In Robert Heinlein’s classic short story, The Man Who Sold the Moon (1949), a tycoon na-m-ed Delos D Harriman is ob-sessed with being the pion-eer who first reaches the moon, and he wants to control as much lunar real estate as pos-sible.

       He lies, cheats, bribes, begs and persuades other mo-n-eybags to invest in his ven-ture, which ultimately succ-eeds. But his company’s board refuses to allow him to risk his life by getting onto a rocket! It seems Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have better control of their respect-ive ...