
In a stark conference room, Dr. Saunders stands before a quartet of the world’s wealthiest men, his blueprints for a lunar rocket spread across the table. He argues that humanity’s greatest leap isn’t measured in profit but in the sheer possibility of stepping onto another world, urging the financiers to see beyond immediate gain. The dialogue crackles with tension as each mogul weighs the colossal cost against a vision of endless space and future colonies.
The story captures the clash of idealism and capitalism in a post‑war era, exploring how ambition, skepticism, and personal agendas collide over a single, audacious goal. As the debate intensifies, the reader is drawn into the moral and practical dilemmas of turning a daring scientific dream into reality, setting the stage for a high‑stakes race that could redefine humanity’s place in the cosmos.
Language
en
Duration
~8 minutes (8K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Columbia Publications, Inc., 1951.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2023-04-05
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1926–2005
Best known for the Ed McBain crime novels, this prolific writer moved easily between gritty police procedurals, screenwriting, and mainstream fiction. Born Salvatore Lombino, he built one of the most versatile careers in 20th-century American popular writing.
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