Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

I try not to speculate too wildly, but come on. I’m a scientist and these are aliens. I’m going to speculate.

For all her talk about cutting out bureaucracy, Stratt ended up with a bunch of de facto department heads and daily staff meetings. Sometimes, the stuff we all hate ends up being the only way to do things.

“Are all Russians crazy?” “Yes,” he said with a smile. “It is the only way to be Russian and happy at the same time.” “That’s…dark.” “That’s Russian!”

Gravity doesn’t just “go away” when you’re in orbit. In fact, the gravity you experience in orbit is pretty much the same as you’d experience on the ground. The weightlessness that astronauts experience while in orbit comes from constantly falling. But the curvature of the Earth makes the ground go away at the same rate you fall. So you just fall forever.

Sheesh—you almost ruin a mission one time and all of a sudden you have an alien-enforced bedtime.