noon
The one theoretically feasible method of making the journey to the moon , Stewart believes , is a vehicle propelled on the principle of the rocket . He visions a ship built in the form of a large metal sphere -- 110 feet in diameter , weighing 70,000 metric tons and carrying a crew of sixty and a dozen scientists . A dozen or more cannon would protrude slightly from the surface , shooting material the rate of 200 miles a second . A half hour or so before noon and about three days before a new moon , Stewart would head his ship toward the sun , expecting it to rise twelve miles in the first six minutes and to soar out of the earth 's atmosphere at 200 miles per hour . Two hours and 29 minutes after the take-off the firing from the lower cannon would be stopped with the ship going upward , the professor estimates , at 190 miles per minute and having reached a height of 13,200 miles . Seventy hours later , crossing the moon 's orbit , Stewart would fire the forward cannon and the ship would coast around the moon , becoming the temporary satellite of a satellite . `` The rest would be easy , '' said Stewart , `` owing to the lesser gravity of the moon .