The Man Who Sold the Moon
Encyclopedia
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
written in 1949 and published in 1950. A part of his Future History
Future History
The Future History, by Robert A. Heinlein, describes a projected future of the human race from the middle of the 20th century through the early 23rd century. The term Future History was coined by John W. Campbell, Jr. in the February 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction...
and prequel to "Requiem
Requiem (short story)
"Requiem" is a short story by Robert A. Heinlein, serving as a sequel to his short science fiction novel, The Man Who Sold the Moon , although it was in fact published several years earlier than that story, in Astounding, January 1940...
", it covers events around a fictional first Moon landing, in 1978, and the schemes of Delos D. Harriman, a businessman who is determined to personally reach and control the Moon.
Plot
Delos David Harriman, "the last of the Robber BaronsRobber baron (industrialist)
Robber baron is a pejorative term used for a powerful 19th century American businessman. By the 1890s the term was used to attack any businessman who used questionable practices to become wealthy...
", is obsessed with being the first to travel to—and possess—the moon. He asks his business partner, George Strong, and other tycoons to invest in the venture. Most dismiss Harriman's plans as foolhardy: Nuclear rocket fuel is scarce as the space station that produces it
Blowups Happen
"Blowups Happen" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. It is one of two stories in which Heinlein, using only public knowledge of nuclear fission, anticipated the actual development of nuclear technology a few years later...
blew up, also destroying the only existing spaceship. The necessary technology for a chemical-fueled rocket stretches the boundaries of current engineering. The endeavor is both incredibly costly and of uncertain profitability. One skeptic offers to sell "all of my interest in the Moon...for fifty cents"; Harriman accepts and tries to buy the other associates' interests as well. Strong and two others agree to back his plans.
The technical problems are solvable with money and talent. To solve the tougher financial problems, Harriman exploits commercial and political rivalries. He implies to the Moka-Coka
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
company, for example, that rival soft drink maker 6+ plans to turn the Moon into a massive billboard
Space advertising
Space advertising is the use of advertising in outer space or related to space flight. While there have only been a few examples of successful marketing campaigns, there have been several proposals to advertise in space, some even planning to launch giant billboards visible from the Earth...
, using a rocket to scatter black dust on the surface in patterns. To an anti-Communist associate, he suggests that the Russians may print the hammer and sickle
Hammer and sickle
The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
across the face of the Moon if they get to it first
Soviet Moonshot
The Soviet manned lunar programs were a series of programs pursued by the Soviet Union to land a man on the Moon in competition with the United States Apollo program to achieve the same goal set publicly by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961...
. To a television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
, he offers the Moon as a reliable and uncensorable
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
broadcasting station.
Harriman seeks to avoid government ownership of the Moon. As it passes directly overhead only in a narrow band north and south of the equator, he uses a legal principle that states that property rights extend to infinity above a land parcel
Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos
Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos often appearing in the shorter form Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum, omitting et ad inferos "and to hell", is a principle of property law, stating that property holders have rights not only to the plot...
. On that basis, Mexico, Central and parts of South America, and other countries in those latitudes around the world, have a claim on the Moon. The United States also has a claim due to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. By arranging for many countries to assert their rights Harriman persuades the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
to, as a compromise, assign management of the Moon to his company.
Money remains the main difficulty. Harriman liquidates his assets, risks bankruptcy, damages his marriage, and raises funds in numerous legitimate and semi-legitimate ways; "I," he says, "would cheat, lie, steal, beg, bribe — do anything to accomplish what we have accomplished." Children donate money for a promise of all contributors' names engraved on a plaque left on the Moon. The names, however, will be microscopic in size. Harriman sells land and naming rights
Naming rights
In the private sector, naming rights are a financial transaction whereby a corporation or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, typically for a defined period of time. For properties like a multi-purpose arena, performing arts venue or an athletic field, the term ranges from three...
to craters, and plans to sell postage stamps canceled on the Moon to collectors. He starts rumors that diamonds exist in moondust, intending to secretly place gems in the rocket to convince people that the stories are true. Harriman will strenuously deny that the diamonds are from the Moon, being merely part of a scientific experiment; he expects people to not believe him, but he will not be guilty of actual fraud.
Harriman wants to be on the first flight of the Pioneer but the ship only has room for one pilot, Leslie LeCroix. The multistage rocket
Multistage rocket
A multistage rocket is a rocket that usestwo or more stages, each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A tandem or serial stage is mounted on top of another stage; a parallel stage is attached alongside another stage. The result is effectively two or more rockets stacked on top of or...
launches from Peterson Field
Peterson Air Force Base
Peterson Air Force Base is a base of the United States Air Force located at Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States and it provides runways for the adjacent City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport under a shared joint civil-military airport arrangement...
, near Colorado Springs, lands on the Moon, and returns to Earth. Harriman is the first to open the rocket's hatch; the canceled stamps were left behind to save weight and he needs to surreptitiously get them aboard. While doing so, he asks LeCroix for the "lunar" diamonds. The pilot complies, then produces real lunar diamonds as well.
As Harriman predicted, once the first flight succeeds, many seek to invest in his venture to make more flights using a catapult launcher
Mass driver
A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to accelerate and catapult payloads up to high speeds. All existing and contemplated mass drivers use coils of wire energized by electricity to make electromagnets. Sequential...
built on Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County in the United States of America....
