Often, I.... You know what, long intros are somewhat hard to write. Largely because I really want to get into the meat of a piece, but you get bogged down by writing a captivating opening. So, here's the jist: I have a vested interest in Alternate history and in Space and Space exploration, and this book combines them. Alright, got that? Great: let's begin.
The year is 1985. The Ares I is launching from Cape Canaveral, towards its ultimate destination. As you could probably tell by the name of the craft, it is heading towards the Red Planet itself, Mars. They plan to reach Mars, by first doing Venus fly-by, which would give a gravitational assist to slingshot themselves to the Red Planet. Then, reminiscent of Apollo, they will detatch a manned capsule down into the Mangala Valles. The mission would proceed from March, 1985, and will arrive on the Mangala Valles on March, 22nd, 1986. So, how did such a mission occur? Kennedy was not killed in Dallas, but rather crippled. Hence, he lives to see the Apollo 11 landings. Following Nixon's call to the astronauts, Kennedy also calls, and proceeds to dedicate the US to a Mars mission. Nixon, browbeaten into accepting this, decides to make that the agenda for the post-Apollo space program, as opposed to Skylab or the Shuttles. The book alternates between the mission and the events leading up to it. The main astronauts are Phil Stone, a former X-15 test pilot; Ralph Gershon, an African American Air Force pilot who had flown missions in Cambodia in the early 70's; and our protagonist, Natalie York, a geologist who is the first female astronaut in the program (remember, there is no shuttle here.) These characters gain the primary focus through the mission portions. However, there is also the preceding part before the mission, which takes up a majority of the book. Whilst the three astronauts are given focus at this point, particularly how they became the astronauts, it has a larger cast of characters. There is Joe Muldoon, a Buzz Aldrin analog (actually replacing Aldrin as the second man on the Moon), who is a major figure in the mission, and eventually its head. Gregory Dana, a mission specialist who tries to propose a radical, somewhat infeasible plan to reach Mars, going against what is considered the main and most viable option of a NERVA nuclear rocket. This puts Dana in conflict with NASA mission architect Hans Udet, who, incidently, had run the Nazi prison camp that Dana was imprisoned in during World War II (Udet is a parallel to Werhner von Braun and Arthur Rudolf) There is his son Jim, who is an astronaut himself, and eventually tests the NERVA rocket, Apollo-N (with disastrous consequence ). There is Bert Seger, a senior manager at NASA, who manages the political side of the mission, meeting and planning the mission. There is JK Lee, an engineer who works at struggling contractor Columbia, who was give the responsibility to build the Mars Excursion Module, or MEM for the mission. Finally, there are the three astronauts. In particular, it deals with Natalie York, her conflicting attitudes towards Mars, her struggles to become an astronaut, and her frustrated love life with both Mike Conlig, dedicated NERVA engineer, and married astronaut Ben Priest. All of these characters work to make the manned Mars mission a viable and safe opportunity. However, there will be triumphs and tragedies on the road to Mars.
First and foremost, this books was very well-researched. It has little nods to various other Mars missions, but also gives its own interpretation of what a Mars mission in the 80's would be like, and how it would play out. There is a lot of details about how the mission would work, what the craft would look like, what are its perimeters, what the astronauts do, how they deal with failures, what they will do when they reach Venus, and how they will actually land on Mars. It also has engineering specs on every aspect of the mission, which makes sense, given that Baxter is a trained engineer.I can't tell you how much of it is accurate, but it seems plausible to a layman like me. It also looks at the ramifications of this. For instance, whilst we get a Mars mission, many of the unmanned programs of the 1970's, like Viking, Voyager, and Pioneer, were canned to save money. We know less about the solar system in 1986, than we did in real life. In fact, we know less about Mars, as neither the later Mariners nor Viking missions were able to reach it and study it. It also has a (superficial) effect on politics. Ted Kennedy takes Walter Mondale's place in politics (both as Carter's vice president and as the failed 1984 candidate). There is also the implications of NERVA, and how characters interact with that. In particular, there is the upmost confidence in NERVA as the method to Mars, and Gregory Dana trying to change that. There is also the 70's anti-nuclear hysteria, which targets NERVA. (I think Three Mile Island was mentioned once in reference to this.) The latter proves prophetic, as the first NERVA test, Apollo-N, ends up failing, with the astronauts and even some of the engineers (including Mike Conlig) dying of radiation poisoning. They end up using Dana's plan (both as a viable alternative, and respect to Gregory, as Jim was one of the astronauts on Apollo-N) of a Venus flyby to send the craft to Mars. Besides that, the characters are well done (in particular is York's conflict on whether she should abandon a solid academic career to become an astronaut), it is very captivating to read, particularly the mission segments, and it is not just a wish fullfillment piece. It actually deals with the good and the bad of a Mars mission after Apollo, and how it might have turned out if Nixon had decided to go to Mars. It is great that we reached Mars earlier, but was it really worth losing the knowledge of Voyager and Viking?
A few minor gripes with the book can be considered nitpicks. There is a lot of swearing in this. Most sentence seems to have "Goddamn" or a "Jesus Christ" I know it is supposed to be realistic, but I don't think people swear that much in real life. The engineering details, whilst consistent and precise, tends to get rather dense at times, and occasionally interrupts the story. The story also drags occasionally, especially towards the end. Once again, these are nitpicks.
Overall, I rather liked the book, and I hope to read more of Stephen Baxter in the future. In particular, Proxima sounds interesting. I'd recommend it to those who like Kim Stanley Robinson/ Robert L. Forward style hard sci-fi, or Apollo history buffs, who would like to see what the Apollo Application Program would have brought. If you are a more casual reader, it works as a interesting piece on an alternate space program, but it has a lot of engineering packed inside. If you can handle that, I think you could enjoy it. Thanks for reading.
