Doroga k zvezdam (1957) - full transcript

ROAD TO THE STARS

Man has walked the hard path

of knowledge on his planet.

He has always wanted to get

where he has not been,

and to know what was not yet known.

Man has set off on a distant voyage

despite the grave dangers.

He has conquered the poles,

gone high above the clouds,

descended into the deep.

Overcoming innumerable difficulties.

He has found the way to the

innermost recesses of nature,

penetrated into living cells

and the structure of atoms.

He seeks to unravel

the mysteries of the Universe,

to become conscious of himself.

But never before has the man broken away

from his planet.

And now the time has come

when he took the first step

over the threshold of his home.

It is obvious.

The man has grown.

The world's first artificial satellite

has been created.

"Earth is the cradle of humanity,

but one cannot live in a cradle forever." Tsiolkovsky

We start with a story about

this great and humble scientist.

The end of the 19th century,

remote Russian province,

pious merchant city of Kaluga.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky

works as a teacher in a primary school.

Serious childhood illness

has made him almost deaf for life.

Communicating with people

became difficult.

He had to undergo a self-taught course

in High School and then in the University.

But more than deafness,

the difference in interests alienated

Tsiolkovsky from his milieu.

People did not understand him

and considered eccentric.

The province,

separated from centres of science,

lacked books and magazines,

as well as educated people.

He had to learn everything by himself.

And he had a great thirst for action.

He wanted to improve people's lives.

New concepts, startling in their boldness,

arose in the mind of the humble teacher:

to break away from the Earth,

to fly into the outer space,

to use the energy of the Sun.

Tsiolkovsky found listeners

only among children

who were avid for everything

unusual, interesting and new.

Tell me, children, can one go to the moon

in a balloon?

In a balloon? Of course not.

Why?

Because the balloon moves only in the air,

and the air can be found only here -

around the Earth.

Further, there is no air -

only a void.

But this is only one reason.

There is one more.

- What is it?

Look.

I throw a stone up in the air

and it comes back down.

Why is that?

I don't know.

Please, be seated.

Earth draws to itself

stones and water,

and keeps us close as captives.

On the ground,

one can move as one likes,

but one cannot make a step off the Earth.

If one pushes oneself off the Earth,

it returns one back from the void.

Do not fly to the moon.

And no way to escape?

The gravity can be overcome...

The gravity can be overcome with speed.

One has to fly away from the Earth

faster than it can draw one back.

This velocity was calculated by Newton.

The Earth draws a stone to itself

by five meters per second.

The Earth is spherical.

Within the distance of 8 kilometres,

the surface of the Earth deviates

from the plane by 5 meters.

If a stone crosses these eight kilometres

in one second,

it will descend by the same amount as

the Earth's surface deviated from the plane.

A stone, thrown with such speed,

will fly neither approaching

the ground nor moving away from it.

It it will spin around the Earth.

This is so-called "circular velocity".

A stone thrown with even greater speed

will move around in an ellipse.

Finally, for the escape velocity

of 11km per second

a stone will leave the Earth forever.

What tremendous speed.

Ten times greater than

the velocity of an artillery shell.

Jules Verne knew these numbers.

He placed the characters

of his novel in a shell

and shot them from a huge cannon

cast directly in the ground.

Wonderful fantasy...

But no cannon using gunpowder can

give orbital velocity to a projectile.

Besides, people inside the projectile,

would be killed by a sudden jolt.

A projectile won't do.

We need a ship that could

gain speed gradually

and go wherever we want

there, in the void.

But there is nothing

to push off from in the void.

There is no land, no water and no air.

I'll show you from what

one can push off from in the void.

That support for pushing off from

has to be taken up there also.

I don't understand.

You can to push off from any object,

from any substance

that has weight or mass.

We are motionless now.

Now look.

I push off from one oar.

From the other oar...

What are you doing?

From the anchor...

...from the bench...

...from the bucket...

...from the umbrella...

- Konstantin Eduardovich.

Well? Are we moving or not?

We are moving. Indeed we are.

Which was to be demonstrated.

In the void,

one can only move in this way;

throwing back a portion of your mass.

