It was far simpler, cheaper, and safer to experiment with small-scale rockets than with full-size spaceships it was realised very early on that the exploration of space would be a fabulously expensive and difficult proposition. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the problem of spaceflight gradually evolved away from the purely speculative and theoretical, to be replaced by a more developmental approach.

His novelette The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall (1835), in spite of its satirical comic overtones, was packed with realistic and well-researched details - so much so that his description of a high-altitude balloon flight sounds like one of the stratosphere balloon flights of the 1930s and 1950s. Inspired by advances in technology and exploration, Edgar Allan Poe introduced scientific verisimilitude into his stories. If it were possible for a human being to lift himself half a mile (805 meters) from the surface of the earth, then surely a flight to the moon was merely a matter of scale?Īs the nineteenth century progressed, popular literature reflected the growing belief that science and engineering could make the impossible possible. And it had been accomplished not by magic or occult means, but by the use of a man-made machine, a device of science. For the first time in history a human being could rise higher into the sky than the distance they could jump.

But in 1783, an amazing new invention brought these dreams one step closer to reality: a hot-air balloon, the brainchild of pioneering brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier. For a long while, man’s ambition to leave earth had to remain dreams: there was no realistic way to make such journeys, so authors fell back on fantasy and magic.

The Art of Space by Ron Miller