The First Men in the Moon

What good would the moon be to men? Even of their own planet what have they made but a battleground and theatre of infinite folly? Small as his world is, and short as his time, he has still in his little life down there far more than he can do.

A chance meeting forms an unlikely friendship between a London businessman (Mr. Bedford) and a physicist (Mr. Cavor), who is developing a new material, aptly named "cavorite," that negates the force of gravity. Soon the material is tested successfully and the two men build a ship that capable of transporting them to the Moon

What awaits our two enterprising men destined for the surface of the Moon?