Project Hail Mary: A Novel
Andy Weir
Ryland discovers a Taumoeba — an amoeba-like predator from Adrian's atmosphere that rapidly envelops and kills Astrophage by disabling their energy-absorption ability. He and Rocky isolate and breed it up to 50 million individuals, then design experiments to test whether Taumoeba can survive the atmospheric conditions of Venus and Threeworld (the two Astrophage-infested planets). Just as the experiments are underway and optimism is high, the entire ship loses power — everything goes dark except a single glowing red button on a physical control panel, which Ryland pushes.
- Taumoeba discovered almost immediately — an amoeba-like organism that engulfs Astrophage, disables their energy absorption, and kills them within seconds
- Ryland names it 'Taumoeba' (from Tau Ceti); Rocky insists on the naming as an Earth cultural tradition
- They breed ~50 million Taumoeba in a xenonite tank filled with Adrian air and Astrophage
- Key experiment: simulate Venus's upper atmosphere (−100°C, 0.02 atm, CO₂/N₂) and Threeworld's upper atmosphere (−82°C, 0.02 atm, CO₂/N₂/SO₂) to see if Taumoeba can survive there
- Taumoeba's resilience to temperature extremes (lives in −51°C, eats 96.415°C Astrophage) makes them promising candidates
- Rocky is anxious about oxygen after his internal-organs-on-fire incident; comic tension during experiment setup
- All ship power cuts out suddenly — Rocky's equipment (on its own generator) still works, but Ryland is blind in total darkness
- A single red LED on a physical button panel is the only light; Ryland pushes it — cliffhanger
Where you left off: Ryland has just pushed the single glowing red button on the physical control panel after the ship loses all power.