This is recoil, reaction,

Newton's Third Law:

"To every action there is always

opposed an equal reaction."

Note how a cannon recoils when firing.

A cannon...

Might one fly to the moon

riding a cannon?

If we imagine a cannon hanging in the void,

after firing it will move

in the opposite direction.

If firing again, it will fly faster.

Shooting over and over again the cannon

can be accelerated to reach high speed.

The solution is somewhere very close.

ROCKET

A rocket.

A rocket, known for hundreds of years.

Instead of shells,

it throws back a gas stream.

Gases push off from a rocket,

and vice versa

and they fly in opposite directions.

Gases backwards, and a rocket - forward.

A rocket needs no air for support -

the latter only hinders the flight.

But can a rocket develop cosmic velocity?

I must do the calculations and

formulate the law of its motion.

The formula of a rocket's movement.

A rocket can increase

its speed infinitely,

everything depends on the supply of fuel.

What yesterday was still a fantasy...

now has a solid foundation

of mathematical calculations.

A rocket.

This is a genuine ship of the universe.

It will be a huge rocket.

Gunpowder is not suitable.

We must take a more efficient fuel,

such as gasoline with liquid oxygen.

Liquid fuel is generally more convenient.

It can be fed into the

combustion chamber via pumps.

In front of the rocket,

there will be a cabin for passengers.

In order to cool the sheathing,

it needs double walls, which liquid oxygen

will pass through prior to combustion.

The stream of gases requires rudders

made of a refractory material.

Then the ship will be controllable.

And it has to be controlled automatically.

Tsiolkovsky worked on his paper

for several years.

This was the beginning of a

new science - Astronautics.

His paper was published in 1903

and was entitled "The Exploration of Cosmic

Space by Means of Reaction Devices".

How tremendous are the opportunities

opened up to the mankind by

departure into space.

Colonisation of space.

Life without gravity,

Visits to other planets...

But these dreams

were so hopelessly distant

from real life...

"Rootless fantasist",

"crazy dreamer",

"who needs your reaction devices?"

"What do you want?

To be heard in St. Petersburg?"

But the official science of Tsarist Russia

turned her back to the Russian genius.

It bowed subserviently before Europe.

Tsiolkovsky wrote then:

"The main driving force of my life

is to do something useful for people.

Not to live my life in vain, but to advance

the humanity forward at least a little bit.

That's why I has taken interest in what

doesn't give me neither bread nor power.

But I hope that maybe soon, maybe

in the distant future, my work

will give the society mountains

of bread and plenty of power..."

Tsiolkovsky persisted in his hard work.

After all, the flight into space

is possible so far only in theory.

A number of assumptions have been made:

the best fuel, extremely durable

and lightweight materials,

very high combustion temperatures.

Technology is still very far from that...

The main difficulty lies in the fact

that a space rocket needs a lot of fuel.

A rocket having less fuel

has already spent it.

The second one continues to gain speed.

But it has run out of fuel too.

And the cosmic velocity is not yet reached.

What to do?

In his declining years,

Tsiolkovsky solves this problem also.

He puts together multiple rockets

to form a train.

He makes a composite rocket.

In the beginning,

it's the first rocket's turn.

When the fuel runs out,

the rocket gets detached, saving the train

from excess weight, and returns to Earth.

The second one continues

to gain speed.

The last one still has full tanks

and the speed is already above

four kilometres per second. A bit more...

And the cosmic velocity will be reached.

"The mankind will not remain

on the Earth forever,

but in the pursuit of light and space,

it will, at first, timidly emerge from

the bounds of the atmosphere,

and then advance until it has conquered

the whole of the circumsolar space."

1929.

Professor Oberth wrote to Tsiolkovsky:

"You have lit the fire

and we will not let it go out.

We will make every effort to fulfil

the greatest dream of the mankind."

Tens, hundreds, and then

thousands of enthusiasts

started practical work

on rocket technology.

With the help of the dynamo-meter they

measured the thrust of powder rockets,

then tried to adapt powder rockets

to movement on the ground.

Austrian pilot and astronomer Valier's

rocket sledge

attained the speed of 100 km per hour

with a passenger

and 400 km per hour without

a passenger. It was spectacular.

