Project Hail Mary

In flashback, Stratt visits Grace in his cell at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Stratt explains that her background in history taught her that for thousands of years, until the Industrial Revolution, human culture revolved primarily around food. The famine and crop failure caused by the dimming sun will likely lead to global wars, which will exacerbate food shortages and lead to more death. Stratt tells Grace she will sacrifice anything to ensure the Hail Mary’s success but felt she owed him her explanation. Grace tells Stratt to go to hell, but she responds that “hell is coming to us” (431).

On the Hail Mary, Grace maintains the ship and Taumoeba farms and debates staying awake or re-entering a coma for the long and lonely trip. Missing Rocky and remorseful about his lack of a social life on Earth, Grace occasionally turns his engines off and coasts so he can use the Petrovascope to track the Blip-A.

Grace attaches miniature Taumoeba farms to the Beetle probes so he can send them to Earth separately just in case something should go wrong. The farms are made of Eridian steel, not xenonite, so that Earth scientists will be able to open them without damaging the Taumoeba inside.