Synopsis: From the front flap of the Gregg Press edition: "Suddenly after 25 years of peace, space pirates are active again, preying on helpless trading ships from earth and their hideouts among the countless small worlds in the asteroid belt. In an attempt to smoke out the space pirates from their unknown base, the Council of Science decides to send out a decoy trading ship, manned only with mechanical instruments for acquiring information and designed to explode when it is taken to the pirates' base. But Lucky Starr, space ranger and member extraordinary of the Council, is unwilling to trust science entirely and stows away to view the situation with his own eyes. He is determined to prove that the arch-rival Sirians are behind the pirate menace, trying to provoke reprisals against the asteroids by Earth that will lead to war. In the course of his adventures, Lucky endures an attempt to kill him by leaving him adrift in space, and attack by the pirates on an Earth outpost, and a dangerous high speed chase to catch the pirate leader that takes him almost into the sun itself!"