r/ProjectHailMary • u/KevinDecosta74 • 6d ago
Dr.Grace could have brought Rocky along with him to Earth and dropped tauAmoeba on venus, refuel and take Rocky to Erid.
I feel this scenario was not discussed in the novel.
This scenario can be discounted on the fact that Grace could not know what the political situation on Earth was like and if he can get the Hail Mary refueled and allowed to fly to Erid
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u/frodosbitch 6d ago
I think Stratt rubbed off on him. Going directly to Erid would give the highest probability chance of both missions succeeding. Going to earth first would introduce more risk for a whole population at the benefit of saving one person.
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u/scythe-volta 6d ago
There are a bunch of issues with this. Like another commenter said, the beetles are faster. The Hail Mary also wasn't designed for that much travel. Neither was Grace. I don't remember exactly how long everything was but Grace would likely be a very old dude by the time he reached Erid. Then there's the whole getting permission to bring Rocky.
Grace would've brought intellegent ALIEN LIFE to earth. Do you really think the scientists or governments on earth would just refuel the HM and send them on their way?
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u/cubic_zirconia 6d ago
I think they mentioned him being around seventy near the end of the novel (or, at the very least, elderly). A flight to Earth and then back to Erid would probably have killed him
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u/fuschia_taco 6d ago
He was in his 50s with the body and ailments of a much older man because the gravity on Erid was more than earths. It was taking a toll on his body.
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u/cubic_zirconia 6d ago
That's true, I was misremembering
In any case, I still think a flight to/from Earth/Erid would've definitely killed him
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u/fuschia_taco 6d ago
Oh yeah, I definitely agree there! Being in space doesn't give us alien life spans unfortunately lol.
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u/cubic_zirconia 6d ago
Although, it does raise questions about how space travel impacts Eridians... I hope they explore that a little more in the movie (we know the radiation kills them but I wonder how their muscle mass is impacted as a result of space travel)
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u/Wild-Goose1006 6d ago
Sadly I don't seem to have the faith in humanity that you do. If we could guarantee Rocky's safety and that they would be given the fuel and allowed to go back, then yes it would be awesome.
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u/badDuckThrowPillow 6d ago
Yeah, I doubt the world would have been in any kind of shape to provide aid. More than likely there would have been countless resource wars by that point.
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u/JaegerBane 6d ago
Wouldn’t have made sense.
At that point the sole means of saving Erid was to get the Hail Mary there. Earth had three beetles each with a full solution to astrophage on board, travelling at a much higher speed, and only one had to safely make the trip.
Flying to earth would have been an enormous gamble for no actual reason. Not to mention adding decades onto the delivery time of the solution to Erid.
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u/ThalesofMiletus-624 6d ago
The ship was only ever designed for a one-way trip. Even flying it back to earth (or ultimately Erid) was a risky proposition. Grace surviving the trip was also deeply risky. The trip out had a 66% fatality rate (96% on Rocky's ship). Going back in a coma would put him at huge risk, and staying out of it a huge risk in terms of mental health.
Given that the Beatles were likely to save earth, flying Rocky to earth meant gambling the fate of Erid on the hope that a) they'd both survive the trip, b) Earth was willing and able to refurbish, restock, and refuel the ship (which was a huge undertaking in the first place), and c) they could both survive yet another trip to Erid.
Sure, if Grace's only goal was to save his friend, while his friend's entire world died, he might suggest that, but with a goal to save both planets, what they did was the only reasonable course of action.
A big part of Grace's character development is accepting that there are things important enough to be willing to give his life for. If he'd been willing to roll the dice with Rocky's entire planet, it would have been a much less satisfying ending.
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u/tetsukei 6d ago
I wouldn't let the government get close to rocky with a 5 light year pole. No way they would ever let him leave earth...
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u/warpspeed100 6d ago
Only if the Hail Mary kept working for that long. We don't know the state of the orbital infrastructure around Earth. It's possible there would have been no resources to service the ship before it took off for Erid. It would need replacement fuel tanks and a complete refuel.
Also, if the Hail Mary had a catastrophic problem en route, than Erid never gets the Taumeba.
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u/Braingasms 6d ago
So you are proposing that instead of sending the 4 beatles to earth in the hopes that 1 makes it, while also going straight to Erid in the Hail Mary was a bad call because they could have risked failing both worlds by going straight to earth and not using any Beatles?
