An International Mission to the Moon

An International Mission to the Moon (1926) is one of a group of novels produced in different countries in the 1920s that attempted to produce realistic accounts of a voyage to the moon effected by means of rocket propulsion. It boasts the most substantial literary pedigree, and is the most realistic, far closer to that eventual reality than other, more primitive efforts. Petithuguenin's interest in technological advancement and the possibility of space travel are real and well-informed; he became one of the first experimenters in France with what would later come to be called hard science fiction. Also included are: The Secret of the Incas (1927), a traditional Jules Vernian, fast-paced exotic adventure thriller in which a French expedition goes in search of the holy city of the Incas in the Andes; and The Great Current (1931), a classic "yellow peril" melodrama, that focuses innovatively on the necessity of developing new sources of energy to replace the fossil fuels that are inevitably in limited supply, and means of capturing solar radiation more directly.