h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Innovations from the past, put nman on the Moon.

Who and What were involved??

GT

Ah, an easy one.

Iroquois Indians, geese, a few Jesuits and candlewax.

From the prototype of all science fiction,
"The Other World: The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon" (1657)
by Cyrano_de_Bergerac.


~jwf~

The wheel. Invented by Og the Strange.

The ladder. Don't know who invented that one.

Heinlien wrote a lot of science fiction that became inspiration for actual scientific advances.

Wasn't the water bed one of Heinlein's ideas?

It wouldn't surprise me. That man was full of crazy ideas that might just work...

So we just need to find the link between water beds and the Apollo missions.

What about fuel, type of engine?
Something to do with materials involved in spacesuits or craft construction?

Hmmm, usually it's the other way around; new technologies developed for the space missions then find a civilian application. (The microwave, for example.)

And teflon.

Wasn't the original spaceship covered in non-stick frying pans, or something like that?

RF

The most obvious source of blue lights would be to mention rockets and the Chinese.

On a slightly different tack, calculus, for which you can blame Isaac Newton, would be essential for plotting the course.

Calculus, of course, is the Latin for small stone, or pebble, since the first pocket calculators were made out of pebbles. Which is also where the word calculator comes from, obviously.

I see your ancient Chinese rocket, and raise you one Mythbusters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_%28season_2%29#Episode_24_.E2.80.93_.22Ming_Dynasty_Astronaut.22

Hi toybox,
I'd never heard of the supposed Chinese astronaut before, I was just thinking of Chinese fireworks. Bet I still get klaxoned though...

I heard of him last summer while discovering Mythbusters in Scotland. I was very enthusiastic

Fireworks is a good idea though. Probably a klaxon then

that greek bloke(heroditus comes to mind but i am ) who invented the first steam engine

rather a steam rocket as the water boiled and the steam thrust out of vents turning the globe, an ancient precursor to a rocket, pre gunpowder

Newton, and the theory of gravity?

"that greek bloke...who invented the first steam engine"

I thought that was Archimedes. With the brass ball and the two tubes poking out on opposite sides. If you've never seen the experiment, it's suprising how high a speed it can build up as it spins.

"calculus, for which you can blame Isaac Newton, would be essential for plotting the course."

Calculus, or Differentiation, which was invented by some Scottish bloke at the same time.