All Around the Moon

A daring new venture grips the world as an eclectic group of artillerymen from the Baltimore Gun Club筹划 an audacious experiment: launching a massive, hollow aluminium projectile straight toward the Moon. Backed by a public subscription of millions and the endorsement of Cambridge astronomers, the club has erected a 900‑foot columbiad cannon on a remote Florida hill, loading it with half a million pounds of gun‑cotton. The plan calls for the shell—nine feet in diameter and weighing over 19,000 pounds—to soar at 12,000 yards per second, reaching the lunar surface just as the Moon swings to its closest approach. Engineers, politicians, and dreamers gather around the launch table, each convinced that this singular shot could rewrite humanity’s relationship with the heavens.

Among the key players are President Barbican, the visionary financier; Secretary Marston, the meticulous organizer; and the flamboyant French astronomer Michel Ardan, whose eccentric charm fuels the project's imagination. As the countdown ticks down, tension mixes with wonder, and the members of the club confront the practical and philosophical challenges of sending a man‑made object beyond the atmosphere. Listeners will be swept into an atmosphere of Victorian invention, camaraderie, and the relentless pursuit of a dream that seems both impossible and inevitable.