Jules Verne, the French writer who pioneered the science fiction genre, once wrote, “Anything a man can imagine, another man can create.” But even Verne might be surprised to see that some of the fantastic ideas he imagined 100 years ago are becoming realities today.

Verne was an extraordinary author and his fertile imagination has inspired generations of scientists and engineers. In one of his works, Verne imagined a voyage to the moon enabled by a gigantic space gun. The fictional cannon, called Columbiad, fired a projectile holding three travelers to the moon. Today, a kind of space gun is moving toward true viability and possible commercial application. But first, a little background…