But for land transport the use

of rockets proved impractical.

The assault of heights began.

It resembled a war;

there were loud explosions,

and people were dying...

During the test of

the liquid-propellant jet engine

interplanetary travel enthusiast

Max Valier died.

German engineer Reinhold Tiling

died in his laboratory.

But the goal was too ambitious,

too tempting...

New enthusiasts were building new rockets.

In 1929, for the first time in the world,

American professor Goddard's

rocket flew into the sky.

And in 1933, our country

tested its first rocket.

The rocket created by "G.S.R.M." -

the group of study of rocket motion.

The participants of the first start

were nervous.

Will the rocket take off or not?

Will it have enough power

to push off from the Earth?

Here the rocket is being filled with

gasoline and liquid oxygen.

Everyone moves away, but not too far.

They want to get a better view.

Oxygen pressure is slowly increasing...

Finally thirteen atmospheres.

The valve can be opened.

Clear props.

A flame appears.

The rocket roars but doesn't move.

Will it take off or not?

They wanted to run up to the rocket

and help it to push off.

But it wasn't necessary.

The rocket's further fate depended

on solving multiple problems...

Better rocket fuel had to be found,

as well as heat-resistant

materials for the engine.

It also required light but durable

materials for the rocket itself,

provision of control automatics,

and lightening of the design

to increase the supply of fuel.

Achievements of many sciences,

and many branches of engineering

have helped to create

a modern space rocket.

Instruments are located in its front part.

The main volume is

occupied by fuel tanks.

The rocket engine is in the tail part.

The turbine rotates the fuel pumps,

which continuously feed fuel and

oxidizer into the combustion chamber.

The products of combustion are emitted

through the nozzle with great speed.

Rudders are placed on either side

of the gas stream.

Modern propellants do not allow

a single rocket to go higher than 250 km.

Tsiolkovsky's idea about

a composite rocket came into play.

The two-stage rocket with a top speed of

up to 3 kps went up as high as 400 km.

The multi-stage rocket goes up to

over 1,000 meters above ground.

It is able to overcome the distance

between any two points on the globe

and even to develop the circular velocity -

to become a satellite of the Earth.

A new celestial body created by the

hands of the Soviet people,

appeared in the sky on Oct. 4, 1957.

Radio signals of this "small moon"

informed the world of

the beginning of a new era -

an era of interplanetary travel.

For an hour and a half Sputnik makes

one full circle around the Earth.

Now it is flying over Moscow...

In ten seconds, it crosses India...

And in another twenty-five minutes,

it will be seen far in the Antarctic -

on the other side of the globe.

Observations of Sputnik are carried out

in different parts of the Earth.

Its flight is marked by

chronographs and mapped.

Due to the rotation of the Earth,

Sputnik makes each next circle over

new sections of the Earth's surface,

giving scientists a huge amount

of invaluable scientific data.

Tsiolkovsky said: "First, inevitably,

the idea, the fantasy, the fairy tale.

Then, scientific calculation.

Ultimately, fulfilment crowns the dream."

Brilliant realisation of

Tsiolkovsky's ideas is under way.

Let us look into the future.

Soon, the hour will come,

after centuries of waiting -

the hour of the humanity's first flight

into interplanetary space.

These three will be the first to fly.

The spaceship: the result of work

of tens of thousands of people;

hundreds of enterprises;

multiple academies; institutes;

design offices; laboratories.

Today, each of those involved,

is sending their own small part

of this ship into space.

Carefully and cautiously,

a man enters into an unknown world.

The first flight is a test flight.

Today, the cosmonauts will spend only a few

hours in space, flying around the Earth.

It's necessary to check how

people will feel during a space flight.

It's also necessary to check how all

the mechanisms and devices perform.

Ready?

I'll give the signal.

Well, comrades, let's begin.

Five minutes before take-off.

The man has finished his work.

Now, automatic machines

will do the rest.

Machines will turn on the engines.

Machines will, at first, also control

the ship in flight.

One minute before take-off.

Launch

The ship picks up speed.

Acceleration creates overload.

The cosmonauts feel

a growing increase of their weight.

Great weight forces them into their seats.

