Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary

Author	Andy Weir
Audio read by	Ray Porter
Cover artist	Will Staehle
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Ballantine Books
Publication date	May 4, 2021
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print, ebook, audiobook
Pages	496
ISBN	978-0-593-39556-1

Project Hail Mary is a 2021 science-fiction novel by Andy Weir. It is his third novel, after 2011's The Martian, and 2017's Artemis. Set in the near future, it is about the astronaut Ryland Grace, who wakes up from a coma, afflicted with amnesia. He gradually remembers that he was sent to the Tau Ceti solar system, 12 light-years from Earth, to find the cause of a solar dimming event that could cause the extinction of humanity.

The unabridged audiobook is read by Ray Porter.

Plot

The plot is delivered both through Ryland Grace's flashbacks to the events leading up to the launch of the Hail Mary spacecraft, and the present events onboard the Hail Mary.

Before Launch

Ryland Grace is a devoted junior-high school science teacher in the United States, having left his former career as a molecular biologist. He is recruited by Eva Stratt, head of a UN task force, to find the cause of a solar dimming event that could end humanity.

A probe sent to Venus discovers an alien single-celled organism reproducing uncontrollably around the Sun, absorbing crucial amounts of solar energy, which will cause a new ice age within 30 years. Grace names the microbe "Astrophage," Greek for "star eater." Grace soon discovers it uses CO₂ to reproduce, and emits extraordinary amounts of light energy to migrate between Venus and the Sun. Other scientists quickly conceive of using it as a high-output fuel source.

Eva Stratt is given absolute authority to procure materials for a project to bring the Astrophage under control. Astronomers discover a nearby star, Tau Ceti, has resisted Astrophage infection, while the surrounding stars have not. Stratt spearheads the development of a starship, the Hail Mary, to study Tau Ceti. If a solution is found, four probes called "Beetles" will be sent back to Earth, but Hail Mary cannot return. Due to the limited time Earth has to build the ship and fly to Tau Ceti, the Hail Mary will be a small vessel, with enough fuel for a one-way trip, making it a suicide mission.

To spare food and water, and preserve the crew's sanity, the crew will be placed in a 4 year-long coma aboard the ship. Genetic research finds a gene that improves the likelihood of surviving the coma. Grace finds out he has this genetic marker during routine testing. Two crews of three volunteers, each with the genetic marker, are chosen for the Hail Mary mission. The primary crew consists of Chinese Commander Yáo Li-Jie, Russian engineer Olesya Ilyukhina, and American scientist Martin DuBois. Grace is tasked to train DuBois and his backup for the Hail Mary mission.

However, nine days before launch, an explosion at the Baikonur Cosmodrome kills both DuBois and his backup, during an experiment on Astrophage. A replacement can't be found and trained in time for the launch, forcing Stratt to ask Grace to become the third crew member. Grace refuses, but Stratt issues him an amnesia-inducing drug before being put in a comatose state. Stratt counts on the assertion that Grace is a "fundamentally good person" and will be too involved with the mission by the time he remembers what Stratt had done.

Aboard Hail Mary

Ryland Grace wakes up with no memory of his name or where he is. He finds himself in a starship, and finds the two other crew members, Yáo and Ilyukhina, long since dead. His cognition slowly returns after a few days. After gaining access to the ship's control room and airlock, he gives the other crew members a space burial, and tries to remember where he is, and why he's here.

He finds out his ship, the Hail Mary, is in a stable orbit around Tau Ceti. Soon after this, the ship detects another starship close by. The other ship, which the radar and later Grace calls Blip-A, tells Grace that it comes from 40 Eridani for the same reason as the Hail Mary: its star is infected by Astrophage. Blip-A connects to Hail Mary, and the single crew member aboard Blip-A comes to meet Grace. Since the alien came from the Eridani star system, Grace names the new species an "Eridian."

The alien resembles a dog-sized five-legged spider with a stone-like carapace. It lives in an atmosphere 29 times denser than Earth's, composed mostly of superheated ammonia. Eridians never evolved eyes, using echolocation as their primary sense. Grace names the alien "Rocky."

Rocky communicates in tones, and Grace sets up a computer program to translate Rocky's speech to English. Like Grace, Rocky is the sole survivor of his crew, and has been alone for the last 40 years. He's a genius-level engineer, but lacks Grace's scientific knowledge to do the research needed. Rocky constructs enclosures aboard the Hail Mary so they can work together to solve the Astrophage problem.

