroad in Germany where he met his current wife. He later found a professor in downtown Brooklyn who researched spacecraft at Polytechnic University and went to grad school there. He researched spacecraft dynamics under this professor for graduate research. As part of a fellowship, he taught high school physics and loved teaching. After earning his masters, his advisor wanted him to get a PhD, but his friend was an intern at SpaceX and told him to do an internship there. He was interviewed by Elon Musk and accepted. Later on, he got a full-time job working as a guidance, navigation, and control engineer at SpaceX and has been working there for 13 years. Lee 6 Missiles, Duopoly, and the Falcon 1 Many of the most successful space launch vehicles, such as the Atlas and R-7, were initially designed as ballistic missiles.1 Through the development of ballistic missiles and other rocket-powered weapons during wartime, space travel technology significantly advanced. This paper broadly discusses rocket development during World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. This paper focuses on the development of the Falcon 1 rocket by SpaceX and its related motors and parts. For the most part this takes place in the US but some early rocket development takes place in Germany. The Falcon 1 was developed in the late 2000s. To understand the Falcon 1, one must examine World War I, World War II, and the Cold War, as well as gain a first-hand perspective from someone who was there The rocket technologies in the Falcon 1 are based off of a long history of wars and weapons development that started in World War I. World War I began on July 28th, 1914, with the United Kingdom, France, and Russia siding against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Wanting to continue the American policy of isolationism, Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States, declared neutrality in the war. Even though America was not part of the early stages of the war, American businesses experienced massive success because the European industry was in disarray. In early 1917, the United States intercepted the Zimmermann Note, which was sent from a desperate Germany to Mexico; because it asked Mexico to attack the United States if they joined the Allies in the war, it led America to view Germany as hostile and enter the war on April 2, 1917.2 1 GILMAN, LARRY. "Ballistic Missiles." In Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 87-91. Vol. 1. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2004. Global Issues in Context (accessed October 30, 2018). http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3403300068/GIC?u=standy&sid=GIC&xid=09a2d284. 2 "World War I and America." In Gale U.S. History in Context. Detroit, MI: Gale, 2018. U.S. History in Context (accessed February 5, 2019). Lee 7 Despite America not entering World War I until 1917, the entirety of the war from 1914 to 1918 kick-started American rocket research and shaped the beginning of Robert H. Goddard’s, commonly considered to be the father of American rocket science, career. Robert H. Goddard was born in 1882 and a professor of physics at Clark University in Massachusetts. Sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and US Signal Corps to make rockets for use in warfare, Goddard began his research in 1914 at Clark University; this initial step forward resulted in the basic inventions and proofs needed for space travel, as well as powerful weapons still in use today. Later in 1914, Goddard designed the first multistage rockets, and in 1915, he proved that rocket engines would work in a vacuum. By the end of his research in 1918, Goddard had invented both the bazooka and anti-aircraft rockets.3 During this early research and throughout most of his lifetime, Goddard used gasoline as his fuel of choice for his rockets because it was easy to obtain and its combustive properties were well known.4 Meanwhile, the United States was fully engaged in World War I. In May, 1917, the Selective Service Act was passed; it dictated that males between the ages of 21 and 30 were required to serve in the military when drafted, increasing the size of the military from 400,000 to 4,000,000 men. In June, 1917, America began to send soldiers to France in order to fight at the front of the war. Although American soldiers did not fight in the war until the Spring of 1918, the Allies were able to declare victory on November 11, 1918. America’s involvement in the 3 Pendray, G. Edward. "Pioneer Rocket Development in the United States." Technology and Culture 4, no. 4 (1963): 384-92. doi:10.2307/3101375. 4 John D. Clark, Ignition! : an Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1972), 5. Lee 8 war resulted in 116,000 casualties and 250,000 injured. America also emerged with a booming economy, a new sense of nationalism and patriotism from propaganda produced during the war, an increase in women’s rights, and newfound respect from allied nations. The war also led to a new American culture, causing the postwar period to be called the “Roaring Twenties” - a time of resurgence in all forms of art.5 After World War I and his contract with the military ended, Goddard decided to continue his research in private in order to make his lifelong dream of space travel a reality, and in 1919, Goddard published his first paper on rockets, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, that included the first appearance of the rocket equations in the United States.6 In 1920, Goddard invented liquid propellant rockets, and up until 1925, he experimented profusely with them; by March 16, 1926 in Auburn, Massachusetts, Goddard successfully launched a liquid propellant rocket, which traveled 184 ft in 2.5 seconds, and became the first in history to do so. On July 17, 1929, Goddard launched the first instruments to be transported on a rocket: a barometer and a thermometer. Although it did not travel higher that 90 ft, its crash gave him a great amount of publicity and caused the Massachusetts Fire Marshal to ban him from testing rockets in the state. This attracted the attention of pilot Col. Charles Lindbergh who convinced the wealthy Guggenheim family, already pioneers of aviation, to fund Goddard. With this money, Goddard purchased and moved to a facility in Roswell, New Mexico, where he would spend the rest of his life researching. Between 1930 and 1941, Goddard experimented intensely with rockets to satisfy his own interest in space travel, putting thousands of ideas to the test; during this period, Goddard invented hundreds of rocket-flight related technologies, including gyro stabilizers and 5 "World War I and America." In Gale U.S. History in Context. 6 See Appendix 1 Lee 9 deflector veins.7 Although Goddard’s research was advancing quite smoothly, rocket propellant research in the United States made only one major advancement in this time; from 1932 to 1934 at the University of Syracuse, Harry W. Bull experimented with the first monopropellants8, the most successful being kerosine, ether, and hydrogen peroxide, all of which would become successful fuels in future rocket designs.9 While Goddard was researching rocket technology, America was struggling with the Great Depression. On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, causing the banking system to collapse and companies to fire masses of workers in hopes to save money. In 1930, 750,000 Americans were not being paid and 2,400,000 did not have jobs. In order to revitalize the economy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created New Deal programs to offer jobs and financial aid to needy Americans. Despite most Americans struggling with the Great Depression, cinema and radio greatly advanced and surged in popularity.10 Meanwhile, European, and especially German, rocket technologies were advancing at a rapid rate and groundwork was being laid for World War II. In 1931, Friedrich Wilhelm Sander used Red Fuming Nitric Acid11 (RFNA) in some of his rocket propellant experiments, introducing the chemical to oxidizer research.