by Laura Lam
As someone with no scientific background, I am eternally grateful to those who offered their expertise and answered my many, many questions with kindness and patience. Any science mistakes within the text are my own. I’ll arrange by topic…
Social Dimensions of Outer Space
I never would have had the confidence to write such a science-heavy book without the experience and network I had working on the Scotland in Space, organised through the Social Dimensions of Outer Space research group and a joint project between Edinburgh Napier University, the University of Edinburgh, and the Edinburgh Futures institute. I wrote a short story as part of the interdisciplinary anthology (which you should check out!). Special thanks to the literature/human geography people: Dr. Deborah Scott, Dr. Simon Malpas, Dr. Elsa Bouet, Dr. Russell Jones. Also to publisher Noel Chidwick and PhD candidate on innovation in the space sector, Matjas Vidmar.
Astrophysics, Exosolar Planets, and the Headache of Special Relativity
Dr. Beth Biller. I loved having you in our SiS “Fringe in Space” subgroup. Thanks for letting me take you out to dinner and quiz you about which star would be best to set Cavendish around. She was the one who calculated how long the year would be and what the sun would look like on Cavendish from the surface.
Dr. James Lough. Thank you for answering all of my questions on getting to the speed of light and breaking my brain with special relativity until I realised perhaps using the Alcubierre Drive would be simpler than laser kites in space (which is the current best postulation of how to get to those kinds of speeds!).
Cyanophages, Cavendish and Climate Change
Dr. Sinéad Collins, my friend and evolutionary biologist and algae expert—she’s basically Naomi except not an astronaut. She read over the algae and cyanophage sections and also came up with a better way to solve Naomi’s problem on the ship with spontaneous resistance. Additionally, she helped me figure out what Cavendish would actually look like, and what it’s like to go to Antarctica. Thank you to her Evolution, Ecology & Climate Change undergraduate class at the University of Edinburgh who helped me brainstorm what Earth would look like from orbit under the worst case projections in 2033 (which is mentally when I set it as that’s when NASA is potentially planning to send a mission to Mars).
Dr. Maté Ravasz, molecular biologist. Thank you for your talk at the Scotland in Space seminar at the Royal Observatory and answering my email questions and letting me know about cyanophages in the first place.
In general, researching climate change for this book was incredibly distressing, as I knew it would be. We need to do our part to make sure Earth has many years left, and that includes holding those at the top responsible for making policy decisions than have much greater effects. Shout out to the teen climate activists, Autumn Peltier, Mari Copeny, Atemisa Xakriabá, Alexandria Villaseñor, Vic Barrett, Ridhima Pandey, Xiye Bastida, Greta Thunberg, and many more, whose determined faces and words I saw and heard on the news as I was writing this book. I think you’ll be about Naomi’s age by the time we reach when the book is set. Thanks for fighting for the future.
Babies… in Space!
Thank you to Juliet’s assistant, Liza DeBlock, for letting me know that her mother, the inimitable Dr. Heidi DeBlock, looks after astronaut health. Thank you, Heidi, for giving me details about HELLP syndrome and for introducing me to your friend and human spaceflight expert, Dr. John Charles, former Head of Life Sciences at the Houston Space Center. John, thank you so much for saving my space baby. It must have seemed a very odd question when you first read it, but I hope you enjoy seeing the full draft in context.
Space Law & Policy
Dr. Pippa Goldschmidt read the first half of the draft and gave me both astronomy help and space policy assistance. She’s also a fantastic author—check out The Need for Better Regulation of Outer Space, and her story in the Scotland in Space anthology. Danke (I feel like I’ve said thank you so many times I’m now cycling through languages). Merci to Professor Michael Dodge at the University of South Dakota for so thoroughly answering an email out of the blue from a stranger in Scotland asking whether or not you could legally steal an exosolar planet.
Viruses, Vaccines & Medicine
Thank you to Gabriel D Vidrine, Adam Christopher, Mary de Longis, and Peta Freestone for helping me develop the virus. I learned some particularly gruesome facts about infectious diseases in the process! Also, everyone get your flu vaccine. Thank you to Andrew Reid, author of The Hunter, science teacher, and friend, for helping me figure out the fight scene in the lab.
Other Research & Female Astronauts
If I were to list every book or article I read for this book we’d be here all day, and this is already getting quite long. For more detail, see my website under “works consulted.” I do want to give a quick shout out to NASA’s Houston We Have a Podcast, as I ended up listening to pretty much every episode.
A quick thank you to Jeanette Epps and Norah Patten, a NASA astronaut and an Irish aeronautical engineer, who were warm and friendly when I fangirled at them at Worldcon Dublin in the summer of 2019. Researching this book really came into focus when I started researching the Mercury 13, the women who should have gone to space around the time of the Mercury 7 but never had the chance. Wally Funk, you are one of my heroes. That’s why I dedicated the book to all female astronauts, past and future.
I tried to keep a list of people I sent the book to or asked questions, so hopefully that’s everyone! If not, I am so sorry and I will buy you a drink or a meal to make up for it, promise.
As ever, thank you, dear reader, for letting me imagine going into space and sharing that vision with you.
And… lift off!
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