I'd not heard of him before but he's a direct descendant of Francis Bacon and developed the back-up power systems for Apollo 11 whilst working in Cambridge. The fuel cells he developed also created electricity for communications and air conditioning. The efficiency and high energy density of the fuel cells played such an integral role in the success of the Apollo missions that President Richard Nixon told Bacon: “Without you, Tom, we wouldn’t have gotten to the moon.”After they returned to Earth, astronauts Neil Armstong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins met Bacon at Downing Street and presented him with a signed photograph of Armstrong’s famous first “small step” on the moon. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/02/recognition-at-last-for-tom-bacoA brilliant achievement from someone who believed in his ideas enough to start a company and progress from there. SB [Post edited 5 Nov 8:13]

Source: The Guardian November 05, 2024 20:17 UTC