The "Moon" Books: Hergé's scientific research?

Well, this question has intrigued me for a long time.
Where, or with whom, did Hergé do research for these two books, as they are before NASA landed on the Moon. Anyone have any theories?

I believe he spoke to scientists, and was in contact with the Royal Observatory in Belgium. I don't have the name of the specific scientist to hand just at the moment, but there was one with whom he worked closely.

For pictorial references and additional scientific ideas he used articles in Collier's magazine, illustrated by Chesley Bonestell about space travel, based on Werner Von Braun and his work.

He went to see Irving Pichel's adapataion of Robert Heinlein's Destination Moon in the cinema and copied the idea. The similarities between that film and the Tintin books are unreal and can't be a coincidence...

2Orangy4Crows
He went to see Irving Pichel's adapataion of Robert Heinlein's Destination Moon in the cinema and copied the idea
Not true, and let's not have rumours start...!
The story was in production before the movie came out - in fact, depending on when in 1950 the film was released, the strip could already have been published in the magazine.

The similarities between that film and the Tintin books are unreal and can't be a coincidence...
That's because they both used Chesley Bonestell illustrations and Collier's as sources (Bonestell actually has a credit on the Destination Moon film), not because they copied each other.

depending on when in 1950 the film was released, the strip could already have been published in the magazine.

Time for some detective work!
Objectif Lune, or to give it is contemporary title, On a Marché sur la Lune, started publication in Tintin magazine on March 30th 1950.
Pichel's film Destination Moon had its New York premiere on June 27th 1950, with release in the rest of the States following in August.
I don't have its release date for Belgium, but given that it didn't reach Sweden until November, and the rest of Europe until well into 1951-52, we can definitely discount the possibilty of Hergé seeing the film before publication started.

Ed

I'd doff my hat to you Ed, but I am not wearing head-gear at this time!
I feel that I am a bit of a slacker in not having done any research on it myself before posting (other than checking that Objectif/ Marché started its run early in 1950).
Kudos for pinning down the dates so quickly, and I'm glad it bore out what I said!

More detective work, courtesy of The Companion!

Whilst not wishing to disagree, I thought I should mention that Michael Farr makes the point in the Companion that Hergé's research was ongoing.

To quote: "Particularly relevant are articles he (Hergé) cut out from an American publication, Collier's magazine of October 18 and 25, 1952..." This was well after the magazine serialization had started.

And further on he mentions: "Other material Hergé had at hand, an article in Le Patriote Illustré of June 25, 1950 entitled Destination de la Lune. It describes scenes from a recently completed Hollywood film Destination Moon, under the headlines "The fantastic on screen; a dream today, tomorrow reality." It's principal illustration is a panoramic view of the crater where the Moon rocket lands "constructed by the Hollywood studios after a painting by Chesley Bonestell, itself based on telescope photographs recorded by the Mount Wilson observatory."

And Michael Farr finds other similarities with the Hollywood film.
As well as the design of rocket itself and it's means of landing he mentions "the crews well-padded posture moulded bunk-beds, the use of magnetic boots, the design of the space-suits, oxygen cylinders and, most notably, the foolhardy decision of one of the astronauts to leave the rocket and, like Haddock, risk remaining permanently in orbit."

It might have been possible that Hergé looked closer to Belgium for inspiration.
When I first saw pictures of the WWII V-2 rockets, the ones the Nazis used to bomb London near the end of that war, they reminded me greatly of the rocket in the Moon series.

Hergé might have talked to former German scientists, many of whom were actually helping the US or the USSR to build rockets. That rocket also resembled the one shown in The Calculus Affair, the one on the cover of German Research in WWII. That is another possible source...

tintinfreak0075
with whom did Hergé do research for these two books

I just remembered this question also came up on a recent edition of Mastermind (see our thread, now closed). Jacques Van Melkebeke and Bernard Heuvelmans are credited with helping out, and not just with the technical details but also the plot-line.

I'd say the V-2 rocket was definitely an influence, but then who else - apart from the Nazis - was making rockets in the 1940s?

And Wernher von Braun, designer of the V-2, went on to work for NASA's space programme, so there's more than just a tenuous link. In fact space travel seems to have been a bit of a preoccupation with von Braun; he is supposed to have remarked that the V-2 "worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet" when it hit London, and got himself arrested by the Gestapo for such insubordination.

Ed