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People have dreamed of traveling to the Moon for a long time—long before there were rockets to send astronauts there.
Even after rockets were invented, some scientists still thought Moon travel was impossible.
1657
◀ In 1657, French writer Cyrano de Bergerac wrote a tale about going to the Moon. In it, he was propelled to the Moon by a series of bottles containing dewdrops, which he attached to his body. The dew evaporated in the morning sunlight, lifting de Bergerac skyward. He landed on the Moon to discover lush forests and strange animals. He met four-legged intelligent beings who played music to communicate with one another. He also met the king of the Moon, who got angry when de Bergerac said that the Moon was only a small satellite of Earth.
1865
In 1865, French science-fiction writer Jules Verne wrote From the Earth to the Moon. In the novel, the Baltimore Gun Club built a huge cannon that could fire a giant projectile to the Moon. The bullet-shaped moonship could carry three explorers. Verne correctly calculated that an object would need to travel seven miles per second to escape Earth’s gravity and reach the Moon. ▶
1902
◀ In 1902, French director and magician Georges Méliès made a silent film of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. In it, the spaceship crashes into the eye of the Man in the Moon, who winces. The explorers find insectlike Selenites, which vanish when hit with an umbrella.
1920
▲ In 1920, American rocket-propulsion pioneer Dr. Robert Goddard proposed launching a small, unmanned rocket. It would hit the Moon and make a bright explosion so people with telescopes could see where it landed. The New York Times dismissed Goddard’s idea. The newspaper insisted that rockets could not work in space because the exhaust from the vehicle would have “nothing to push against.” The writer did not do his homework correctly. Rockets can move without pushing against anything.
1950s
◀ In the early 1950s, Collier’s magazine made the idea of going to the Moon more popular. The articles were written by rocketry pioneer Dr. Wernher von Braun. He had developed powerful weapon-carrying rockets for Germany during World War II. Collier’s used the space artist Chesley Bonestell to “take” readers to the Moon. He drew dramatic, accurate pictures of what astronauts might see. Von Braun’s popular writings on space travel inspired President Dwight Eisenhower. However, his military advisers thought sending humans to the Moon was just “science fiction.”
1959–1960
The television series Men Into Space ran from 1959 to 1960. It showed realistic predictions of how humans would explore the Moon in the future. In the show, rocket shuttles routinely took astronauts back and forth to a Moon base that had all the comforts of home. It had bedrooms, a kitchen, and many extra spacesuits for taking moonwalks. ▶
