''The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces'' is a science book by Soviet engineer and mathematician

Yuri Kondratyuk Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk (russian: Юрий Васильевич Кондратюк; ukr, Юрій Васильович Кондратюк; 21 June 1897 – February 1942), real name Aleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei (russian: Алекса́нд� ...

published in 1929, significant for being one of the first documented proposals for lunar orbit rendezvous.

History

While working as a mechanic, Yuri Kondratyuk completed the manuscript of a book titled ''The Conquest of Interplanetary Spaces'', dealing with

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

motion and issues concerning the

colonization of space Space colonization (also called space settlement or extraterrestrial colonization) is the use of outer space or celestial bodies other than Earth for permanent habitation or as extraterrestrial territory. The inhabitation and territori ...

. He also suggested using a gravitational slingshot trajectory to accelerate a spacecraft. In 1925, Kondratyuk made contact with Moscow-based scientist

Vladimir Vetchinkin Vladimir Petrovich Vetchinkin (russian: Владимир Петрович Ветчинкин) (June 29, 1888 - March 6, 1950) was a Soviet Union, Soviet scientist in the field of aerodynamics, aeronautics, and Wind power, wind energy, Doctor of Scie ...

and sent him the manuscript. Up to that time, he and his work were unknown to rocketry enthusiasts. While the book was enthusiastically received by scientists in Moscow, no publisher would touch such a fanciful work. Eventually, Kondratyuk paid a Novosibirsk Siberian Union printing shop to produce 2,000 copies of the 72-page work, and even then had to do much of the typesetting and operating the press himself, both to save costs but also because the

equations In mathematics, an equation is a formula that expresses the equality of two expressions, by connecting them with the equals sign . The word ''equation'' and its cognates in other languages may have subtly different meanings; for example, in F ...

in the book posed problems for the printer. Kondratyuk's discoveries were made independently of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who also worked on spaceflight issues at that time; the two never met.

References

History of spaceflight C C Works by Soviet writers {{astronomy-book-stub