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H.G. Wells and the first men on the Moon

H.G. Wells sent two men to the Moon for mineral wealth in a story serialized from 1900 to 1901. Here is how the real Moon compares.

By Lynn Matthews · 1 min read · November 10, 2026

H.G. Wells’s The First Men in the Moon was serialized from 1900 to 1901. A businessman named Bedford meets an eccentric scientist named Cavor, and the two build a spacecraft using a gravity-blocking substance to reach the Moon in search of mineral wealth.

The real Moon makes a hard setting for any story. It has only a barely-there layer of gas called an exosphere, and temperatures near the equator swing from above 250 degrees Fahrenheit in daylight to minus 208 after dark.

Wells sent his explorers after mineral wealth. NASA’s architecture update points to another resource, listing the measurement of shallow bulk water ice as a data gap that would help identify sites where lunar resources could be used.

Project Gutenberg lists satire and imperialism among the book’s subjects, so it reads as social commentary as much as adventure. It is free to read there.

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