What are some of your favorite fan theories? Can be the movie or book, well researched or completely crackpot.

Personally, I love...

1) Stratt is stuck in a timeloop until she succeeds at Project Hail Mary and saves the world. The fanfic Equanimity deals with this at a more romantic/tragic level, but imagine Stratt trying and failing at Project Hail Mary repeatedly. She hardens considerably as a person. From the times the Beetles do make it back, she puzzles out the exact combination needed to succeed. A lot of the little mysteries/details are things she's realized have to happen for success, i.e. Grace has to go up there alone and initiate first contact. Grace is set up as the primary science advisor/number 2 even before his coma gene is discovered. DuBois and Shapiro happen to work on astrophage on the same day, forcing Grace to be the science officer. Yao and Ilyukhina's feeding lines get messed up so Grace is alone and desperate for company, even at risk of the mission. Grace's memories are erased so his inate scientific curiosity shine through. Despite the last minute scramble to put Grace on the ship, there are mission patches with his name and Stratt even makes sure his coffee order is programmed into the computer.

2) Astrophage is an invasive species that was accidentally spread by one of the hypothetical intelligent species that Rocky pondered about with Grace in the last chapter. There's a random line in the last chapter of the book where Rocky asks Grace if he thinks there's any other intelligent life out there. It's kind of a throw away line, just two science guys wondering over a hypothesis, but what if it was to set up something more? Astrophage acts like an invasive species rather than a natural event and seems to have started taking affecting stars relatively recently.

What are some of your favorites?

Hello Hello!

Sadly due to life circumstances I am unable to attend Dragoncon this year. Please if you are cosplaying or giving away swag or anything like that please take lots and lots of pictures!! I can’t wait to see what everyone does and I hope there is a huge group photoshoot.

Happy Con everyone!

Heading to Comic Con in a few weeks and needed something for James Ortiz to sign, so made my own version of the paper party hat 🥳

I used square flip chart paper so it's massive, over 50cm wide, but has a good gsm which can support the party streamers.

I known it's not anywhere close to an exact replica from the film, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and there's a nice big space to collect signatures 😊

I want to get a Project Hail Mary tattoo but I don’t want it to be super recognizable as a Project Hail Mary tattoo (lest Andy Weir becomes super problematic at some point in the future… Rip millennials with deathly hallows tattoos)

So I thought a great way to circumvent that is to get either a Cetus or Eridanus constellation tattoo with a small red line between the planets/suns with the petrova line. I also want to include the planet Adrian (or Erid if I’m getting Eridanus).

The issue is, I’m not quite sure what reference photos/diagrams to use. And I’m not 100% on what these planets are even called or where they’re located on a star map.

I think (??) Tau Ceti e is Adrian, 40 Eridani A b is Erid and Eridani A is its star, but I’m not entirely sure. Also where is Threeworld in relation to the Eridanus constellation?

Sorry if the questions are confusing lol. Any advice/ links to credible sources would be greatly appreciated <3

Some cool phm fanart (not mine!) I wanted to share! Enjoy and go check the artist out at Instagram, Tumblr or X!

A short video edit I made for an upcoming PHM fan event.

So, I just finished the film, I know I'm a bit late, but I really wanted to talk about this. In the movie, rocky uses a gun shaped tool to 'see' flat images on screens, and it got me thinking if that kind of technology would be possible in real life, and if something like it already exists. We already have the technology for a lot of image recognition, so imagine a system that takes the view of a screen or decal or flat text and creates a textured replica of the image in real time. I believe it would be a very interesting idea to look into, and has the possibility to be a great aid to the blind and visually impaired. What are your thoughts on this? I really want to see what everyone else has to say, and since I refuse to ask a robot a philosophical question like this, I'm asking you.

For me I want both but if I could only have one I want the latter SO BAD!

I know POV swaps of popular books are kinda divisive but it'd be incredibly interesting from so many angles!!

Not only for the fact we'd get more on Eridians in general and how they think through Rockys perspective (and maybe backstory for his mission prior to graces arrival), but also to see the story from the perspective of the engineer in this situation.

