Sarang Mining Base
Moon is set in the mostly automated lunar mining base Sarang, where one human astronaut, Sam Bell, and a robot servant-cum-administrator (Gerty) maintain a series of huge harvesting machines that roam the Moon’s surface, collecting and processing moon rock into a clean source of energy for Earth. Injured towards the end of his three-year contract, Sam spends several days in Sarang’s sickbay before tricking a seemingly sinister Gerty into letting him back out onto the lunar surface. There he finds the body of another Sam, battered but alive. After a period of distrust and conflict, the two Sams discover they are simply the latest corporation-designed clones to operate this base, that their memories are implanted rather than real and that they will be killed after three years. The discovery that the family of the real Sam Bell lives on Earth, though much older than their memories or the video messages they’ve been watching, leads them to plan an escape from the Moon before corporate hitmen arrive to restart the programme.
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In the year 2035, an energy shortage on Earth is being mitigated by machines that harvest Helium-3, a fuel for nuclear fusion reactors, from rocks on the lunar surface. Giant automated harvesters grind up the lunar regolith, which is then placed into containers and propelled down to Earth using a rail gun device.
Sam Bell oversees a mining operation for the energy consortium Lunar Industries Ltd. at Sarang Station, a facility on the Moon’s far side. The job is undemanding and mostly consists of troubleshooting and repairing the harvesters when they malfunction.
In Moon, Sarang base is a combination of smooth sleek interiors and human presence, advanced technology but with the sheen of human use and habitation. His existence at the station is lonesome but pleasant, and he spends his time working in a garden, constructing an elaborate model and watching reruns of TV sitcoms.
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