Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) was a Russian scientist and inventor who laid foundations for the science of astronautics. He was born in a village near Ryazan as a son of a Polish deportee Edward Ciołkowski. His bad hearing prevented him from going to school, but he taught himself mathematics and physics and became a teacher in 1879. He first taught mathematics in Borovsk and then since 1898 mathematics and physics in Kaluga. Tsiolkovsky was considered a freak and recluse, but gained fame as a researcher after his experiments in aerodynamics. In 1897 he build the first wind tunnel in Russia, and after receiving financial help from Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1900, he began testing rocket models. By 1912 he developed a theory of rocket motion, based on the premise that a rocket is a body changing its mass. The basic mathematical formula describing rocket velocity is named after him.
Tsiolkovsky was also a philosopher and a futurist. He anticipated the era of space exploration, including artificial satellites and space suits. He believed that colonizing outer space will free mankind from poverty and bring on a utopian era. As he wrote, "the Universe is full of life of perfect beings". He outlined his visions of the future in a book, Beyond Planet Earth, which was literarily poor but full of pioneering scientific ideas.
Tsiolkovsky was an ardent atheist and believed that "there is nothing save atoms and their combinations". He wrote several essays on "scientific ethics", with the core idea that the moral goal of science should be eliminating suffering. His writings also touched on social and political subjects, leaning towards democratic socialism and cosmopolitanism. He considered violence to be a symptom of low level of evolutionary development, but criticized Leo Tolstoy's brand of pacifism as impractical. The Bolshevik authorities of the Soviet Union praised Tsiolkovsky highly as an inventor, although they were not happy about his philosophy.