Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

Kids are smarter than most people think.

“Believe it or not, light has momentum,” I said. “It exerts a force. If you were out in space and you turned on a flashlight, you’d get a teeny, tiny amount of thrust from it.”

The entire output of a nuclear reactor for a year comes from a single kilogram of mass.

you can’t have civilization without being able to communicate.

Hey, I’m going to fall unconscious and hallucinate for a while. By the way, I spend a third of my time doing this. And if I can’t do it for a while, I go insane and eventually die. No need for concern.