Author Chris Berman predicted the presence of water ice on the Moon.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 14, 2009 --

Chris Berman's soon to be released novel, RED MOON, predicted that water in the form of ice would be found to be abundant under the Moon's south pole. This area of the moon is blanketed in perpetual darkness with a surface temperature of minus three hundred and sixty degrees. Comets, striking the Moon billions of years ago, brought significant amounts of water in the form of ice to both the Moon and to Earth. On the low gravity, airless Moon, most of this water vanished into the vacuum of space, but some remained in the shadowed depths of craters at the Moon's south pole. It is the presence of water ice that suddenly makes the Moon a very valuable piece of real estate. Without water, any lunar colony is just a very expensive science experiment as all water for the colonists would need to be supplied from Earth. With water for drinking, making oxygen and hydrogen for rocket fuel, the Moon becomes the ultimate high ground and what ever nation controls the Moon, controls access to space and the all of its resources. This is a buried treasure more valuable than gold.

Least year when Chris Berman wrote RED MOON, the jury was still out on the existence of water ice on the Moon, but Berman, author of THE HIVE, believed strongly enough in this idea to craft a novel of future conflict over control of the Moon and its resources. China has made no secret of its desire to establish a lunar colony and no secret of the fact that they do not believe the 1967 Treaty of Outer Space, prohibiting any national claim on the Moon, applies them. Chris Berman says, "When the 'New World' was discovered in the 1500's, treaties dividing this discovery were drawn up between Spain, France, England and others but when gold was discovered, those treaties were shredded by cannon fire as those nations went to war over those riches." Berman continues, "The wealth of the Moon's resources is almost incalculable and with water, reaping this wealth becomes a real possibility."

In his upcoming novel, RED MOON, Berman pictures a Peoples Republic of China that has beaten the US and Russia back to the Moon in 2018 to lay claim to the lunar ice fields and then hold them with a military moon base. This leads to an international confrontation as a US, Russian, European coalition must cobble together a rival mission to stake their own claim to the Moon of risk economic ruin and the loss of the access to space.

Chris Berman's novel, RED MOON is a future prediction based on today's headlines. Look for this latest book from the author of THE HIVE in early2010.

Chris Berman     Water on the Moon