Now, the charity Cambridge Past, Present & Future is seeking to shine a light on Bacon’s remarkable achievements by honouring him with a blue plaque at his former home in Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire.

Bacon’s fuel cells – nicknamed “Bacon Cells” by Nasa in his honour – provided secondary power for the Apollo missions, producing electricity for the communications, air conditioning and lights, as well as water for the astronauts.

“Normally, in the course of time, a battery runs down and you’ve got to recharge it,” Bacon told BBC Radio 4, shortly before the moon landings in 1969. “Now, [with] this device, as long as you go on feeding hydrogen and oxygen into it, and you remove the water formed, it will go on generating power indefinitely – and the astronauts drink the water.”