Voyage (novel)

Voyage
Author(s)	Stephen Baxter
Country	Great Britain
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Voyager Books (UK)
Publication date	21 November 1996
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	660 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-224616-3 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC Number	54247061

Voyage is a 1996 hard science fiction novel by British author Stephen Baxter. The book depicts a manned mission to Mars as it might have been in another timeline, one where John F. Kennedy survived the assassination attempt on him in 1963. Voyage won a Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1997. It has since been made into a radio serial for BBC Radio 4.

Plot summary

The book tells the story in flashbacks during the actual Mars mission of the chronicalized history until the mission's beginning. The point of divergence for this alternate timeline happens on November 22, 1963, where John F. Kennedy survived the assassination (Jacqueline Kennedy was killed, in the renaming of the Kennedy Space Center as the Jacqueline B. Kennedy Space Center), but was crippled and thus incapacitated, as Lyndon B. Johnson is still sworn in. On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Joe Muldoon walk on the moon, and Nixon's "most historic phone call" is joined by a call from former President Kennedy, committing the United States to send a manned mission to Mars, which Nixon backs as part of his fateful decision to decide the future of manned spaceflight, instead of deciding on the Space Shuttle program as he did in our timeline.

Preparations for this new goal include slashing the number of moon landings so funding and leftover Apollo spacecraft hardware can go towards the efforts of the manned Mars mission. Apollo 12 still lands, Apollo 13 still suffers its disaster, but Apollo 14 is crewed by the astronauts of the canceled Apollo 15 mission in order to carry out the scientific experiments on the lunar surface, and is the last manned moon landing. At the same time, the NERVA program is revived to become the chosen Mars spacecraft development, with larger tests in Nevada, but without containment and plagued with engineering problems.

The book centers around chronicling the lives of the future Mars mission astronauts, NASA and contractor personnel all involved helping in making the mission become a reality, and the shifts within NASA's astronaut and management hierarchy throughout the mission's preparations, including female geologist Natalie York's quest to become an astronaut, and her stormy relationships between fellow astronaut Ben Priest and with NERVA engineer Mike Conlig. Other astronauts include Ralph Gershon, a former fighter-bomber pilot involved in illegal bombing missions in Cambodia during the Vietnam War whose dream is to be the first black man in space, and Phil Stone, a veteran Air Force test pilot-turned-astronaut who has flown in a long-term stay on a lunar orbital station before the Mars mission.

In the 1970s, the Skylab Space Station is launched, but apparently as a wet workshop design that is based on the Saturn IB S-IVB upper stage called Skylab A. The Saturn V that might have launched Skylab in our timeline instead launches Skylab B, a lunar orbit space station unofficially named "Moonlab", also a wet workshop based on the S-IVB. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project is instead a series of visits by the Apollo Command/Service Module to Salyut space stations, and Soyuz missions to both Skylab and Moonlab. To facilitate the latter, the Soviets finally finish work on their N-1. The Skylab/Moonlab programs lead to improvements in the design of the Apollo Command/Service Module. A Block III CSM is produced using battery power in place of fuel cells, followed by the Block IV and V, which had a degree of reusability (modular construction and resistance to salt water corrosion). Also chronicled is the development of the experimental 'Mars Excursion Module' by small aerospace firm Columbia Aviation as it struggles against larger rival contractors of NASA and its engineers working painstakingly against the technical challenges of a working and reliable Mars lander.

During the Reagan Administration, the Saturn V is upgraded to the Saturn VB, which has numerous improvements, including the use of solid rocket boosters to double its payload. A test of the NERVA is finally launched atop one of these, called Apollo-N, but suffers from pogo oscillations in the S-IC first stage. This damages the NERVA upper stage, which catastrophically fails once fired in orbit; despite returning to Earth safely, the entire crew (including Ben Priest) is killed from radiation poisoning, and the space program nearly collapses from hostile political and public opinion against the use of nuclear power in space, and the seemingly unnecessary risks and reasons of a Mars mission.

In the aftermath, a new Mars mission plan dubbed Ares is drawn up, utilizing on-orbit assembly of a different long duration Mars-ship using wet-workshop Saturn rocket components as the propulsion systems as well as a skylab habitat module and external tanks to hold extra fuel, and performing a Venus flyby reminiscent of the Manned Venus Flyby NASA planned in the aftermath of the original Apollo program, but done in this timeline for gravitational assistance, and finally a landing at Mangala Valles on March 27, 1986.

However, as a side effect, a number of unmanned probes - including the Viking program, Pioneer Venus project, Mariner 10, Pioneers 10 and 11, and the Voyager program - are cancelled so that their funding can be redirected to the manned Mars mission, although another Mariner orbiter is sent to Mars to help prepare for the manned landing. As a result, although humans walk on Mars, their knowledge of the solar system, including Mars itself, is far less than in reality.

Characters in "Voyage"

• Natalie York. An intelligent but cynical female geologist training to become the first American female astronaut (almost parallel to Sally Ride, but she is never mentioned in the book). 'Ares' Mission Specialist. She seemingly acts as the book's protagonist and a characterized incarnation of Baxter's views of NASA and humanity's destiny in space, an all-knowing archetype character used predominantly in Baxter's other novels.
• Phil Stone. A Former U.S. Air Force test pilot who in this timeline, was the last to fly the X-15 rocket plane and the first pilot to ever recover from a hypersonic spin. He becomes an astronaut following the moon landings to fly the Apollo/Moonlab missions. 'Ares' Mars Mission Commander.
• Ralph Gershon. An U.S. Air Force pilot once involved in illegal CIA operations in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, and joins NASA afterward to help develop the first Mars lander. 'Ares' MEM (Mars Excursion Module) Pilot.
• Ben Priest. York's love interest and fellow astronaut, flight engineer/LEM-less pilot of the doomed Apollo-N mission.
• Gregory Dana. Aerospace Engineer and Nazi death-camp survivor, responsible for the redevelopment of the Mars Mission profile.
• JK Lee. Director and Chief Engineer of Columbia Aviation, responsible for building the MEM and very dedicated (if not obsessed) to the task.
• Mike Conlig In charge of developing the NERVA engine, and York's estranged boyfriend.
• Hans Udet. NASA director of the Mars project and a big supporter of NERVA, and former Nazi rocket scientist whom Gregory Dana despise for him being the man in charge of the very death camp where Gregory was held at.
• Bert Seger. NASA manager who worked for both Fred Michaels and Joe Muldoon.
• Joe Muldoon. Second man on the Moon (a parallel of Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin) and a prominent figurehead and manager in the development of the Mars mission.
• Chuck Jones. A surly astronaut (a parallel of Wally Schirra and Malcolm Scott Carpenter) who was the second American to orbit the Earth, Phil Stone's fellow Moonlab veteran, and commander of the doomed Apollo-N mission.
• Fred Michaels. NASA Administrator from 1969 to 1981, a parallel of James E. Webb.
• Jim Dana. Astronaut, son of Gregory Dana, Command Module Pilot of Apollo-N.
• Adam Bleeker. Astronaut and geologist-in-training, Moonlab veteran and contender for the position of 'Ares' Mission Specialist along with Natalie York, but taken off flight status due to concerns about cumulative radiation exposure from long duration space missions.
• Vladimir Viktorenko. Cosmonaut, Apollo/Soyuz/Moonlab veteran and friend of Joe Muldoon and Natalie York.

External links

• Animation based in descriptions from the book, using Orbiter Space Flight Simulator