In the real world, we put a man on the Moon in the 1960s. Or at least we put one in a movie studio that looked like the moon, and had Stanley Kubrik film a fake documentary of the moon landing.
But even before President Kennedy and the Russians started the Space Race, even before heavier than air flight, humans traveled to the Moon in their imagination. In these illustrations taken from a pre-1900 work of science fiction, a pompous French scientist and his man servant use a balloon to fly to the moon where they encounter bizarre aliens and exotic adventures.
Mad Scientist Decides to Fly to the Moon
The Scientist Tells His Man Servant That They Are Going to the Moon.
The Poor Man Does not Seem Very Happy
Who Needs Big NASA Budgets or Even A Pressurized Spaceship. All it Takes is Backyard Balloon
And They’re Off!
The moon’s gravity becomes to strong and the balloon bursts and free falls rapidly onto the surface of the Moon.
Mr Baboulifiche and his servant suffer a rough landing on the Moon. No small step for Man, Giant Leap for Mankind here: one intrepid astronaut is impaled on a moon rock while the other one lands on his head.
Luckily the intrepid explorers are none the worse for war and soon they are exploring teh surface of the Moon where they discover giant alien moon clams. Their first reaction is of course to make a meal of this unknown and likely poisonous species.
Unfortunately the clams prove to be uncooperative with the astronaut’s culinary plans and instead decide to eat the Moon explorers. Luckily the brave moon landers came armed with umbrellas, a very effective weapon against rabid moon aliens.
In an act of interplanetary depredation, the astronauts end up eating the aliens and roasting them on a nice fire. Naturally the moon is not only inhabited but has earthlike atmosphere and temperature.
The humans’s intrusion pisses off the Moon’s inhabitants who decide to rid their world of the trespassers. Soon the two astronauts are beset by hordes of giant aliens which they fend off with their umbrella.
The explorers run away and escape their pursuers, only to be attacked by Giant Moon Spiders!
After many more adventures the explorers encounter a humanoid alien who belongs to an advanced lunar civilization. The Moon Man is studying the earth through his telescope.
At first the earthlings are welcomed by the Moon Men, but soon they have a falling out because the humans are uncouth barbarians in the eyes of the Lunarians. The explorers escape and after flying through space on Moon Bats, end up landing on Saturn, which also has earth like gravity and atmosphere and some funky looking giant hash smoking centipedes.
More Aliens!
Even more adventures are in store for these first humans in space, only for it to turn out that it was all just a dream. The professor awakens with a start, still in his easy chair, having never left the earth at all.
