From Earth to the Moon: FICTION VS REALITY

July, 20th, 1969. 51 years ago today, Neil Armstrong became the first man to ever step on the Moon, culminating an entire generation's dream. However, over a 100 years before Jules Verne had written a novel that shared incredible similarities with how history actually unfolded in the 1960’s: ‘From Earth to the Moon’.

To celebrate this historical date, today we’ll bring up some memories of the journey that inspired us to go beyond what was previously conceived as possible, and talk about something very interesting that happened more than 100 years before Apollo 11 soared into the skies.

We are going to discuss a sci-fi novel written by the father of modern science fiction, responsible for 60 extraordinary novels renown for their premonitory character; which include ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ or ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’.

The French writer’s novel that we’ll be discussing today is one in which a group of men began their own journey to visit our closest neighbour. And as it is, this novel shares incredible similarities with how history actually unfolded in the 1960’s:

Jules Verne’s ‘From Earth to the Moon’.

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Published in 1865, at a time when mass electrification of cities, computing and rocketry were still decades away, ‘From Earth to the Moon’ shares some striking similarities to 1969’s historic event.

It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts. The Club’s president, Barbicane, proposes to use their artillery knowledge to shoot a bullet into the Moon. Just a bullet, no humans are involved in the launch -- yet.

This set up already resembles what would happen nearly a century later: World War II had ended, and the young mastermind behind the German long range ballistic missile (first of its kind in history), fled to the US aware of its interests and offered his knowledge. His name was Wernher von Braun, an ex Nazi’s SS member; he would become the the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle.

Back to the story. With Barbicane playing a similar role as Von Braun’s, he inspires his comrades and the project is approved. When made public, the general public goes wild in excitement in a similar fashion as when Kennedy gave his ‘I choose to go to the Moon’ historic speech.

Next, Verne goes on to describes how the project develops and shapes up (Verne doesn’t fall short on giving every detail, ranging from the shape of the bullet to the gunpowder used to fire it on launch day. He describes the velocity, trajectory, air friction and other orbital parameters as the launch window. He does follow Newton’s Laws and his kinematic analysis was actually correct).

Verne also describes how a perfect launch location is searched for in the story, until they come down to two: Florida and Texas; finally selecting Florida as the chosen launch site.

-- And we all know where Saturn V took off from the 16th, July 1969. That’s right, historic Launch Pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Mission control was on Houston, Texas.

However, just as the launch date approaches, a mysterious French man called Michel Ardan makes the scene with a crazy proposal. He asks for the bullet to be turned into a capsule; he’d go inside and fly to the moon. That only makes anticipation grow ever higher.

Everything is going right on track until an artillery intellect rival of Barbicane refutes all of the work done so far claiming it’s a suicide act. Things escalate to the point where both Barbicane and his rival meet for a duel to settle things. Just as the worst is about to happen, Ardan stops them and proposes that all three of them should board the capsule to see who’s right and who’s not.

And so it was, therefore once again being the number of seats in the hollow bullet the same as NASA found optimal for the Apollo 11 capsule: 3.

Verne also nailed it in the proposal of propulsively landing on the moon, as he new it doesn’t have an atmosphere so parachutes wouldn’t work. It ends up being just a proposal though, since Barbicane and his rival, and Aldran, actually don’t make it to the moon. Still, these thrusters are essential for the three characters to return to Earth.

Although they don’t land on the moon, Verne’s described nominal trajectory is not wrong; the launch and travel procedures (including orbiting around the Earth and Moon) quite remarkably resemble that followed by Apollo 11.

When the bullet-capsule finally makes it back to Earth, events unfold as they did in 1969. It splashes into the ocean where the crew is recovered by a boat, safely taking them to land where they are received as heroes.

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It’s needless to say not everything was on point, and there are some major issues from a scientific point of view, beginning with the fact that the capsule was shot from a giant cannon. This has been further explored in the last century but scrapped due to the colossal costs or payload hypothesized not to be able to survive the launch.

Verne was also mistaken on the way gravity works once you venture into space as he believed the only moment the crew would experience zero gravity would be in a specific point between the Earth and the Moon.

Barbicane and his peers at some point also open a hatch in the middle of their trip to throw trash into space, which would almost instantly kill them as they are not wearing any suits of any kind. The crew should have also been scorched during reentry and smashed at splashdown, as the vehicle had no kind of heat shield or parachute system to slow down.

Last but not least, it’s interesting to point out that the interior design of the bullet-capsule had nothing to do with NASA’s. While the latter resembles a modern airplane cabin, Verne’s looked and was furnitured like living room from those times. Barbicane also took animals with him on the trip and they had ordinary food, water and wine supplies.

Keep in mind we’re talking about 1865, one hundred years before the Space Race even began and all these things began to be researched. At that time it was still believed light could move thanks to the Luminiferous Ether in space.

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We’re looking at an universal literature masterpiece for its narrative, its documental like expressionism and its sense of adventure. But if there’s something that makes Verne’s work truly stand out is his vision and his restless, scientific, way ahead of its time mind, thus earning Verne a title he really deserves: the father of modern science fiction.

As mentioned earlier, 1969’s Moon landings culminated an entire generation’s dream, and our generation has been born with an equally ambitious dream; to walk on Mars and stay there. Inspired by both literature and real life heroes, we will strive for and achieve our goal of setting foot on the Red Planet.

We are the Mars Generation.