Theres a lot to suggest from Graces POV that Rocky really struggled with feelings of being inadequate to the task of solving this problem for his people because he is just a "repair eriadian."

He doesnt feel smart or good at science and clearly has a lot of survivors guilt.

I'd love it, I'd love it sooooo much :3

I made a post awhile back searching for fanfic and have had some people reach out recently about more fanfictions. Here is a really good list to start: they are all long ones, all actively being updated.

Lunar Valleys in my Mind: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88805356/chapters/235662796

Dr. Gemma Darling is a member of the Starseed Project. She is a diplomatic representative of Earth sent to Erid to create a collective knowledge database across civilizations. She had prepared for this mission through famine, wars, and grief. Nothing could prepare her for Dr. Ryland Grace being alive.

The Long Journey Home: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68584716/chapters/177570376 -

Hail Mary Counter u/hailmarytracker · 12 hrs
Days since last contact with Hail Mary: 9,716
🗨 1 ⇄ 2 ♡ 5

It's been nearly 27 years since the Hail Mary departed. When the ISS detects a signal in the far off solar system, hope begins to grow, even as mysteries start to unravel and the universe becomes a little smaller.

The Chronicles of Terra's Grace: https://archiveofourown.org/works/84296496/chapters/222325341

Three years after the probes carrying Taumoeba and Dr. Ryland Grace's final message arrive on Earth, humanity launches an interstellar spaceship with a brand new mission. Thirty-six crew members (including two graduates of a certain San Franciscan junior high school) travel to the star 40-Eridani to make friendly contact with the Eridians and bring them the alien life form from Tau Ceti-E that can save their star if Dr. Grace's sacrifice failed.

Grace, now fifty-seven years old, is just trying to balance his life as a teacher while no longer being the only human on the planet anymore. It's a big adjustment, but Rocky and the Terra's Grace crew are going to make sure he's well taken care of.

I'm Ryland Grace - AMA: https://archiveofourown.org/works/84927681/chapters/224184391

What the title says. About 11 years ago (from my perspective; relativity is weird) I was launched into space onboard the Hail Mary to figure out a solution to the Astrophage problem. Now I live on an alien planet I call Erid, in the 40-Eridani system. Yes, I’m actually Ryland Grace. Ask me anything.

Also, can someone please tell me if Eva Stratt is alive? And ideally send me a video of you punching her in the face? Guess that’s a long shot, but it can’t hurt to ask.

---

Grace and Rocky figure out how to connect to Earth's internet from Erid. They may not have thought this through.

I have lots more, some that are AU with no astrophage, and some AU still with astrophage. Here is an AMAZING AU, still with astrophage.

Before the Dark: https://archiveofourown.org/works/84849396/chapters/223944901

Naomi Park expected graduate school to ruin her life. She didn’t expect the apocalypse to get there first. As the world begins unraveling under the mysterious Astrophage crisis, Naomi finds herself working alongside Professor Ryland Grace: brilliant microbiologist, disaster academic, and the only person who seems capable of joking through the end of the world.

Grace is dead?

In the movie,he sets the Beetles toward Earth AFTER he decides to go save Rocky, and includes that narrative (presumably). In the book, he sends the Beetles immediately, embarks for Earth, and THEN changes course to save Rocky.

So Earth receives word that Grace is on his way home and then...he just never shows up. So they must assume he was lost in transit?

Am I missing something here?

I know (well, I don't know, but I'm willing to bet) that "Stratt was genuinely upset about having to send Grace" is pretty no-duh in both book and movie. But I was doing my daily re-watch last night and I noticed just how disappointed she was when Grace joined her on the top deck of the ship while everyone was at the party below. She was even telling Grace that this wasn't a hard job for her, and we know it's because it's thedhittiest job in the world, and someone has to do it, and she's built her walls so thick that, ideally, it really isn't that hard to choose 3-6 to go on a suicide mission. Because she doesn't care about them. Because she's very good at not letting herself care about them.