Because of the nature of their environment and evolution, Eridian technology and science is less advanced than human technology. They don't know about radiation sickness, which killed the Blip-A’s crew, or time dilation due to Special relativity. Because of this, the Blip A had enough fuel for 30 light-years of travel, but would have perceived less than 10 years of relative flight. Rocky assures Grace that he can give the Hail Mary some of his excess fuel, allowing Grace to return to Earth after the mission.

They find out Tau Ceti's third planet contains Astrophage, but the population is controlled by a natural predator, a microbe which Grace names "Taumoeba." After a dangerous low orbit maneouvre, they recover a sample of Taumoeba, but find out it cannot survive any exposure to nitrogen. As both Venus and the planet in Rocky's system have nitrogen-rich atmospheres, they have to breed a nitrogen-resistant strain of Taumoeba. They succeed, but the initial Taumoeba sample escapes and infects the Hail Mary, consuming its Astrophage fuel.

After disinfecting and refuelling the Hail Mary with Astrophage from Blip-A, the two part ways, knowing that they won't meet or communicate ever again. However, Grace finds out that the nitrogen-resistant Taumoeba can pass through the material the Blip-A is made from. It will get into the fuel tanks, consume the Astrophage, and cripple the Blip-A, dooming Rocky's civilization. Grace sends out the Beetle probes with the mission's findings and live-samples of Taumoeba, then reverses course to catch up to and rescue Rocky, and take him back to his planet.

Grace knows that he will starve to death after they reach Rocky's homeworld, because Eridian food is toxic to humans. Rocky points out that Grace could eat Taumoeba, until his people find out a way to produce other food. The book ends with Grace on Rocky's planet, in an Earth-like dome, older and weakened by the planet's higher gravity, but happy. He receives news from Rocky that Earth's Sun is no longer infected with Astrophage, and the Hail Mary’s mission was a success. With the repaired and refuelled Hail Mary in orbit, Grace has the option to return to Earth, but delays the decision to another day. He departs to teach a science class to a group of Eridian children.

Characters

• Ryland Grace - The protagonist. A former molecular biologist, he teaches science in junior high, before being recruited to study Astrophage.
• Eva Stratt - A woman who works for the UN. She is given absolute authority to stop the Astrophage, eventually leading to the Hail Mary mission.
• Rocky - An alien from the 40 Eridani system, whose planet is also threatened by Astrophage. He encounters the Hail Mary and works together with Grace.
• Yáo Li-Jie - The commander of Hail Mary’s crew, stern and courageous. He dies en route to Tau Ceti.
• Olesya Ilyukhina - The engineer of Hail Mary’s crew, ribald yet cheerful. She dies en route to Tau Ceti.
• Dr. Lokken - A climatologist from Norway. She assists in the design of the Hail Mary, and has a short rivalry with Grace.
• Dimitri Komorov - A Russian scientist who develops the Astrophage-based propulsion system for the Hail Mary.
• Steve Hatch - A researcher from the University of British Columbia. He develops the "Beetle" probes. Very talkative and optimistic.
• Martin DuBois - An American man, and the original science advisor on the Hail Mary mission. Honest and gregarious.
• Dr. Annie Shapiro - The original backup science advisor on the Hail Mary mission.
• Robert Redell - A solar energy expert from New Zealand. Arrested for embezzlement and the death of seven technicians in a testing accident, he develops a method to rapidly breed Astrophage.

Production

In a profile in the New York Times, Weir says that after completing The Martian, he began a multi-volume space opera called "Zhek," which was about a substance that could absorb electromagnetic radiation and use it as a fuel for interstellar travel. He wrote 75,000 words before abandoning the project and beginning on Artemis. Several elements from "Zhek" were brought over to Project Hail Mary, including a ruthless bureaucrat character, and an energy-absorbing substance used as starship fuel.

Publication

Project Hail Mary was released on May 4, 2021, by Ballantine Books. It is available in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook formats.

The audiobook narrated by Ray Porter uses melodic sound effects in the background, whenever "Rocky" speaks.

Reception

Project Hail Mary has received generally positive reviews. The New York Times says "For readers who can forgive its shortcomings, the result is an engaging space odyssey." Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, describing it as "An unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship—nothing short of a science-fiction masterwork."

Project Hail Mary debuted at #3 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Film adaptation

Ryan Gosling announced in March 2020 that he plans to produce and star in a film adaptation of Project Hail Mary with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ken Kao is also attached to produce the film.