one o'clock in the morning of
December 8th
The time spent in proceeding from the south pole to the dead point being evidently equal to the time previously spent in proceeding from the dead point to the north pole -- to ascertain the former , he had only to calculate the latter . This was easily done . To refer to his notes , to check off the different rates of velocity at which they had readied the different parallels , and to turn these rates into time , required only a very few minutes careful calculation . The Projectile then was to reach the point of neutral attraction at one o'clock in the morning of December 8th . At the present time , it was five o'clock in the morning of the 7th ; therefore , if nothing unforeseen should occur in the meantime , their great and final effort was to be made about twenty hours later . The rockets , so often alluded to as an idea of Ardan 's and already fully described , had been originally provided to break the violence of the Projectile 's fall on the lunar surface ; but now the dauntless travellers were about to employ them for a purpose precisely the reverse . In any case , having been put in proper order for immediate use , nothing more now remained to be done till the moment should come for firing them off .