Sky and Telescope - June 2015 - 37

The inertia of Columbiad's projectile then carries the
crew away from the Moon and returns them to Earth.
The projectile streaks through the atmosphere like a
shooting star and splashes into the Paciﬁc Ocean. The
Gun Club frantically scours the seaﬂoor but later simply
ﬁnds the projectile bobbing atop the waves, an American
ﬂag ﬂapping from the top of its cone. The astronauts
have returned safely!

Future Vision
The exciting circumlunar journey not only brings fame
to the three explorers but also emboldens American scientists and engineers. Verne writes, "Since Barbicane's
attempt, nothing seemed impossible to the Americans."
The Gun Club helps to create the National Company of
Interstellary Communication (NCIC) - a ﬁctional forerunner of NASA - with a mandate to facilitate travel
between the Earth and Moon, as well as to the planets
and stars.
When founded in 1958, NASA likewise employed
many former military scientists and engineers for the
purely peaceful exploration of space. A decade later,
NASA's Apollo team accomplished the herculean
endeavor of sending astronauts ﬁrst around the Moon
and then, just months later, down to its surface. It was a
golden age for American science and technology.
It's diﬃcult to measure what impact the ﬁctional writing of Jules Verne had on the real NASA missions that
would follow. Surely many of the space agency's scientists, engineers, and astronauts nurtured their enthusiasm for space travel as children dreaming of what must
lie beyond our Earth.
Neil Armstrong certainly felt a connection to Verne's
adventure story. On July 23, 1969, returning home after
he and Buzz Aldrin had completed their history-making
moonwalks, Armstrong began his broadcast to Earth
with these words:
"A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage
to the Moon. His spaceship, Columbia [Columbiad], took oﬀ
from Florida and landed in the Paciﬁc Ocean after completing
a trip to the Moon. It seems appropriate to us to share with
you some of the reﬂections of the crew as the modern-day
Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth and
the same Paciﬁc Ocean tomorrow."

Often the lines between science ﬁction and science fact
become blurred. But, more interestingly and prosperously, they inspire each other. All new scientiﬁc discoveries are born in the imagination of dreamers. On this
150th anniversary of Jules Verne' epic journey, pick up a
copy and see what you discover. ✦

Apollo 8: Life Imitates Art
Verne's 1865 ﬁctional trip around the Moon had several startling
similarities to Apollo 8's circumlunar trip in December 1968. Both missions had a crew of three: Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl in the novel;
Anders, Borman, and Lovell aboard Apollo 8. Verne's ﬁctional projectile blasted oﬀ from Tampa Town, only 132 miles from NASA's site at
Cape Canaveral. Verne's Columbiad ﬁred its projectile at 24,545 miles
per hour. Apollo 8 initially orbited Earth, and then rockets accelerated
the capsule to 24,194 miles per hour toward the Moon. Neither craft
had enough velocity to break free of Earth's gravitational pull; instead,
both reached a point at which the Moon's gravity attracted them the
rest of the way.
Verne's projectile then skimmed the lunar surface during a full
Moon, which meant that Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl could hardly
see anything when looking back at the "new" Earth. But Anders, Borman, and Lovell arrived during a waxing crescent phase. Consequently,
after rounding the Moon, they were able to capture the timeless image
of a "gibbous" Earth rising over the lunar landscape.
Verne's craft ultimately landed in the Paciﬁc Ocean and was recovered by the Susquehanna, a vessel from the U.S. Navy. Apollo 8's capsule likewise dropped into the Paciﬁc Ocean (5,000 miles from Verne's
landing spot) and was recovered by the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.
Both capsules were constructed of aluminum - and both ﬂoated.
As the crew of
Apollo 8 emerged
onto the Moon's
nearside, they saw
a gemlike gibbous
Earth rising over
the bleak lunar terrain below them.

Sk yandTelescope.com June 2015

NASA

Dean Regas is the outreach astronomer for Cincinnati
Observatory and co-host of the bite-sized PBS astronomy
program Star Gazers.

Sky and Telescope - June 2015

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