From the Earth to the moon; and, round the moon — John Shaqi
From the Earth to the moon; and, round the moonVerne, Jules
Science
From the Earth to the moon; and, round the moon
Verne, Jules
Manned space flight -- Fiction; Moon -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space flight to the moon -- Fiction; Space ships -- Fiction
_Answer._—After what has been said above, it will be necessary, first
of all, to choose the period when the moon will be in perigee, and
_also_ the moment when she will be crossing the zenith, which latter
event will further diminish the entire distance by a length equal to
the radius of the earth, _i. e._ 3,919 miles; the result of which will
be that the final passage remaining to be accomplished will be 214,976
miles. But although the moon passes her perigee every month, she does
not reach the zenith always _at exactly the same moment_. She does not
appear under these two conditions simultaneously, except at long
intervals of time. It will be necessary, therefore, to wait for the
moment when her passage in perigee shall coincide with that in the
zenith. Now, by a fortunate circumstance, on the 4th of December in the
ensuing year the moon _will_ present these two conditions. At midnight
she will be in perigee, that is, at her shortest distance from the
earth, and at the same moment she will be crossing the zenith.
On the _fifth_ question, “At what point in the heavens ought the cannon
to be aimed?”
_Answer._—The preceding remarks being admitted, the cannon ought to be
pointed to the zenith of the place. Its fire, therefore, will be
perpendicular to the plane of the horizon; and the projectile will
soonest pass beyond the range of the terrestrial attraction. But, in
order that the moon should reach the zenith of a given place, it is
necessary that the place should not exceed in latitude the declination
of the luminary; in other words, it must be comprised within the
degrees 0° and 28° of lat. N. or S. In every other spot the fire must
necessarily be oblique, which would seriously militate against the
success of the experiment.
As to the _sixth_ question, “What place will the moon occupy in the
heavens at the moment of the projectile’s departure?”
_Answer._—At the moment when the projectile shall be discharged into
space, the moon, which travels daily forward 13° 10′ 35″, will be
distant from the zenith point by four times that quantity, _i. e._ by
52° 41′ 20″, a space which corresponds to the path which she will
describe during the entire journey of the projectile. But, inasmuch as
it is equally necessary to take into account the deviation which the
rotary motion of the earth will impart to the shot, and as the shot
cannot reach the moon until after a deviation equal to 16 radii of the
earth, which, calculated upon the moon’s orbit, are equal to about
eleven degrees, it becomes necessary to add these eleven degrees to
those which express the retardation of the moon just mentioned: that is
to say, in round numbers, about sixty-four degrees. Consequently, at
the moment of firing the visual radius applied to the moon will
describe, with the vertical line of the place, an angle of sixty-four
degrees.
These are our answers to the questions proposed to the Observatory of
Cambridge by the members of the Gun Club:—
To sum up—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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