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Let's suppose that the initial events of Verne's A Voyage From the Earth to the Moon took place: A great space cannon is built in Florida. It's an immense project, of course, but it wasn't entirely beyond the technology of the time. When the time comes, the capsule doesn't contain people (for obvious reasons), but the sturdiest cameras available, with clockwork mechanisms to take pictures automatically. Pictures of the Earth, pictures of the Moon. The capsule lands by a parachute mechanism, all fully automated by necessity. What would be the impact on the public consciousness? Or are the technical challenges and difficulties such that in the late 1860s and early 1870s, this is ASB material?
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