The year is 1985. The Ares I is launching from Cape Canaveral, towards its ultimate destination. As you could probably tell by the name of the craft, it is heading towards the Red Planet itself, Mars. They plan to reach Mars, by first doing Venus fly-by, which would give a gravitational assist to slingshot themselves to the Red Planet. Then, reminiscent of Apollo, they will detatch a manned capsule down into the Mangala Valles. The mission would proceed from March, 1985, and will arrive on the Mangala Valles on March, 22nd, 1986. So, how did such a mission occur? Kennedy was not killed in Dallas, but rather crippled. Hence, he lives to see the Apollo 11 landings. Following Nixon's call to the astronauts, Kennedy also calls, and proceeds to dedicate the US to a Mars mission. Nixon, browbeaten into accepting this, decides to make that the agenda for the post-Apollo space program, as opposed to Skylab or the Shuttles. The book alternates between the mission and the events leading up to it. The main astronauts are Phil Stone, a former X-15 test pilot; Ralph Gershon, an African American Air Force pilot who had flown missions in Cambodia in the early 70's; and our protagonist, Natalie York, a geologist who is the first female astronaut in the program (remember, there is no shuttle here.) These characters gain the primary focus through the mission portions. However, there is also the preceding part before the mission, which takes up a majority of the book. Whilst the three astronauts are given focus at this point, particularly how they became the astronauts, it has a larger cast of characters. There is Joe Muldoon, a Buzz Aldrin analog (actually replacing Aldrin as the second man on the Moon), who is a major figure in the mission, and eventually its head. Gregory Dana, a mission specialist who tries to propose a radical, somewhat infeasible plan to reach Mars, going against what is considered the main and most viable option of a NERVA nuclear rocket. This puts Dana in conflict with NASA mission architect Hans Udet, who, incidently, had run the Nazi prison camp that Dana was imprisoned in during World War II (Udet is a parallel to Werhner von Braun and Arthur Rudolf) There is his son Jim, who is an astronaut himself, and eventually tests the NERVA rocket, Apollo-N (with disastrous consequence ). There is Bert Seger, a senior manager at NASA, who manages the political side of the mission, meeting and planning the mission. There is JK Lee, an engineer who works at struggling contractor Columbia, who was give the responsibility to build the Mars Excursion Module, or MEM for the mission. Finally, there are the three astronauts. In particular, it deals with Natalie York, her conflicting attitudes towards Mars, her struggles to become an astronaut, and her frustrated love life with both Mike Conlig, dedicated NERVA engineer, and married astronaut Ben Priest. All of these characters work to make the manned Mars mission a viable and safe opportunity. However, there will be triumphs and tragedies on the road to Mars.
First and foremost, this books was very well-researched. It has little nods to various other Mars missions, but also gives its own interpretation of what a Mars mission in the 80's would be like, and how it would play out. There is a lot of details about how the mission would work, what the craft would look like, what are its perimeters, what the astronauts do, how they deal with failures, what they will do when they reach Venus, and how they will actually land on Mars. It also has engineering specs on every aspect of the mission, which makes sense, given that Baxter is a trained engineer.I can't tell you how much of it is accurate, but it seems plausible to a layman like me. It also looks at the ramifications of this. For instance, whilst we get a Mars mission, many of the unmanned programs of the 1970's, like Viking, Voyager, and Pioneer, were canned to save money. We know less about the solar system in 1986, than we did in real life. In fact, we know less about Mars, as neither the later Mariners nor Viking missions were able to reach it and study it. It also has a (superficial) effect on politics. Ted Kennedy takes Walter Mondale's place in politics (both as Carter's vice president and as the failed 1984 candidate). There is also the implications of NERVA, and how characters interact with that. In particular, there is the upmost confidence in NERVA as the method to Mars, and Gregory Dana trying to change that. There is also the 70's anti-nuclear hysteria, which targets NERVA. (I think Three Mile Island was mentioned once in reference to this.) The latter proves prophetic, as the first NERVA test, Apollo-N, ends up failing, with the astronauts and even some of the engineers (including Mike Conlig) dying of radiation poisoning. They end up using Dana's plan (both as a viable alternative, and respect to Gregory, as Jim was one of the astronauts on Apollo-N) of a Venus flyby to send the craft to Mars. Besides that, the characters are well done (in particular is York's conflict on whether she should abandon a solid academic career to become an astronaut), it is very captivating to read, particularly the mission segments, and it is not just a wish fullfillment piece. It actually deals with the good and the bad of a Mars mission after Apollo, and how it might have turned out if Nixon had decided to go to Mars. It is great that we reached Mars earlier, but was it really worth losing the knowledge of Voyager and Viking?
A few minor gripes with the book can be considered nitpicks. There is a lot of swearing in this. Most sentence seems to have "Goddamn" or a "Jesus Christ" I know it is supposed to be realistic, but I don't think people swear that much in real life. The engineering details, whilst consistent and precise, tends to get rather dense at times, and occasionally interrupts the story. The story also drags occasionally, especially towards the end. Once again, these are nitpicks.
Overall, I rather liked the book, and I hope to read more of Stephen Baxter in the future. In particular, Proxima sounds interesting. I'd recommend it to those who like Kim Stanley Robinson/ Robert L. Forward style hard sci-fi, or Apollo history buffs, who would like to see what the Apollo Application Program would have brought. If you are a more casual reader, it works as a interesting piece on an alternate space program, but it has a lot of engineering packed inside. If you can handle that, I think you could enjoy it. Thanks for reading.
