Farside, the side of the moon that under no circumstances faces Earth, isthe ideal location for an astronomical observatory. It is also the placing fora tangled internet of politics, personal ambition, appreciate, jealousy, and murder.

Telescopes on the planet possess detected an Earth-sized planetcircling a celebrity some thirty light-years away. The race is on to obtainphotographs and spectra that present whether or not the planet is actually likeEarth-and if it bears life. Farside observatory will have the biggest opticaltelescope in the solar program, as well as a vast selection of radio antennas-themost sensitive radio telescope feasible, insulated through the disturbance ofEarth’s radio chatter by one thousand kilometers of the moon’s solid mass.

Building the Farside observatory is normally a complex and oftendangerous job. Around the airless surface area of the moon-under constant bombardmentby hard radiation and infalling micrometeoroids-builders must function incumbersome spacesuits and use robotic machines whenever you can. Breakdowns,both mechanised and emotional, are commonplace. Accidents happen, some of themfatal. But what they ultimately find will stun everyone, and the human racewill never be the same.