APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

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APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by APOD Robot » Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:06 am

Image A Trip to the Moon

Explanation: What would it be like to visit the Moon? The first major fictional cinematic film exploring this enduring transcultural fantasy was titled Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) and made in 1902, becoming one of the most popular movies of the early years of the twentieth century. The silent film starred the filmmaker Georges Melies himself and portrayed a club of astronomers voyaging to the Moon and back. Pictured above is a frame from the movie that has become an enduring icon for both film and space. Alluding to a bullseye trajectory, the Man in the Moon is caricatured as being struck by the human-built spaceship. The entire 14-minute film is now freely available. Visiting the Moon remained a very popular topic even 67 years later in 1969 when humans first made an actual voyage.

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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by Ann » Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:11 am

Ah, good old Georges Méliès! Talk about being a pioneer on the Moon! Méliès was a talented and creative filmmaker, too, who made a lot out of the few special effects that were available in the very beginning of the previous century.

I'm glad that Georges Méliès just got an APOD! And that "Moon face" that just got a rocket smack-dab in its eye is an icon of an image.

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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by geckzilla » Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:20 am

The astronomers from the movie are exactly how I picture Bob and Jerry when they work on APOD.
astronomers.jpg
astronomers.jpg (36.88 KiB) Viewed 35119 times
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:37 am

geckzilla wrote:
The astronomers from the movie are exactly how I picture Bob and Jerry when they work on APOD.
Well...it does look vaguely familiar: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 24#p217724

(Or is this a depiction of Owlice's session at the 223rd meeting of the AAS :?: )
Last edited by neufer on Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by Boomer12k » Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:46 am

I wonder who played the Man in the Moon, in the movie....


Anyway.....Barbicane....


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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:58 am

Boomer12k wrote:
I wonder who played the Man in the Moon, in the movie....Anyway.....Barbicane....
<<The Man in the Moon watches the capsule as it approaches, and it hits him in the eye.
(The image is a visual pun: the phrase dans l'œil, literally "in the eye,"
is the French equivalent of the English word "bullseye.")
>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon wrote: <<Project Babylon was a project with unknown objectives commissioned by the then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to build a series of 'superguns'. The design was based on research from the 1960s Project HARP led by the Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull. There were most likely four different devices in the program.

The first of these superguns, "Baby Babylon", was a horizontally mounted device which was simply a prototype for test purposes. It had a bore of 350 mm, and a barrel length of 46 metres, and weighed some 102 tonnes. After conducting tests with lead projectiles, this gun was set up on a hillside at a 45 degree angle. It was expected to achieve a range of 750 km. Although its mass was similar to some World War II German "superguns", it was not designed to be a mobile weapon and therefore it was not considered a security risk by Israel.

The second supergun, "Big Babylon", of which a pair were planned (one to be mounted horizontally, at least for test purposes), was much larger. The barrel was to be 156 metres long, with a bore of 1 metre. Originally intended to be suspended by cables from a steel framework, it would have been over 100 metres high at the tip. The complete device weighed about 2,100 tonnes (the barrel alone weighed 1,655 tons). It was a space gun intended to shoot projectiles into orbit, a theme of Bull's work since Project HARP. Neither of these devices could be elevated or trained, making them useless for direct military purposes, unless some form of terminal guidance could be used to direct the fired projectile onto its intended target.

It is possible that Big Babylon was intended both to launch satellites and to serve as a weapon, but its ability to fire conventional projectiles in the latter role would have been very limited: in addition to the impossibility of aiming it, it would have had a slow rate of fire, and its firing would have produced a very pronounced 'signature' which would have revealed its location. Since it was immobile, it suffered from the same vulnerability as Germany's V-3 cannon, which the RAF readily destroyed in 1944. Also, Iraq already had Scud missiles which would have been far more effective than the dated supergun technology. However, the gun would have offered greater ranges than the Scud variants then used by the Iraqis, and its projectiles would have been more difficult to intercept.
Future plans

The metal tubes for the barrels and gun cradles were purchased from firms in the United Kingdom, including Sheffield Forgemasters of South Yorkshire, and Walter Somers of Wolverhampton. Other components, such as breeches and recoil mechanisms, were ordered from firms in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Italy. Baby Babylon was completed, and test shots were fired from it, revealing problems with the seals between the barrel segments. However, as those were being worked on, Bull was assassinated in March 1990, possibly by Mossad, halting the project.

Most of the barrel sections for Big Babylon were delivered to, and assembled on, a site excavated from the side of a hill; instead of being suspended by cables from a steel framework as originally planned: calculations had shown that the original support framework would be insufficiently rigid. However, it was never completed.

In early April 1990, United Kingdom customs officers confiscated several pieces of the second Big Babylon barrel, which were disguised as "petrochemical pressure vessels". The parts were confiscated at Teesport Docks. More pieces were seized in Greece and Turkey in transit by truck to Iraq. Other components, such as slide bearings for Big Babylon, were seized at their manufacturers' sites in Spain and Switzerland.