. The next flight will begin a lunar colony. Harriman intends to be on the ship, but the majority owners of the venture object to his presence on the flight; he is too valuable to the company to risk in space. The rocket leaves without Harriman, who "'looks as Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
must have looked, when he gazed out over the promised land
Promised land
The Promised Land is a term used to describe the land promised or given by God, according to the Hebrew Bible, to the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. The promise is firstly made to Abraham and then renewed to his son Isaac, and to Isaac's son Jacob , Abraham's grandson...
.'"
Related works
The Man Who Sold the MoonThe Man Who Sold the Moon (short story collection)
The Man Who Sold the Moon is the title of a 1950 collection of science fiction short stories by Robert A. Heinlein.The stories, part of Heinlein's Future History series, appear in the first edition as follows:* Introduction by John W. Campbell, Jr....
is also the title of two collections of Heinlein's short stories. Both collections include "Let There Be Light"
Let There Be Light (short story)
“Let There Be Light” a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein, originally published in Super Science Stories magazine in May 1940 under the pseudonym Lyle Monroe...
, "The Roads Must Roll
The Roads Must Roll
"The Roads Must Roll" is a 1940 science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. In the late 1960s, it was awarded a retrospective Nebula Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America and published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 in 1970.The story is set in the near...
", and "Requiem
Requiem (short story)
"Requiem" is a short story by Robert A. Heinlein, serving as a sequel to his short science fiction novel, The Man Who Sold the Moon , although it was in fact published several years earlier than that story, in Astounding, January 1940...
"; the first also includes "Life-Line
Life-Line
"Life-Line" is a short story by American author Robert A. Heinlein. Published in 1939, it was Heinlein's first published short story.The protagonist, Professor Pinero, builds a machine that will predict how long a person will live. It does this by sending a signal along the world line of a...
" and "Blowups Happen
Blowups Happen
"Blowups Happen" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. It is one of two stories in which Heinlein, using only public knowledge of nuclear fission, anticipated the actual development of nuclear technology a few years later...
".
Although the science fiction film Destination Moon
Destination Moon (film)
Destination Moon is an American science fiction feature film produced by George Pal, who later produced When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine. Pal commissioned the script by James O'Hanlon and Rip Van Ronkel...
is generally described as being based on Heinlein's novel Rocket Ship Galileo
Rocket Ship Galileo
Rocket Ship Galileo is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1947, about three teenagers who participate in a pioneering flight to the Moon. It was the first in the Heinlein juveniles, a long and successful series of science fiction novels published by Scribner's...
, the story in fact bears a much closer resemblance to "The Man Who Sold the Moon", whose copyright date shows that it was written in 1949, although it wasn't published until 1951, the year after Destination Moon came out. However, the technology of The Man Who Sold the Moon is very different, in that it uses a multi-stage rocket. Destination Moon has a single-stage vehicle which takes off and lands vertically both on Earth and the Moon, which is practically impossible using chemical fuels alone. (Dialogue in the movie makes it very clear that the spacecraft is, in fact, nuclear powered.)
Influence on other Heinlein works
Harriman appears in "RequiemRequiem (short story)
"Requiem" is a short story by Robert A. Heinlein, serving as a sequel to his short science fiction novel, The Man Who Sold the Moon , although it was in fact published several years earlier than that story, in Astounding, January 1940...
" as an old man who has still not been able to go to the Moon. It was published in 1940, several years before The Man Who Sold the Moon.
The name "Harriman" reappears in many Future History
Future History
The Future History, by Robert A. Heinlein, describes a projected future of the human race from the middle of the 20th century through the early 23rd century. The term Future History was coined by John W. Campbell, Jr. in the February 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction...
stories as the name of various businesses and foundations, indicating that Harriman's impact on that timeline is significant. The name is also used in Variable Star
Variable Star
Variable Star is a 2006 novel written by Spider Robinson based on the surviving seven pages of an eight-page 1955 novel outline by the late Robert A. Heinlein. The book is set in a divergent offshoot of Heinlein's Future History and contains many references to works by Heinlein and other authors...
, a novel outlined by Heinlein but written by Spider Robinson
Spider Robinson
Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York City, Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the State...
, although this novel diverges from the Future History.
See also
- Fred BrooksFred BrooksFrederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. is a software engineer and computer scientist, best known for managing the development of IBM's System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month...
's The Mythical Man Month quotes the exchange between Harriman and his chief engineer as an example of a "technical director as boss and producer as right-hand man" relationship. - Joe HaldemanJoe HaldemanJoe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author.-Life :Haldeman was born June 9, 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His family traveled and he lived in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Maryland and Anchorage, Alaska as a child. Haldeman married Mary Gay Potter, known...
's 1977 short story "A Time to Live" was an homage to "The Man Who Sold the Moon", as well as to Heinlein's story All You Zombies—. - Alan Dean FosterAlan Dean FosterAlan Dean Foster is an American author of fantasy and science fiction. He currently resides in Prescott, Arizona, with his wife, and is also known for his novelizations of film scripts...
's 1983 novel "The Man Who Used the Universe" follows the machinations of a similarly obsessive and morally neutral man; however his ultimate goal is not immediately apparent.