Far less exciting but more profound and influential was Destination Moon, George Pal’s production depicting man’s first Luna flight—19 years before it happened. In 1951, the artist Chesley Bonestell did a series of paintings depicting such a venture and what the surface of the Moon might be like, and they were published in Collier’s Magazine to the utter fascination of the world. The pictures insisted that a movie be made but what it really taught us was how dull the real thing would be, and yet, how awesome and amazing. Fearing that some other less benign nation than the United States might capture control of the Moon, a businessman arranges an expedition there in a gleaming, atomic powered rocket. The pseudo documentary style of the film emphasizes difficulties of space walks, weightlessness and other scientific curiosities. Apart from a mishap en route, in which a crewman accidentally becomes detached from the ship and has to be rescued, the trip is without incident. After landing, setting up the base, preparations are made to return…except there isn’t enough fuel to take everyone back. But all problems are resolved, and the ship returns with all hands safely to Earth. They tried to make it as exciting as they could but their failure to do so didn’t matter. Chesley Bonestell had changed the way everyone looked at the Moon and then he went on to do the planets and stars and we all went with him.