Finally, after the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the Iraqis admitted the existence of Project Babylon, and allowed U.N. inspectors to destroy the hardware in Iraq as part of the disarmament process.>>
Last edited by neufer on Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by geckzilla » Mon Jan 13, 2014 6:45 am

neufer wrote:
geckzilla wrote: The astronomers from the movie are exactly how I picture Bob and Jerry when they work on APOD.
Well...it does look vaguely familiar: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 24#p217724
You should probably realize by now that "vaguely familiar" by neufer standards means "not a all familiar" to nearly any other person.
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by alter-ego » Mon Jan 13, 2014 6:53 am

neufer wrote: ... After conducting tests with lead projectiles, this gun was set up on a hillside at a 45 degree angle. It was expected to achieve a range of 750 km.
In a class I once took, a gunnery sergeant said that achievable distances for existing long range artillery (I believe ship mounted) were maximized at >45°. I think it was a degree or two, I can't remember. The reason was that going to slightly higher altitudes reduced air friction due to lower density and this was enough to gain distance. I don't recall the improvement that could be gained. I just remember the concept and I thought it was interesting and plausible.
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by Nitpicker » Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:09 am

I wonder, in a hundred years from now, will early 21st century technology seem as dated and quaint as early 20th century technology seems to us now? I like to hope so, but I have my doubts.

And alter-ego, what the gunnery sergeant told you does sound plausible. Still slightly on topic, I am reliably informed by an ex naval weapons engineer, that anti-aircraft artillery on ships was quite effective, so long as the enemy planes approached on a cloudless day, with a constant bearing, altitude and speed, and it wasn't too windy.

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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by Terence Hill » Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:52 am

Somebody should mention that the image and meliés played a central role in the (highly recommendable) Hugo Cabret book. Um, the movie is OK too despite Moretz, the music during the end credits alone making it worthwhile.

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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by mister T » Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:36 am

Boy NASA has come a long way in producing fake moon landings!!

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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by MargaritaMc » Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:31 am

Even earlier, but not a film...
The Public Domain Review writes:
Lucian’s Trips to the Moon

With his Vera Historia [True History], the 2nd century satirist Lucian of Samosata wrote the first detailed account of a trip to the moon in the Western tradition and, some argue, also one of the earliest science fiction narratives.

- Read more at: http://publicdomainreview.org/2013/06/2 ... o-the-moon
Lucian's books, including Trip to the Moon, are available at Project Gutenberg. Here is the link to the HTML version:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10430/10 ... 0430-h.htm

Nearly two thousand years on, it is still a good read!

M

PS. Info about this delightful writer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by orin stepanek » Mon Jan 13, 2014 12:41 pm

A delightfully amusing film! :D I like the way the spaceship just fell back to Earth! :D 8-) :lol2: :thumb_up: :thumb_up: :clap: :clap: :yes: :yes:
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:24 pm

alter-ego wrote:
neufer wrote:
... After conducting tests with lead projectiles, this gun was set up on a hillside at a 45 degree angle.
It was expected to achieve a range of 750 km.
In a class I once took, a gunnery sergeant said that achievable distances for existing long range artillery (I believe ship mounted) were maximized at >45°. I think it was a degree or two, I can't remember. The reason was that going to slightly higher altitudes reduced air friction due to lower density and this was enough to gain distance. I don't recall the improvement that could be gained. I just remember the concept and I thought it was interesting and plausible.
It would probably have to be that reason.

The 3 other effects leading to non-parabolic trajectories:
  • 1) air friction slowing the projectile, :arrow:
    2) (Frisbee like) hydroplaning and
    3) the curvature of the Earth
would all recommend that one use an angle <45°
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:41 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Nitpicker wrote:
I wonder, in a hundred years from now, will early 21st century technology seem as dated and quaint as early 20th century technology seems to us now? I like to hope so, but I have my doubts.
Are you talking about early 20th century movie making technology or the quaint antiquated astronomical technology depicted in _A Trip to the Moon_?

Note that while electronics has rapidly advanced in the last hundred years pure mechanical technology has been impressive for a long time: http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 76#p191309
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by Psnarf » Mon Jan 13, 2014 3:09 pm


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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by bumble732 » Mon Jan 13, 2014 3:55 pm

This image has been enlarged considerably. The original image, found by clicking on today's image, is only 257 X 264 pixels. A cubic spline interpolation algorithm often produces better enlargements for photographic images (see attached image, 876 X 900 pixels).
http://www.newviewgraphics.com/images/moon.jpg

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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by Ibmelrod » Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:41 pm

The final episode of Futurama used a cartoon version of this lunar image (very briefly as are most of the show's inside jokes) and I am told it was used at least once in an earlier episode.

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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by ta152h0 » Mon Jan 13, 2014 7:24 pm

" A trip to Europa " should be the next silent film
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by BMAONE23 » Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:13 pm

ta152h0 wrote:" A trip to Europa " should be the next silent film
In 2013, "Europa Report"

"In this nail-biting thriller, a private space-exploration company sends six astronauts to determine whether Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, can sustain life -- and what they find terrifies and transforms them."
Image
found on Netflix

Youtube Trailer
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by Ron-Astro Pharmacist » Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:42 pm

I might be up for Chevy Chase in one more movie – “Europa Vacation” :idea: :)
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by geckzilla » Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:49 pm

BMAONE23 wrote:Europa Report
I think that movie was inspired simply by Neil DeGrasse Tyson saying we should send a probe there and see what licks the camera. They play the clip of him saying that at the start of the movie, too. :lol: It's a pretty typical sci-fi thriller aside from that. People do some pretty silly things for the sake of drama.
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:14 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by ta152h0 » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:27 pm

ladies and gentlemen, we just got Neuendorffered
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Re: APOD: A Trip to the Moon (2014 Jan 13)

Post by neufer » Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:02 pm

ta152h0 wrote:
ladies and gentlemen, we just got Neuendorffered
What, Mé Liè :?:
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