Only if those top engineers were convinced that landing on the moon would be the turning point for mankind becoming space travellers, and felt the need to prepa

Only if those top engineers were convinced that landing on the moon would be the turning point for mankind becoming space travellers, and felt the need to prepare humanity for its coming. Actually that sort of thing did happen, but the point is just how far those absurd notions are from reality. No human has been further than the moon 40 years later. I'm not sure a single bit of the wild speculation that occurred in 1890 will be useful when if we ever do begin large scale space travel.