Lol I also had an assignment for Goddard too. I'll just copy and paste my notes for him here:
1. In 1922, independent of other scientists, Goddard proposed that a liquid-fuelled rocket which pumped gasoline and liquid oxygen into a combustion chamber would increase overall rocket efficiency by addressing the many problems that were associated with solid-fuel rockets. He believed that liquid fuel rockets would create greater thrust since pure oxygen was used for combustion rather than a solid oxidiser, thus producing greater amounts of exhaust gas per unit of propellant mass used, ultimately increasing the rocket’s efficiency. Furthermore, Goddard also believed that using liquid oxygen as a cooling jacket around the combustion chamber would effectively cool the high temperatures required for the combustion of gasoline, thus limiting the use of heavy and expensive heat-resistant materials for the rocket’s casing, which was a problem for the solid-fuel rocket.
2. In 1914, Goddard patented the concept of a multi stage rocket to extend a rocket’s altitude or distance travelled. All rockets before this time were single-stage (i.e. they only had one reserve of propellant). This posed a problem since rockets at that time would only travel a short altitude before running out of propellant, eventually making it act as a projectile and succumb to the forces of gravity.
3. In 1915, Goddard discovered that approximately only 2% of the chemical energy stored in solid-propellant rockets were converted into kinetic energy upon combustion (most of the chemical energy became heat energy). Before his proposal of a liquid-fuel rocket as a more efficient alternative, Goddard believed that this inefficiency within solid-fuel rockets could be attributed to the shape of the nozzle through which the exhaust gas particles were sent through. By experimenting with De Laval’s nozzle, Goddard discovered that the amount of chemical energy converted into kinetic energy within a solid propellant rocket upon combustion, shot from 2% to a much improved 63%.
4. According to a misconception, many believed that the rocket’s exhaust would be ‘sucked out’ of the rocket engine to fill the vacuum in space, which in turn would not create a propulsive force. However, Goddard believed that rockets could in fact travel through a vacuum and realised that this misconception was based on the belief that the rocket and the vacuum were one system. Despite this popular belief, Goddard claimed that the system in play was rather between the rocket and its exhaust, with the vacuum having no effect, making rockets able to travel in space.
5. Although Goddard’s liquid-fuelled rocket provided greater fuel efficiency, he realised that its motion was uncontrollable and travelled large distances to reach a relatively small altitude. Furthermore, steering the rocket to a desired direction was almost impossible since the direction of thrust was fixed. He managed to address these problems by mounting the combustion chamber and nozzle on a gimbal, allowing it to swivel a few degrees, which ultimately changes the direction of thrust and allows the rockets to be slowly steered in a certain direction.
I had more stuff on this but I just pasted the main points. If you want more then let me know.