Deprives them of mobility.

Overcoming the atmospheric drag,

the ship is already moving

twice as fast as an artillery shell.

Fuel ran out in the

first stage of the ship.

Radio-controlled,

it will return to the Earth.

The ship's rudders

operate automatically,

gradually moving it

into the desired orbit.

The speed continues to increase.

6 kilometres per second.

So hard. It seems that

the Earth is using all its strength

trying to return

the escaping prisoners.

The second stage has got detached.

Due to inertia, the ship moves higher

and higher, approaching the desired orbit.

The engines turn on for the third time.

The velocity reaches circular.

The engine has stopped.

Free flight has begun.

The ship has become a celestial body.

It now revolves around the Earth,

in non-atmospheric vacuum, at the

altitude of over 1.000 kilometres.

But what is it?

People are flying?

Certainly, for the gravity has disappeared.

So what has happened? Where has

the weightlessness come from?

We are used to seeing people

fall to the floor after jumping,

due to the Earth's gravity.

But if the cabin starts falling at the same

time, a person can't reach the floor.

They will remain suspended in the air.

They will be weightless.

This is what's happened with the ship.

After shutting off the engines,

it becomes a free-falling body,

together with the cosmonauts inside.

Maintaining a constant high speed,

it, so to say, falls past the Earth.

One circle around the planet

takes about 2 hours.

It's difficult at first,

having attained zero gravity,

to remain stationary.

Many people assume

weightlessness occurs

only at a considerable

distance from the Earth.

This is incorrect.

The state of weightlessness is also

experienced by pilots in a diving plane,

and by parachute jumpers

during a free-fall jump.

However, weightlessness in these

cases, does not last very long.

In space, the daily work begins:

observations are made, and

communication is maintained with the Earth.

Hello, Earth?

The locator has given the altitude:

Over Australia: 1.200.

Over Europe: 1.300.

Ellipse corresponds

to calculated values.

Feeling well.

Passing over the Equator.

The Sun has overheated the starboard.

We'll turn around.

Meteorites?

Small.

Proceed.

The boundaries of clouds

are observed perfectly.

That's how weather should be forecast.

Entering the Earth's shadow.

It's time to test the space suit.

Are you afraid?

Help me put it on.

And now, the first person,

goes into open space,

taking with him, inside his hermetic

suit, into this terrible abyss

a bit of Earth's habitual climate.

Emptiness.

Not a slightest trace of atmosphere,

and consequently, silence.

Complete and eternal silence.

Many dangers await the brave cosmonauts,

who dared leave the shelter

of the Earth's atmosphere.

Cosmic rays, not attenuated by anything,

penetrate the human body.

Will the fearless travellers

pay with their life?

Meteorites - tiny celestial stones,

rush around in the void.

Like a bullet, any one of them can

pierce through the human body,

stopping the heart.

The Earth remembers its sons.

The contact with the cosmonauts

is maintained.

Radio messages from the ship

are transmitted regularly.

As darkness falls,

thousands of eyes look for it.

A tiny star is crossing the sky.

And on it is... Father.

The first return from its maiden voyage.

Halting its motion slightly,

the ship begins its descent.

It's vital to enter the atmosphere slowly,

so as not to burn up like a meteor.

The ship descends in a spiral.

Only by reducing the ship's speed to

that of an aircraft is it possible to land.

Another stage in the conquest

of space has ended successfully.

It's now possible to

move on to the next stage.

Dozens of ships are already primed

to be sent into interplanetary space.

They will deliver materials

and people into space,

in order to construct

out there, in the void,

a permanent space station.

Meanwhile, preparations begin

to send an automatic rocket

to orbit around the moon.

Instead of people,

in the rocket's nose section

television transmitters are installed;

an automatically operating video camera;

photographic equipment

equipped with various optics.

Deep into interplanetary space,

the construction of

the space station is under way.

Cargo vessels have delivered

construction material into orbit.

The materials weigh nothing,

but their mass and inertia remain.

Moving materials in space is only possible

using velocity of special rocket engines.

Welding is done with rays of the Sun.

They are always in abundance here.

