Why had we come to the moon?
The thing presented itself to me as a perplexing problem. What is this spirit in man that urges him for ever to depart from happiness and security, to toil, to place himself in danger, even to risk a reasonable certainty of death? It dawned upon me that there in the moon as a thing I ought always to have known, that man is not made to go about safe and comfortable and well fed and amused ... against his interest, against his happiness, he is constantly being driven to do unreasonable things. Some force not himself impels him, and he must go. H G Wells, First Men in the Moon
The dawn of the nineteenth century ... Among the pioneers, Captain Robert Walton, an explorer, obsessed with reaching the north pole. As the prize drew closer his voyage would uncover a story to strike terror in the hearts of all who would venture into the unknown. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein 1994 starring Robert deNiro & Kenneth Branagh & Helena Bonham Carter & Ian Holm & Rory Jennings & Tom Hulce & John Cleese & Aidan Quinn & Richard Briers & Robert Hardy & Christina Cutall & Celia Imrie & Cherie Lunghi & Charles Wyn-Davies & Richard Bonneville et al, director Kenneth Branagh, caption
One afternoon in the Spring of 1804 nearly four dozen men crossed the Mississippi and started up the Missouri river. They were beginning the most important expedition in American history. The United States’ first official exploration into unknown spaces. Ken Burns, Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery I, PBS 1997
An insatiable curiosity and a hunger to explore ... The first big step to exploring and colonising Space is following our instinct. Futurescope with James Woods: Galactic Pioneers, 2013
In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it. John Archibald Wheeler
The most hazardous and dangerous adventure on which mankind has ever embarked. For All Mankind, Kennedy, 1989
What a ride! What a ride! ibid. astronaut
What a view! ibid.
You’re the representative of humanity at the point in history. ibid.
This is really a rugged planet. ibid.
I felt very welcome there. ibid.
Man must explore. ibid.
We felt an unseen love; we were not alone. ibid.
For centuries explorers have travelled to the ends of the Earth in the name of discovery. And on the way they’ve created our maps, captured our imagination and became rooted in our history. Exploration has given us some of our greatest heroes and most memorable tales. But discovery is not all romance and glory. Timewatch: Explorer: Conquest and Calamity, BBC 2017
Our attitudes towards the heroic navigators of old have shifted … The story of the people already living in the places being discovered. ibid.
Livingstone is still famous for his discovery of the Victoria Falls but by the 1960s he was starting to feel an old-fashioned hero. ibid.
‘Hillary is arguably the last great imperial hero.’ ibid. Dr Max Jones
Incredibly, Shackleton and his 27 men would all survive. ibid.
From Wally Herbert’s epic journey in the 1960s to the most intimate moments of the video diary television has steadily brought exploration into our lives. ibid.
Planet Earth: humanity’s safe haven for over 200,000 years. But some now believe that time is coming to an end. The Search for a New Earth s1e1, BBC 2017
‘To stay risks annihilation.’ ibid. Hawking
Is there another planet for us to go to? ibid.
So this journey is really telling me a lot about the type of person our space explorers have to be and the sacrifices I think they are going to have to make. ibid.
A journey to Proxima B is within our reach. ibid.
To survive on another planet there’s something else they’ll need – an atmosphere. ibid.
1352: the Sahara: the largest desert on the planet … Ibn Battuta: He left Morocco at age 21 vowing never to travel the same road twice. He has explored over 40 countries but this is his first time in the Sahara … The plague raging through Asia, Europe and the Middle East; it’s killed up to a fifth of the world’s population … but the Sahara is a barrier against the Pandemic. Mankind: The Story of All of Us VI: Survivors, History 2012
Growing popular interest in this subject prompted the British Daily Mail to mount its own 300-man Yeti expedition in 1953. After several weeks the expedition returned with photos of footprints but little else. In Search of History s2e11: The Abominable Snowman, History 1997
Recent archaeological discoveries in the People’s Republic of China are changing America’s concept of its own history. From ancient historical records we hear of a Buddhist monk Hu-Shen who by his own written account appears to have landed on the American continent in 458 A.D. Did the trail they took lead them to central America? Now, new discoveries off the coast of California may furnish proof that America was discovered by Chinese explorers over a thousand years before Columbus. In Search of s5e20 … Chinese Explorers, 1981
500 years ago an unrecognizable ship arrived in the port of Seville. Its crew was reduced to just 18 emaciated and starving men. But the ship had just completed a voyage of huge importance that changed the shape of history and changed the way we live today. It was 1522 and the Victoria had just become the first ship to circumnavigate the world. Voyages of Discovery s1e1, Paul Rose, BBC 2019
The course that [Ferdinand] Magellan was planning would take him beyond chartered waters into the unknown; it was a journey many believed was impossible. ibid.
