Voyage (novel)

Voyage

Author	Stephen Baxter
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Voyager Books (UK)
Publication date	21 November 1996
Publication place	Great Britain
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	660 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-224616-3 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC	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 covers history from the Point of Divergence in 1963. John F. Kennedy was wounded in the assassination (It is implied that Jacqueline Kennedy was killed, in the renaming of the Kennedy Space Center as the Jacqueline B. Kennedy Space Center), and was crippled. Lyndon B. Johnson is still sworn in. Years later, 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 Mars. Preparations for this new goal include slashing the Apollo moon landings. Apollo 12 still lands, and Apollo 13 still suffers its disaster, but Apollo 14 is given a new crew (Alan Shepard is taken off the rotation), and is the last manned moon landing. At the same time, the NERVA program is revived, with larger tests in Nevada, but still without containment. The lives of the future Ares mission astronauts are also chronicled, including Natalie York's quest to become an astronaut, and her deteriorating relationship 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 who's dream is to be the first black man in space, and Phil Stone, a veteran astronaut who has flown in a lunar orbit before the Mars mission.

In the 1970s, the Skylab Space Station is launched, but apparently as a Wet Workshop design based on the Saturn IB S-IVB upper stage. The Saturn V that might have launched Skylab in our timeline instead launches a lunar orbit space station 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 (rocket). The Skylab/Moonlab programs also lead to improvements in the design of the Apollo Command/Service Module. A Block 3 CSM is produced, followed by the Block IV, which had a degree of reusability (modular construction and resistance to salt water corrosion).

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 increase payload. A test of the NERVA is finally launched atop one of these, which suffers from pogo oscillations in the S-IC first stage. This damages the NERVA upper stage, which catastrophically fails, killing the entire crew and turning public opinion, already hostile, against the use of nuclear power in space. In the aftermath, a new Mars mission plan is drawn up, utilizing on-orbit assembly, a Venus flyby reminiscent of the Manned Venus Flyby NASA planned in the aftermath of the original Apollo program, and finally a landing at Mangala Valles.

Characters in "Voyage"

• Natalie York. A geologist training to become an astronaut. 'Ares' Mission Specialist.
• Phil Stone. 'Ares' Mars Mission Commander.
• Ralph Gershon. 'Ares' MEM (Mars Excursion Module) Pilot.
• Ben Priest. York's love interest and fellow astronaut.
• Gregory Dana. Rocket Scientist and Nazi camp survivor.
• JK Lee. Director of Columbia Aviation.
• Mike Conlig In charge of developing the NERVA engine, and York's estranged boyfriend.
• Hans Udet. NASA director of the Mars project.
• Bert Seger. NASA manager.
• Joe Muldoon. Second man on the Moon.
• Chuck Jones. Second American to orbit the Earth.
• Fred Michaels. NASA Administrator from 1969 to 1981.
• Jim Dana. Astronaut, son of Gregory Dana.
• Adam Bleeker. Astronaut, contender for the 'Ares' mission.
• Vladimir Viktorenko. Cosmonaut, friend of Joe Muldoon and Natalie York.

External links

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