According to an old saying, "Today's science fiction is tomorrow's science fact."

Exhibit One: Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon."

In 1865, Verne, who was born 184 years ago this week, wrote the novel, about a fictional future journey to the moon. Just over a century later, men really were on their way to the lunar surface.

In Verne's novel, one of the earliest known examples of science fiction, the moonship is crewed by three men. Likewise, the first Apollo lunar-landing mission also had a crew of three -- Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. In Verne's novel, the first moon mission is launched from the United States, from the state of Florida. Of course, the Apollo 11 mission was launched by the United States, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Both Verne's crew and the Apollo 11 crew ended their missions by landing in the Pacific Ocean.

In Verne's novel, the first men to reach the moon traveled via a system named "Columbiad."

In real life, the Apollo capsule that carried the first crew to land on the moon was named "Columbia."

But, hey, nobody's perfect, right?

In reality, despite those similarities, there were many differences between Verne's novel and the actual Apollo moon missions. Verne was far more ambitious about the time-table for the mission in his humorous book, setting it much closer to the time when he wrote the book. As a result, the means with which the men reached the moon was also quite different -- in post-Civil War America, a group gets together and decides to built a giant cannon with which to launch the crew.

In the years since, scientists determined that Verne's idea, while interesting, was technically unfeasible. In order to launch the crew fast enough to leave Earth without exposing them to unsurvivable levels of acceleration, the cannon would have to be essentially impossibly long. But even if the exact details of his story are unworkable, it has served as an inspiration for many over the years, including Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the Russian father of rocket science.

Verne's vision continues to intrigue and inspire visitors to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, who have the opportunity to compare an actual Apollo capsule with a model based on the vehicle from Verne's book. Compared to Apollo, Verne's moonship was downright primitive, if a little more comfortable. It reflects how Verne took what he saw around him, and imagined the potential of what might be. The display is currently part of an exhibit dedicated to another man who did that --
rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who played a lead role in designing the Saturn V rocket that truly carried men from the Earth to the moon.

While a visit to the exhibit is a great opportunity to explore the historical path that led humanity to the moon, there's no reason to stop there -- next time you're there, why not look around and what has been, and take a moment to dream, like Verne and von Braun, about what yet could be.

Contributing Author: David Hitt