On Dec 25, 2021, the rockets carrying NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope were launched. This space telescope is the world’s largest and most revolutionary telescope of its kind, specifically designed to conduct infrared astronomy in outer space. As you are reading this, it is making history by sending back spectacular images of never-seen stars, planets, and galaxies millions of light-years from Earth.

What is surprising to me is that as enormous and as sophisticated as the rocket boosters used to propel the telescope are, their engineering has been seriously influenced by, of all things, ancient war chariots and the horses that pulled them.

The horse-drawn chariot, like NASA’s rocket boosters, was a technological marvel for human transportation in ancient times. War chariots played a crucial role in shaping the rise and power of ancient military empires like Egypt, Persia, and Rome. Countless conflicts and races took place thousands of years ago using war chariots.

Just as with NASA’s rocket boosters, it mattered how these chariots were engineered. Special considerations were made to the chariot’s width for it to be both nimble and sturdy during racing or a battle. The distance between the wheels was normally no broader than the backside of a single horse. Over time, chariots went from having one axle to two, and the width of chariots grew to the width of two horses’ backsides. This is partially due to the fact that people had previously constructed infrastructure and roadways to support these widths. The “track gauge,” or distance between the wheels on a chariot, became the legacy of ancient chariot wheel sizes and still continues to impact the width of today’s vehicles, such as railroad cars, cars, and yes, even rocket boosters.

To transport their rocket boosters, NASA engineers decided that their rockets should have a specific width to ship the rockets by rail from the facility where they were manufactured to the launchpad. Therefore, their rockets use the standard track gauge of the already-existing national network of train tracks. 
The diameter of these rockets is directly linked to the time of the ancient chariot wheels and the breadth of two horses’ behinds.

It always amazes me how sometimes even the smallest elements from the ancient past may have surprising influence on the present. It is one of the reasons I love studying history to this day. Despite their apparent dissimilarity, rockets and chariots are useful metaphors to explain the fundamentals underlying legal reasoning in real estate law and probate law. For instance, many of the laws today on how we hold or inherit property were directly influenced by the Normans and William the Conqueror back in 1066 AD. Or consider the current structure of our own court system, which is based in part on the English court structure. Our Circuit Court is aptly named after the practice of medieval English kings riding the entire “circuit” of their realm, hearing cases, and dispensing justice. Previous ancient and medieval customs, traditions, and precedents all have an impact on our current laws, rules, and legal cases, much as the width of NASA’s rocket boosters was inspired by the chariot wheel’s standard gauge.

NASA’s rocket booster design demonstrates how everyday choices from the past can have unexpected effects and far-reaching consequences on cases or circumstances that arise in the future. Every day.

About David Soble: David is a seasoned real estate and finance attorney with more than 35 years of experience, combining his background as a “big bank insider” with a commitment to demystifying complex legal issues for his clients.  As the founding attorney of Soble Law (also known as Soble PLC / Proven Resource), he leads a specialized team in Michigan and Ohio that handles real estate transactions, contract disputes, probate, and financial litigation.  Known for a practical, no-nonsense approach and peer-rated excellence (Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent), Soble and his team strive to protect clients’ property and financial interests with clarity, integrity, and experience.