Woman in the Moon (Die Frau im mond)

General Information:

Year Released: 1928 Country: Germany Director: Fritz Lang IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0019901 Literary Source: Thea von Harbou, Die Frau im mond

A scientist believes that there is gold on the moon, and builds a space rocket to travel there and take it. First, an unmanned rocket is sent, and when it brings back information, the manned space flight is planned. There is a great deal of rivalry among the ship's crew (a collection of scientists and funders), so the expedition is not as successful as it could be.

The Promise of Science: Space Travel

A somewhat more realistic enabling technology for space flight is rocketry, which appeared in the film Woman in the Moon. Although many aspects of this film's story are completely fantastic (such as men walking on the moon without space suits), the affair of space travel is serious and attempts to be true to known science. To ensure accuracy (and the legitimacy of the film), the film's director, Fritz Lang, consulted real rocket experts during the film's production (Gunn, 168). The concept of a launch countdown was created for this film, and later became a standard for real-life launches.

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