how to get there

"...Now as to how I'm going to get to the Moon, that's a silly question.  There's not a man in here who can cope with anything more complicated in the way of machinery than a knife and fork.  You can't tell a left-handed monkey-wrench from a reaction engine, yet you ask me for blue-prints of a space-ship.
    "Well, I'll tell you how I'll get to the Moon.  I'll hire the proper brain-boys, give them everything they want, see to it that they have all the money they can use, sweet talk them into long hours - then stand back and watch them produce..."

Robert A Heinlein, The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950)

 "...my theory of Uranus as a habitable planet was derided.  I decided that I could prove the thing to the world in just one way, by reaching Uranus and bringing back incontrovertible proofs.  The thing became a mania with me, and in the past two years I've worked unceasingly on it, trying to find a way to span the gulf of more than a billion miles that lies between our world and Uranus.
    "I found the way, Devlin.  I discovered a method of bending the lines of gravitational force, making it possible for me to concentrate momentarily all the tremendous attractive power of any planet upon a single point or object.  You see what that meant?  It meant that I could build a strong steel air-tight chamber like a diving-bell, here on earth, and by means of the mechanism inside it could concentrate on that bell for a moment all the terrific attractive power of Uranus!
    "The bell and all in it would instantly be torn loose from earth's hold and jerked across the gulf of space with unthinkable speed to Uranus!  Just before reaching it the mechanism would automatically reverse to make it land gently..."

Edmond Hamilton, The Terror Planet (Weird Tales, May 1932)

    "I begin to see," I said slowly.  "And you could get in and screw yourself up while the Cavorite was warm, and as soon as it cooled it would become impervious to gravitation, and off you would fly - "
    "At a tangent."
    "You would go off in a straight line - "  I stopped abruptly.  "What is to prevent the thing travelling in a straight line into space for ever?" I asked.  "You're not safe to get anywhere, and if you do - how will you get back?"
    "I've thought of that," said Cavor.  "That's what I meant when I said the thing is finished.  The inner glass sphere can be air-tight, and, except for the manhole, continuous, and the steel sphere can be made in sections, each section capable of rolling up after the fashion of a roller blind..."

H G Wells, The First Men in the Moon (1901)

 ...The decapods were on them; one about to enter the ship.  And not empty-handed either.  In one arm was a wildly kicking horse, in whose tilted saddle a police officer clung, in another a small girl of about six, who, in turn, clasped a mewing kitten to her breast.  An ashen-faced negro was caught in a third coiled arm, while in the fourth, a belligerent, red-faced matron dressed in neat serge and wearing a stiff sailor hat, pummeled the monster with a tightly rolled umbrella.  Other beasts following the first were also loaded down with captives, men, women, youths; white and black, without discrimination.  There was even a wire-haired terrier...               

              Leslie Frances Stone, The Human Pets of Mars (Amazing Stories, October 1936)

 ...all hastened in great excitement and gathered before the steps.
    Contrary to their not unnatural expectations, no one emerged from the vessel...  and the silence and solitude and mechanical adroitness of it all were uncanny...
    The open portal and stairs offered an obvious invitation; and after some hesitancy, the scientists made up their minds to enter.  Some were still fearful of a trap; but all the others were more powerfully drawn by curiosity and investigative ardor; and one by one they climbed the stairs and filed into the vessel...   

Clark Ashton Smith, Seedling of Mars (Wonder Stories Quarterly, Fall 1931, as "The Planet Entity")

 "...This busybody...  will not be missed for months, and even then no one will know where he was when he disappeared.  He came alone.  He left no address.  He has no family.  And finally he has poked his nose into the whole affair of his own accord."
    "Well, I confess I don't like it.  He is, after all, human...  Still, he's only an individual, and probably a quite useless one.  We're risking our own lives, too.  In a great cause - "
    "For the Lord's sake don't start all that stuff now.  We haven't time."
    "I dare say," replied Weston, "he would consent if he could be made to understand."
    "Take his feet and I'll take his head," said Devine.
    "If you really think he's coming round," said Weston, "you'd better give him another dose.  We can't start till we get the sunlight.  It wouldn't be pleasant to have him struggling in there for three hours or so..."