human
Let us waste no more time, said I.
gpt
If we have forgotten anything, we must get along without it. All aboard! What is our first stop?
human
The planet Mars, only thirty-six million miles away, if we are successful in meeting him just as he comes into opposition on the third day of August. This is the most favourable opposition in which to meet him for the past quarter of a century. Back in the year 1877 he was only about thirty-five million miles away, and it was then that we learned most that we know of his physical features. But we shall not have a more favourable time than this for the next seventeen years.
gpt
Still it seems like nonsense to talk about travelling such an incomprehensible distance, doesn't it?
human
Not at all! he replied positively.
gpt
If the Earth travels a million miles per day in her orbit, without any motion being apparent to her inhabitants, why should we not travel just as fast and just as unconsciously? We are driven by the same force. The same engine of the Creator's which drives all the universe, drives us. When we have left the atmosphere we shall rush through the void of space without knowing whether we are travelling at a thousand miles per minute or standing perfectly still. Our senses will have nothing to lay hold on to form a judgment of our rate of speed. But if we make an average of only five hundred miles per minute we shall accomplish the distance in about fifty days, and arrive soon after opposition.
human
But have you given up stopping on the Moon? I asked.
gpt
I had great hopes of making those rich discoveries there.