In the year 2021 the moon is in the process of being colonized, and this new frontier is attracting a diverse group of people to settlements such as Moon City, Farside 5 and others. Two such denizens of this rough and tumble lunar society are the notorious millionaire J. J. Hubbard and former-astronaut-turned-satellite-salvage-man Bill Kemp. The first man to set foot on Mars, Kemp has now left the Space Corporation because it has abandoned exploration entirely in favour of running commercial passenger flights to Mars and Venus. When Hubbard hears of a small 6000-tonne asteroid made of pure sapphire that is orbiting close to the moon, he hires Kemp to capture it using Kemp's old "Moon 02" space ferry and bring it down on the lunar farside although it would be against the law. However, Kemp