The Man Who Sold the Moon

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The Man Who Sold the Moon is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein written in 1949 and first published in 1951, part of his "Future History" of stories sharing a common background from Life-Line to Da Capo. This story, a prequel to Requiem, covered events around a fictional first moon-landing, in 1978. It follows the story Blowups Happen in the Future History chronology. In that story, space flight was supposedly assured by a new nuclear fuel produced in an orbiting reactor. In this episode the reactor has been destroyed and the nuclear rocket has been found to be a dead-end.

Delos D. Harriman, "the first of the new robber barons," is determined to reach the Moon. He wants the Moon legally under his control, not so much as a personal fiefdom but as a longer term prospect for humanity in general, but that does not stop him from doing what he believes necessary: "I would cheat, lie, steal, beg, bribe — do anything to accomplish what we have [to]". His determination is rooted in his personal desire to go to the Moon himself. His achievements are great, but his personal dream is thwarted.

The Man Who Sold the Moon is also the title of two books of short stories. The second one also included Heinlein's stories: Let There Be Light, The Roads Must Roll, and Requiem. The first one had included those stories plus Life-Line and Blowups Happen.

Although the science fiction film Destination Moon is generally described as being based on Heinlein's novel Rocket Ship Galileo, 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.

See also

• David Bowie's 1970 album The Man Who Sold The World and title song have related themes.sv:Mannen som sålde månen