Synopsis

An old professor emeritus, who only comes to his old office every day out of habit and boredom to read and look at his computer, finds out that stargate is not a water-filled gate like in the movies, but a special constellation of stars where an asteroid comes close to Earth.

He initiates a global project with the aim of colonizing the asteroid. Beforehand, human civilizations on the Moon and Mars are founded as pilot projects to demonstrate their feasibility. After overcoming a number of obstacles, humanity manages to pass through the stargate.

The nature of the technological innovations described here led to the term "realistic science fiction" for this genre of literature.