Description:

"Moonbase is little more than a dream. A privatized former government lunar project, it consists of a dozen cramped, interconnected "temporary" shelters buried below piles of regolith rubble. But ex-astronaut Paul Stavenger envisions the majestic domed city Moonbase must inevitably become: a bustling center for manufacturing and scientific development vital to the interests of the Earth and all humankind. Yet only his wife, Joanna Masterson Stavenger, has the power to derail the corporate opposition that could dismantle the financially troubled installation to which her husband has dedicated his life and future." "The moon and its mysteries have captivated the Stavengers - and it will continue to exert its mysterious power on the family through subsequent generations. For in the gray lunar dust, battlelines are to be drawn between innovative creators who would mine the heavens for its riches...and craven destroyers ruthlessly dedicated to enacting a nightmarish nanotechnological revenge somewhere on the merciless scorched expanse of the Mare Nubium."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

In the 21st century, the world is on the brink of a scientific renaissance, about to birth a future where space has become privatized and the moon transforms into a fertile commercial ground. As former astronaut Paul Stavenger works to turn a handful of abandoned government moon shelters into a full-fledged moonbase, powerful corporate lobbies align against him. Against the neo-Luddites is Masterson Aerospace, a company funding and creating major scientific breakthroughs.

But Masterson is nearly crippled when its CEO commits suicide and his wife, Joanna, backs her lover Paul Stavenger, the former astronaut, over her mentally unbalanced son Greg in the board election that follows her husband's death. So begins a power struggle that leads to murder and the ultimate conflict over Moonbase.