Science Fiction becomes reality. Sort of.

Today I saw a video of a NASA moon-lander prototype being tested (and subsequently failed) for it's autonomous takeoff-landing capabilities:

http://youtu.be/yZPnTK3Bhgw

I couldn't help but notice how very similar it looks to another moon-transport vehicle, the "Eagle", which came from a little-known Gerry Anderson sci-fi series from the 70's called, "Space 1999".

Take a look at this clip and tell me you don't see an erie similarity, with the external truss-like landing gear and bulbous apparatus hanging off the side:

http://yt.cl.nr/YAt60HrSkzI

Unfortunately I can't find any clip on the web from the original series of an Eagle lifting off from the pad, but the same dust-blowing-out from beneath the craft looks exactly like this NASA prototype's footage.

Cool stuff.