Conquest [antikvár]

ORIGINSAbove: Speculation about the methods men would use to reach the moon led to the tirst attempts at writing science fiction and spuiied visionaiy space prophets, in tum stimulating engineers and rocliet pioneers.Overieaf:With powertui backers the German rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun built the V-2 tor Hitler. The world's tirst ballistic missileappeared as a military weapon in 1944.The Supreme ChallengeEarly in the mornmg hours of July 16, 1969, a massive Saturn roclcet thundered into life on reclaimed swampland called the Kennedy Space Centre, Fulfilling a commitment made only eight years before, the USA was sending three men to the moon. It was a moment of profound significance in the earth's history. For the first time, mankind was reaching across the black void of space to walk upon the surface of an alien world. Because the solar system will one day perish, when the life-givmg sun exhausts the nuclear reactions that keep it shining bright on the outer edge of a galaxy of stars, man too must die unless he can liberate himself from the gravitational bond that links him inextricably to the planet's fate. By reaching beyond its grasp, mankind could escape the death of the solar system and move to new planets around younger stars.That day in 1969 when they left for the moon, the three astronauts of Apollo 11 showed that the ultimate exodus was possible, One day, thousands, perhaps millionsof years from now, interstellar ships will slip their celestial berth and depart for new colonies across the vast ocean of space, pathfinders for a new home. They will owe their survival to the first tentative steps that bridged the earth and moon.Dreams and IdeasPeople have always dreamed of leaving the earth to search for new wonders and great adventures. From the beginning of recorded time, the seductive beckoning of stars and planets has inspired and fortified the search for flight and space travel. For a while the two were linked, but scientific knowledge toppled primitive thoughts of winged journeys to the celestial spheres, unfolding the dangers and the hostile void of airless space. In 160 AD, Lucían of Samo-sata wrote a book about the imaginary voyage of a sailing ship to the surface of another world but cautioned his readers, in a refreshingly frank confession, that "1 tie, and shall hope to escape the general censure, by acknowledging that 1 mean to speak not a word of truth throughout,"