Mission Ares
Mission Ares is a1996 science fiction novel by British author Stephen Baxter . The book is about a manned mission to Mars , as might have happened in another timeline in which John F. Kennedy would have survived the Dallas assassination attempt. could have happened. The book won the Sidewise Award for alternate history in 1996and was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1997. Thebook was adapted as a radio playfor BBC Radio 4 .
action
Flashbacks tell how humans landed on Mars for the first time. Contrary to reality, John F. Kennedy survived the assassination attempt in Dallas, instead his wife Jacqueline Kennedy is killed and Cape Canaveral is renamed the Jacqueline B. Kennedy Space Center. However, Kennedy is crippled and resigned from the office of president. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Joe Muldoon step on the moon. After Richard Nixon congratulated the astronauts on the phone, ex-President Kennedy calls for a manned mission to Mars. Thereupon, and on the advice of his advisors, Nixon decides not to build the space shuttle and to fly to Mars. As a condition, however, the government demands that the number of moon flights be severely restricted in order to use the remaining Apollo capsules and Saturn rockets for the future Mars program. In contrast to the real historical development, the moon flights will end after Apollo 14 and the research program for a nuclear rocket upper stage, called Nerva , will be continued. However, the Nerva program suffers from technical difficulties right from the start, so that development time and costs do not behave as planned.
The story is told from the point of view of different protagonists. Most of them are NASA employees or astronauts. The main character of the novel is the young geologist Natalie York. At the beginning of space travel, and above all, she was critical of NASA. After several meetings with the astronaut Ben Priest, with whom she later has an affair, her interest in space travel and especially in the exploration of Mars grows. She then applied to NASA for a place as an astronaut and was accepted after several tests.
Other main characters are the former test pilot Phil Stone, the colored former fighter-bomber pilot Ralph Gershon and the second man on the moon, Joe Muldoon.
After the testing of the nuclear upper stage ends with the death of the crew, NASA, under pressure from the US government, decides to go on a Mars mission using conventional chemical technology. While this increases the duration of the mission, it is the only way to reach Mars. With the exception of the newly developed lander, technology from the 1960s is used.
During the long journey, the crew grows together into a committed team. In this section, Baxter vividly describes the psychological component of a long space flight.
The novel ends with the successful landing of York, Stone and Gershon on Mars. The first person on Mars is York.
The novel is very technology-related and, in addition to insights into the organizational structure of NASA, also vividly describes the realistic possibility of carrying out a Mars mission using the state of the art Apollo technology.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1997 Award Winners & Nominees . In: Worlds Without End . Retrieved August 3, 2009.
- ^ Voyage, 1999, BBC Radio 4, Written by Stephen Baxter, Produced, adapted and directed by Dirk Maggs . Retrieved May 6, 2013.
- ↑ Stephen Baxter - Voyage, 1999, BBC Radio 7, An alternative history of the US space program (rerun) . Retrieved May 6, 2013.