One night nearly 250 years ago a ship ran aground on a treacherous reef in the Pacific ocean. Water poured into the wooden hull threatening to sink her and all those on board. The ship that faced a watery grave appeared to be nothing more than an unremarkable coaling vessel captained by an unknown commander on an obscure scientific field trip. But this ship had a secret mission: one that would redraw the map of the world, and make a hero of her undistinguished hero: the ship was called The Endeavour and her captain was called James Cook. Voyages of Discovery s1e2
The Endeavour sailed from Plymouth on 26th August 1768. It was the age of enlightenment, an era of intellectual ferment. ibid.
Cook would have to navigate his ship to the other side of the world … The Endeavour travelled alone. ibid.
Conditions below must have been appalling let alone the smell. And disease was rife. ibid.
Over 2,000,000 sailors had died from scurvy. ibid.
Banks had accidentally stumbled across the cure for scurvy. ibid.
After 33 weeks at sea, land was finally spotted: Cook had arrived … in paradise. ibid.
The Transit of Venus is an incredibly rate event. ibid.
Cook’s mission was now revealed: the discovery of the fabled Great Southern Continent. ibid.
In the Spring of 1892 a charismatic Norwegian explorer called Fridjtof Nansen announced a daring plan to venture into all this: the Arctic, unmanned and unconquered. At the top of the world was the ultimate goal - the North Pole. Voyages of Discovery s1e3: Fridjtof Nansen
The most extraordinary voyage in history. ibid.
Nansen’s crew now faced years alone in the Arctic. ibid.
Cadbury’s sponsored the expedition. ibid.
His voyage of discovery had failed … His obsession would not die. ibid.
Nansen had an extraordinary new plan. To leave the ship and ski the remaining 600 kilometres to the Pole. ibid.
You can lose over four litres of liquid a day … Melting as much snow as he needed … His remarkable talent for invention served him well. ibid.
They were almost going backwards. It was a gut-wrenching blow. ibid.
300 years ago a group of men found themselves thousands of miles from home fighting for their lives. They had travelled half way round the world across unknown lands into hostile territories. But these were no hardened adventurers, they were booking academics on one of the most important scientific expeditions ever. Its outcome would fundamentally change the way we see our world, but their mission would become an eight-year epic of obsession, betrayal and murder. Voyages of Discovery s1e4: French Explorers: The Figure of the Earth
This was the first scientific expedition ever. The ambitious mission was launched in 1735 to discover a fundamental truth about our planet: the true shape of the Earth. ibid.
In May 1939 the crew of the submarine USS Squalus were struck by disaster deep below the surface of the Atlantic ocean. They were trapped on the ocean floor with the air running out and no means of escape. The latest victims of what the US Navy dubbed the Coffin Service. Their fate rested on one man: Naval inventor Charles ‘Swede’ Momsen. Voyages of Discovery s1e5: USS Squalus
In the previous 20 years worldwide 22 subs had been lost along with the lives of over 1,000 men. They didn’t call it the Coffin Service for nothing … No crew had ever been saved from the ocean depths. ibid.
Water from flooding from the rear to the front of the sub. ibid.
A poisonous chlorine gas was beginning to spread. But there was no way out. ibid.
The Squalus had been equipped with Momsen lungs … This is a submarine rescue bell based on Momsen’s design … It was Momsen’s big moment … The unbelievable had happened: a rescue mission had reached the submarine. ibid.