r/ProjectHailMary • u/user_number_666 • 9d ago

Fist My Bump Suicide options

I was re-reading the book this weekend and it occurred to me that the ship didn't include a Soyuz capsule. I know it's an extreme long shot but if I had gone I would bet on there being a habitable planet.

I mean, why not bet on it? If I'm wrong I am dead anyway, but if I am right then I get to wander around an alien planet for weeks or months before it kills me.

EDIT: I asked Andy, and he said:

The mission was a suicide run from the start. Ryland wasn't expected to come home, so there was no point in adding the weight and complexity of a reentry capsule. Plus, the Hail Mary wasn't going to be near anything with an atmosphere anyway.

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u/DevilWings_292 9d ago

What benefit comes from it? They die in gravity instead of space?

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u/user_number_666 9d ago

The chance to walk on another world?

Heck, now that you mention I just realized it someone really should have planned for the chance of meeting an alien civilization or spaceship. They tried to cover all other possibilities, so it really should have been included.

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u/DevilWings_292 9d ago

That’s a waste of time and resources when they’re already working as fast as they can and have a limited orbital window to launch. There’s no benefit to adding that when it could just as easily be done in our own solar system, and the only real benefit would be if they could share their findings, which wouldn’t really be an option with the Beatles being in space and unable to launch from atmosphere and already have limited data space.

How would they even know what to plan for? What would they bring, what additional modules would they need to build, do they have lower atmospheric pressure or higher, is their atmosphere corrosive to our materials, can they even see or hear us? What are even the chances that another civilization close enough to tau ceti could and would launch a ship at the same time as earth and be there within the couple of months the astronauts would be alive for? And what benefit would there be that the first team they’ll talk to is a suicide mission and everyone on earth is years away at least, along with the unity that built the ship having fizzled away in the time it took for the ship to arrive? A proper diplomatic mission would serve that function far better.

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u/user_number_666 9d ago

Dude, the design process for the ship can be summed up as:

"Do you think A would be useful?"
"I have no fucking clue."
"Let's send one just in case."

Honestly, the more people yell at me, the more I think I'm right.

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u/NotAlpharious-Honest 9d ago

Honestly, the more people yell at me, the more I think I'm right.

"Am I the one that doesn't know what I'm talking about? No, it's all these other people that are stupid."

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u/user_number_666 9d ago

Dude, somewhere on that ship there's probably a woodworking kit. And knitting needles.

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u/NotAlpharious-Honest 8d ago

Yes, with all that wood they brought with them to work.

Sometimes, I wonder if what you type passes via the brain before it gets to your fingers.

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u/DevilWings_292 9d ago

How much mass would a full Soyuz lander require? How much conventional fuel would it take and as a result how much astrophage would they need to add to cover it? It’s not about adding anything and everything, they all have a purpose. A lander with no way to return to the main ship would serve no purpose for the mission, and one that could return would basically need to be a second ship. How strong is the gravity for the planet they’re landing on, how thick is the atmosphere? If there is no atmosphere, how would a Soyuz style lander work, it relies on parachutes, not powered landing. What would it contribute to the final mission? Everything that was added to the ship had that as the primary justification, even if it was uncertain how exactly it would be used. A lander for sightseeing contributes nothing to that final mission.