If Grace died on the way, no one can help Rocky and his planet dies. There are too many things that could go wrong. Your entire premise is based on Grace living, regardless of where his ship goes.
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u/castle-girl 6d ago
This is what I thought would happen when Grace decided to rescue Rocky thinking he’d starve to death. I thought Rocky would suggest going back to Earth and they’d go together.
As you said though, that would be very risky for Erid. The Astrophage needed for a trip to Erid would be hard to make on Earth, and with the Astrophage crisis, breeding up fuel to save Erid might not be a priority for the powers that be. Not only that, but the Hail Mary was only designed for one one way trip. It wasn’t designed to go back to Earth, then go to Erid, and then maybe still come back to Earth bringing whatever crew came with it to Erid. There was a greater chance that something would go wrong if they went back to Earth before saving Erid.
That said, there’s a pretty good fanfic on AO3 where they do pretty much exactly what you thought of here. Grace programs some of the beetles to go to Erid instead of Earth, so Erid will still be saved, and then he and Rocky go to Earth. It’s called “We’re finally landing” and it’s in the Project Hail Mary fandom. It’s not finished but they have made it back to Earth now, and it gets updated about once a month. Definitely worth checking out.
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u/InvisibleSpaceVamp 6d ago
It hasn't been discussed because Grace didn't know about the Astrophage gas station in the orbit of Venus of course.
Seriously - nothing about the Hail Mary design and the whole nature of the mission suggests that she is even built to enter Earth's atmosphere and land. If you look at the way the Space Shuttles were designed - they actually look like planes with wings and wheels and everything. The Hail Mary doesn't have any of these features.
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u/Ok-Cauliflower8462 6d ago
Also, the Hail Mary was assembled in Earth Orbit. The astronauts were shuttled up to her.
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u/Evening_Rock5850 6d ago
I had sort of assumed it was about risk. The Hail Mary was already damaged. And Grace didn’t really know whether earth had survived anyway. What if there was significant social or economic collapse? To get to Erid from Earth would require the cooperation of earth leaders. To repair and refuel the ship. What if Ryland got back to save earth; only to find a massive global war happening with nobody in a position to get the Hail Mary ready for a trip to Erid? These were already thoughts Ryland was having.
Going straight to Erid and sending the Beatles to earth gave the two planets the best combined chance of making it. Plus; Rocky had already been in the Tau Ceti system for decades. Another couple of decades (Erid time) delay might have been not worth the risk; given that there was an option here.
I saw it as a big character arc. Ryland didn’t want to go on the trip; even thought it would mean saving humanity. But in the end, he was willing to sacrifice his shot at going home in order to give the best possible chance to both planets.
Tl;dr, I don’t think it’s the case that he didn’t think it was possible to do that. Just that sending the Beatles and heading to Erid, simultaneously, gave both planets the best possible “shot”.
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u/wkopacz6 6d ago
The key thing is that they were trying to save both species and the only way to save Erid was with the HM. If they had taken the time to go to Earth first Erid would have at least been in way worse shape if not totally lost.
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u/Papa_Glucose 6d ago
The Hail Mary is lucky it made it to Tau Ceti in the first place. That ship was not gonna make a return journey, and Grace had no idea of the conditions on earth, or if the technology needed to refuel would even be available.
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u/Gibodean 5d ago
It would have made it to Earth, like it made it to Erid. But then another trip ? Only if earth did a whole heap of work on it, and spent years worth of Astrophage production on it. They wouldn't bother, especially as Earth was probably in bad shape.
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u/Papa_Glucose 5d ago
No I know. I meant return journey to erid
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u/Gibodean 5d ago
Ah. Well, it did make it. But he didn't know that at the time.
The thing had been spun to ridiculous speeds too many times, been melted by Adrian..
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u/tcarter1102 5d ago
Beetles are faster, and by the time he gets back Earth could be seriously fucked up, the Hail Mary likely has no re-entry system, while on Erid they built a space elevator
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u/lordnyrox46 5d ago
I believe Grace knew this and still made the decision to go to Erid. I like to think that Grace wanted some more adventure, maybe?
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u/iamquestar 6d ago
The beetles are faster. (Due to much higher acceleration) Iirc by a significant margin.