From the Earth to the Moon

It is a little time since the end of the American civil war. The businessman and inventor Victor Barbicane has made a  discovery that is going to relaunch armament orders in the whole world. He calls this discovery "Power X". It is a new source of inexhaustible energy that, given into bad hands, could destroy the world. Used in a projectile, it would allow it to reach any point on the globe. Of course, it is not possible to test this focre on earth... why not on the Moon ?