G.  “Certainly, and by applying the pressure, whether from the rocket or the gas, to the front and sides, as well as to the rear of the car, you would be able to regulate the speed, and direct the car wherever you wanted to go.”

I.  “Moreover, beyond the range of gravitation, we could steer and travel by pumping out the respired air, or occasionally projecting a pebble from the car through a stuffing box in the wall, or else by firing a shot from a pistol.”

G.  “You might even have a battery of machine guns on board, and decimate the hosts of heaven.”

I.  “Our bullets would fly straight enough, anyhow, and I suppose they would hit something in course of time.”

G.  “If they struck the earth they would be solemnly registered as falling stars.”

I.  “Certainly they would be burnt up in passing through the atmosphere of a planet and do no harm to its inhabitants.”

G.  “Well, now, granting that you could propel the car, and that although your gun was badly aimed you could steer towards a planet, how long would the journey take?”

I.  “The self-movement of the car would enable us to save time, which is a matter of the first importance on such a trip.  In the plan of Jules Verne, the bullet derives all its motion from the initial effort, and consequently slows down as it rises against the earth’s attraction, until it begins again to quicken under the gravitation of the moon.  Hence his voyage to our satellite occupied four days.  As we could maintain the velocity of the car, however, we should accomplish the distance in thirteen hours at a speed of five miles a second, and more or less in proportion.”

G.  “About as long as the journey from London to Aberdeen by rail.  What about Mars or Venus?”

I.  “At the same speed we should cover the 36,000,000 miles to these planets in 2,000 hours, or 84 days, that is, about three months.  With a speed of ten miles a second, which is not impossible, we could reach them in six weeks.”

G.  “One could scarcely go round the world in the same time.  But, having got to a planet, how are you going to land on it?  Are you not afraid you will be dissipated like a meteorite by the intense heat of friction with the planet’s atmosphere, or else be smashed to atoms by the shock?”

I.  “We might steer by the stars to a point on the planet’s orbit, mathematically fixed in advance, and wait there until it comes up.  The atmosphere of the approaching planet would act as a kind of buffer, and the fall of the car could be further checked by our means of recoil, and also by a large parachute.  We should probably be able to descend quite slowly to the surface in this way without damage; but in case of peril, we could have small parachutes in readiness as life-buoys, and leap from the car when it was nearing the ground.”