Whole brigades of assemblers

are working in space,

and far away, on the Mother Earth,

millions of friends

are avidly waiting for every message

from this heroic construction.

Meanwhile, the automatic rocket is

already over the surface of the Moon.

Being down on the Earth,

we can see mountains,

which are 380.000

kilometres away from us;

stones on which people

will soon set foot.

The construction process of

the space station is complete.

A huge construction, full of complex

equipment, powered by atomic energy,

hurtles around the Earth

with circular velocity.

Here, this terrifying

speed is imperceptible.

There's no air to whistle in your ears.

No shocks.

No colliding objects passing by.

The outer part of the station

rotates due to centrifugal force,

creating the sensation of gravity

and improving human well-being.

Let's take a closer look at the station.

The ring is divided into sections

with hermetically sealed doors,

in case of damage

by meteorites or air leaks.

After all, behind the walls,

lies emptiness.

The station undertakes large projects.

Here is the kingdom of meteorologists.

Observing the Earth from above, they

see clouds covering the whole globe.

They are on duty around the clock.

In the Pacific ocean, there's a large

typhoon moving north-west.

Urgently alert Japanese fishermen.

The current typhoon coordinates are...

At the space station, large-scale work

servicing the home planet is conducted.

Here, the movement of ice

in the Arctic seas is monitored.

As well as the activity of the Sun.

Television programs are also broadcast.

Dozens of people work at the station.

Here are their living quarters.

People quickly get used to

their new living conditions,

and here, into the black abyss,

someone has brought,

some familiar earthly comforts.

Of course, one feels homesick,

but here, everything is done

to alleviate the isolation from Earth.

The unusual conditions at the station,

allow biologists to conduct

interesting experiments.

In this compartment, set the climate

number five and an eight-hour day.

Don't completely shield

your hybrid from the Sun.

A physicist's dream: a space laboratory.

Your work on cosmic rays

will be ground-breaking.

You'll see.

And now this.

Ask for more tests on my new plastic

under low temperature conditions.

Good. We only received it

on today's ship.

The station has various branches

of terrestrial institutes.

Astronomical Observatory

The astronomical observatory.

For centuries, the cloudy atmosphere,

stood between the inquisitive eye of

the astronomer and the universe. But now...

You know, it's as if I have

taken off a pair of dirty glasses.

Look.

Two images of Mars.

Taken by two identical telescopes.

This one was taken through the Earth's

atmosphere, and this one is from here.

- High definition, correct?

The space station is not

just a research institute.

Here, preparation begins for the first

ship with people to go to the Moon.

It has a strange shape.

But as there's a vacuum from here to the

Moon, a streamlined shape is not needed.

Only cheap and convenient links

are needed between the cockpit,

fuel tanks, engines and chassis.

"Centre of Communication

with the Space Station"

Prepare for launch.

Five minutes before take-off.

How long has it been since we

accompanied the first cosmonauts,

on their flight into this circular

orbit, then uninhabited?

And now from here, the man will take

his next step: a flight to the Moon.

Scientists' and artists' imagination

is always ahead of reality.

The first people are still

on their way to the Moon.

But already, the dreams of these brave

space conquerors, lay ahead of their ship.

The mastered Moon.

Hermetic cities.

Observatories.

Mining operations.

In fact, there, on the Moon, it will be

possible to manufacture fuel for ships.

The Moon will become a base for the

conquest of the entire solar system.

On distant celestial bodies,

we'll find answers to the thousands

of questions that concern us on Earth.

Mysterious Mars

will expand our knowledge of

the adaptability of living things.

Shrouded in clouds, Venus will reveal

to us the secret of the origins of life.

The wonderful rings of Saturn will tell

us of the birth and death of planets.

Though these are currently dreams,

they are certain to become a reality.

Life goes on this island in space, and

first people are flying to the Moon.

Even with the most powerful

telescopes on the Earth,

it will be hard to keep

track of their ship.

An unquenchable thirst for knowledge

leads them to this sleeping world.

Everything is dead: no blue sky,

no penumbras, no life and no sound.

The silent world.

It slept, like dead,

for billions of years.

Now it will have to wake up.

Man has come.

"What is impossible today will become

possible tomorrow" - Tsiolkovsky