Luna Roads

Colonizing the Moon has been a difficult task.

There are small stations on the Moon, military outposts for the spacefaring nations. They are all expensive, so much so that even wealthy nations have come close to shutting theirs down. The stations will never grow into permanent cities.

For the small outposts, lunar planners have focused on the South Pole. Hailey Clarion and Martin Chin are starting there. They need ways to build cheaply and operate the first community in a way that keeps the costs low.

Smith Space Industries is pursuing the same objective. They have plans for cheap transportation from Earth to the Moon. Now there have to be realistic plans to make the place livable, building communities that can pay for themselves.

The first community at the Pole is a success as far as it goes. To make the Moon a place to live, however, more communities have to be built and factories must produce useful products. That takes planning and power.

Christine Wellington is a power engineer who has signed a contract for consulting services on the Moon. She's been to orbit around Earth, but never traveled to the Moon. The scope of work for her project is to certify the new Farside solar energy farm and the power beam network that connects all of the solar farms on Earthside and Farside.

She's a tourist for a short time on the Moon. After that, she walks on the Moon at the South Pole, rides in a motor home-like rover to get to her destinations, and encounters some unexpected surprises. It's an adventure of a lifetime for the young engineer.