In as much as it's National #MoonDay in the United States, we couldn't let the day go by without a tip of the space helmet to Georges Míliès. "A Trip to the Moon" ("Voyage dans la Lune") was made way back in 1902 and influenced film makers ever since. It is definitely a 'must see before you die' film.
"A Trip to the Moon" is the tale of six forward-thinking astronomers: Professor Barbenfouillis, Nostradamus, Alcofrisbas, Omega, Micromegas and Parafaragaramus. After building a bullet-shaped rocket -- which they fired into space from a canon by some very attractive "marines" -- they hurtled toward the moon, and eventually touched down on the Man in the Moon. With that, Míliès created one of the most iconic images in the history of film.
What followed was a blend of hallucinatory events which lead to a less-than-positive encounter with insectoid aliens living on the moon known as Selenites. The subsequent escape from the moon and the life-imitates-art splash down of the rocket in to the ocean predated modern space travel.
"A Trip to the Moon" is definitely "spacey", even today. Happy National #MoonDay!
Could the methods of space travel used in "A Trip to the Moon" have influenced modern space technology? We think so.