As most people know, the man first arrived on the moon on July 20, 1969. On board the Apollo 11, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin made history. But what many people do not know is that the arrival to the moon was planned many years before, in particular in 1600!
Dr. John Wilkins, who was director of Wadham College in Oxford, was a philosopher who lived from 1614 to 1672. Wilkins was an intellectual whose way of life allowed him to feed his curiosities with numerous scientific experiments.
Among those curiosities, it should be noted that Wilkins was obsessed with the idea of arriving on the moon and getting to know its inhabitants . It should be noted that Wilkins was a clergyman and a theologian and that formation made him believe that anything as big and as Earth-like as the moon was should be created by God and for living beings. Although he was far ahead of his time, specifically three centuries ahead, he was willing to carry out that adventure.
Why did Wilkins believe that his arrival on the moon was possible?
Without forgetting that we talk about year 1600, we must understand that the scientific idea of gravity and outer space were far from reality . In the seventeenth century scientists and, of course, Wilkins believed that there was no difference between the atmosphere of the Earth and space, since at that time it was believed that the attraction of the Earth was due to magnetism.
That made Wilkins think that with a vehicle with enough strength and speed, he could get far enough from Earth to get rid of that magnetism and thus be able to carry out that long-awaited arrival on the moon. According to his reasoning, it made sense.
With the theme of "travel" arranged, Wilkins also focused on other, more mundane matters; How would travelers feed themselves during their journey to arrival on the moon? He held the hypothesis that hunger was caused by working against gravity , so once we get rid of it, we will not have the problem of having to feed ourselves. Let's not lose sight of what it was in 1600!
Wilkins was an advanced in many ways. He also considered the idea of hibernation. He said:
"If animals can hibernate, why not humans?
And he even referred to myths as: "It is said that Epimenides slept for 75 years." At that time it was believed that the air became colder the higher it went up and Wilkins gave a solution for that "wet sponges could help us". We do not really know what he could refer to, but he remembers a lot cryogenics , true?
What were Wilkins's plans?
In his obsession with building a ship to fly, Wilkins focused on the way birds fly and, in fact, all those studies served centuries later to develop plans about rockets to send into space.
In all these exploits, Wilkins had the help of his colleague, Robert Hooke, later known for his polemic with Newton (from whom you can discover some thoughts ) about the paternity of the law of gravity.
As we said, Wilkins, along with Hooke, was able to test his theories and his experiments and, although there are no recordings of them, we are sure that none of them came to work. In fact, Hooke was one of the reasons why Wilkins lost all hope of going out into space because, as we mentioned before, he was part of the team that discovered that space was not breathable because there was no oxygen and therefore it was not feasible to leave out there.
We agree that, from our perspective, and after all the advances in this field, it's easy to laugh at Wilkins' plans or of his ideas, which today sound absurd, and of how that arrival to the moon should have been. However, you have to recognize that their plans were revolutionary , and you have to give it the merit of being the first to have even imagined it.
Allan Chapman wrote:
"As an insightful young man of 26 years, as he was in 1640, John Wilkins lived in the honeymoon stage of the scientific revolution, when the old hypotheses were being defeated and the new ones seemed exciting and boundless."
Nobody should laugh at those who dream big, because surely humanity advances thanks to them. What are first lunatic dreams, come true thanks to people who believe in them Do not you think?
What do you think about this scientist ahead of his time? Do you think he was a nutcase with an overflowing imagination or perhaps someone who saw beyond what his time could offer him? Surely you have many comments on this, as it is a subject that opens a broad debate. Do you cheer up? Leave us your comments!