Jules Verne's Formulation of the Fermi Question

Abstract

Abstract Jules Verne's novel Around the Moon envisions the circumlunar flight of a crewed projectile around the lunar farside ending with a safe return to Earth. The novel is justifiably famous, partly because of certain parallels it contains to the U.S. Apollo program a century later. What is less appreciated is that the novel contains a rather direct statement of what would later become known as the Fermi Question or Fermi Paradox.