L'Astronautique

L'Astronautique is the first systematic scientific treatise devoted to the technical feasibility of cosmic flight. Across eight chapters and 243 dense pages, Robert Esnault-Pelterie develops the mechanics of rockets in vacuum and in the atmosphere, the thermodynamics of nozzle expansion, the chemistry of combustion, circumterrestrial and interplanetary trajectories, the steering and habitability of a spacecraft, and concludes with a relativistic analysis of interstellar voyages at constant 1 g acceleration. The work codifies the notions of escape velocity and utilization coefficient, establishes the French term astronef, and includes as an appendix the by-laws of the REP-Hirsch International Astronautics Prize founded in 1928.