Hubert Horstmann. DIE RÄTSEL DES SILBERMONDES. Utopischer Roman. The Silver Moon is the poetic name for a desert of ammonia snow and methane lakes, where the temperature is one hundred and eighty degrees below zero, where the Sun is smaller than a penny and the pale shining ring of Saturn covers almost half of the sky. Here, on Saturn's moon Titan, the first international expedition to Saturn lands. It consists of four men and one woman and has been composed in such a way that the characters and temperaments complement each other. But the psychologists of the selection committee seem to have made a mistake, because already in the first hours after landing it comes to violation of discipline. Young geologist Wekker from Tashkent is led by frivolity, causes an emergency and puts two people in danger. The American astrochemist Westing condemns unscientific behavior with great severity, and when a geologist falls from his heights during exploratory drilling, it seems certain that he is prone to sloppiness. But soon after this, the pilot Dalberg has to be removed from the underground vault in a state of deep loss of consciousness. Apparently on the silver moon there is an unknown natural phenomenon that affects the human psyche directly through the spacesuit and pressure helmet. Scientists are busy solving this mystery. Differences of opinion arise, are settled, appear again, become so strong that the link between them is lost and threatening situations arise. The unknown world becomes a test of strength. Earthly scales are no longer valid, now everything depends on creative thinking - and on character. The personalities of the expedition members, shaped by earthly conditions, reflect social influences and experiences. Finding yourself in the mysterious world of the silver moon becomes a grand experiment that no psychologist or sociologist could have conducted more effectively. At the end of the story, the expedition, however, did not complete all the tasks that it had outlined, but it takes with it an invaluable gain - the realization that man is the measure of all things - since he realizes his responsibility for life and his dignity as a rational being.