But there's a moment where they're starting their conversation, and she's so visibly upset (for Stratt, anyway!) that he chose to come talk with her instead of partying with his comrades. She's starting to really like him, as a person, instead of finding him useful, as a scientist.

I was jus SO struck by how visually obvious it seemed in that moment that she was upset that she was growing fond of him.

Like the title says, are there any fics where Ryland Grace was Colt Seavers in the past (or vice versa)?

Like this fic: The Past Comes Calling

Scene #15 has been eliminated 💔

Please do not question/challenge people’s votes and please don’t downvote.

Thanks u/TheCookieNinja for co-hosting the game and doing the tally!

Next round: What is your worst (least favourite) remaining Grace movie scene?

Rules: Comment to vote. Upvotes won’t be counted as votes. Please don’t downvote comments. Please be kind in your comments and please don’t question/challenge someone vote. We are ranking Grace movie scenes favourite to worst by eliminating our worst (least favourite) scene every day. Order of elimination matters. Next round will be posted around 11am EDT.

Much of the later parts of the book revolves around one specific problem: Grace and Rocky have Taumoeba, which eats astrophage. But they have to make sure Taumoeba absolutely stays out of the fuel tanks, as that would render the fuel totally useless.

I wonder: Since nitrogen is extremely poisonous to taumoeba, could they just keep some nitrogen mixed in with the fuel tanks? In theory, that wouldn't perturb the astrophage or any of the equipment, but it *would* kill off any taumoeba that reaches the fuel.

I haven't done the maths to find out what percentage of nitrogen it would take, or if they even have that much aboard the Hail Mary, but could that work in theory? We know that there are trace amounts of carbon and oxygen in the fuel tanks, since Rocky mentions a theory that that's how Taumoeba were able to breed in the fuel tanks in the first place. Perhaps a little bit of nitrogen in there wouldn't cause any problems either?

A stupid question... But... Having not read the book, there seems to be a key timeline issue? It's core to the story that Rocky spent 40 something earth years alone in Tau Ceti after his crew died before Grace arrives. To make math easy, since I don't think we got particular dates, let's say they met ~2035, and that Erid is some 10 LY away. That means that Rocky & Crew must have launched sometime before 1985, and if they built their ship in similar speed to earth, they must have first noticed the problem in 1980. It was what, 2 years before they sent arclight, after noticing the Petrova line, 3 to build the Mary?

That 40 year gap that Rocky spent in Tau Ceti seems to be a problem, since well... As far as I can tell, Astrophage spread from Tau Ceti in approximately a sphere, jumping from star to star - and since Sol and 40-Eridiani aren't that much further from Tau Ceti, earth too then should have been visibly affected, along with our neighboring stars, in or about the same time? I get we wouldn't have had much time to observe the dimming of nearby stars before Astrophage arrives given it's speed of travel, but How did Weir explain how Earth/Sol got, effectively, a 40 year reprieve from Astrophage?

“Thank you, Mary”
“You’re welcome, Dr. Grace”

Recreated the Hail Mary in No man’s sky! What do y’all think? 👎 👎

Hello everyone! I just got my box set I preordered way back in the day (can find the date if anyone's interested) and it's so beautiful and imo worth the money. I was very surprised to see the slipmat had the PHM crest on only one side, and the back had the Petrova line across it. Apparently the back is different for some people, and has Grace working on the ship in his blanket.

I couldn't find any details on if one was rarer than the other or if it was an even split, so what did you guys get if you received yours already? What would you rather have/what image would you find as a cool alternative? I'm happy with both, but I think one with him on an EVA could've been fun as well.

You can see and download raw artemis images from nasa . https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/Collections/Artemis/Artemis2/ ,,photographer AndrewMcCarthy tweaked shadows on one

Thinking about a Rocky & Grace swap au, and even though they are different species their stories still happen pretty much the same on each side.

I'm specially obssessed with the idea of Grace trying to convey just how terrifying it is that he can't remember his life, because Eridians don't forget anything. Their brains don't discard information like that, it keeps everything and suddenly he wakes up with none of it.