graceoutinspace

[graceoutinspace]

r u aro and/or ace?? you're the single most aspec guy I've ever met. if you dont know what that is google it

uh

ace of spades. yes...

#please god help im being shipped off to the arctic ocean i dont have the mental capacity to do self introspection #actually sobs #and no im not deflecting!!! shaddup!! #|| blog tags: #project hail mary #ask blog #graceoutinspace #phm #andy weir

[graceoutinspace]

what's your and the rest of the crew's favorite flavor ice cream? also will there be any ice cream on the space ship?

My favourite ice cream is really whatever is the most appealing at the time. It's the toppings that matter, to me. If there are no toppings to optimize my choice for, then something chocolatey.

Yào says lemon sorbet. I don't think that's technically ice-cream, but I'll let it pass.

Ilyukhina says anything spiked. Otherwise, "the shitty kind of ice cream sandwich Americans lose their minds over -- and I get the appeal".

DuBois says something with caramel and/or coffee flavouring. Mocha fudge, for example.

Shapiro deadpanned, grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me, and repeated over and over "Moon mist. Moon mist! MOON MIST!" I'm not sure if that's an ice-cream flavour or a curse.

Stratt glared at me (again) and told me to get back to work (again). When pressed, she said "Eh, whatever's good. Get back to work!"

#i looked it up and apparently moon mist is a regional ice cream from atlantic canada???? #it seems to be a cult classic type thing #what the heck are these flavours #banana...grape...blue bubble gum... #why would you put all that into one ice cream #and what does that have to do with the moon !?!?!? #|| blog tags: #project hail mary #ask blog #graceoutinspace #phm #andy weir #ooc: too much atlantic canadian bias? too bad

[graceoutinspace]

What is everyone on the crew’s favorite planets? (you, Yao, Ilyukhina, Shapiro, and Dubois)

My favourite planet is probably Venus. It's the largest non-moon/non-sun object in the sky, and it's always been the first thing I look for when stargazing, since I was a little kid. It's also got those bum-faced goat-aliens, so that's always a plus.

I'll go ask everyone what their favourite planets are.

Yào says his is the moon and that he doesn't care that it isn't a planet. Fair enough, I guess. He says he wanted to become a taikonaut to put a Chinese flag on the moon, but he'll settle for putting one in the Tau Ceti system.

Ilyukhina says Uranus. When she first heard the English translation, so she says, she couldn't get over it. She also berated me for calling it "urine us" instead of "your anus", which...I never thought about my pronunciation sounding like that. Why, Johann Elert Bode! WHY!

Shapiro and DuBois agree that their favourite planet is Earth. This is is coming from the same people whose favourite animal is humans. I asked them why, and Shapiro just motioned emphatically around us. I suppose it's a solid choice.

I asked Stratt what her favourite planet was for fun, and she glared at me before telling me to get back to work. No fun, that woman, no fun at all.

#blog tags: #project hail mary #ask blog #graceoutinspace #phm #andy weir

[graceoutinspace]

How does it feel to be Stratt’s boy toy?

I am scared of what searching the definition of that word may yield. But you know what? Morbid curiosity is a vital part of the human experience. May as well just search it up.

I screeched "like a particularly angry small bird" (Ilyukhina's words not mine) and now Ilyukhina is laughing at me. See what you've done!!?

But like... Guys. Please. STRATT AND I ARE NOT, HAVE NOT, AND NEVER WILL BE (so help me god) IN A ROMANTIC NOR SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP!!!!

christ on a cracker if stratt finds out yall think this shes going to fire me. or worse, make fun of me. the crew already thinks were secretly in a relationship.

#the definition for boytoy is now burned into my retinas #retinae? #when i close my eyes i can see its imprint #aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa #|| blog tags: #project hail mary #ask blog #graceoutinspace #phm #andy weir

[graceoutinspace]

Could you sprinkle some (like a few micrograms or something) astrophage in a pool for a perpetually heated pool?

NO YOU CANNOT.

Please! Don't! Do! That!

Even if they did heat up your whole pool, IT'D BE ALMOST BOILING. YOU WOULD BE SOUS VIDED.

#no foolin around with astrophage #|| blog tags: #project hail mary #ask blog #graceoutinspace #phm #andy weir

[graceoutinspace]

Mr. Grace how the FUCK does one write a college application essay??

Usually with a keyboard. A pencil, maybe. A pen, if you have the guts.

#i do NOT remember my college application essay #i think i wrote it on how darwin was contested? him and tesla? #i honestly don't remember #i am not the man to go to for advice in any event #good luck! #|| blog tags: #project hail mary #ask blog #graceoutinspace #phm #andy weir

[graceoutinspace]

Hello Grace! I wanted to ask your opinion on if you think other types of extraterrestrial life exist. We already have one (astrophage), so the chances of another one existing is possible, right?

I really hope so!!

And absolutely, there is a chance of others existing. One is more than enough evidence, even if you take the potential panspermia theory out of it (that earth life was seeded by a very very very old predecessor of astrophage).

I, personally, hope they can do without water, but that's just me. Chances are, they probably look like crabs. Everything seems to turn into a crab eventually.

#blog tags: #project hail mary #ask blog #graceoutinspace #phm #andy weir

[graceoutinspace]

Hi Dr. Grace! I've been reading about the Hail Mary and was surprised to find you're doing a Q&A of sorts here. How's it treating you? Which do you dread more, the amount of work IRL or exposure to the internet? LOL

I'm curious- it seems like everything has gotten turned upside-down, which must be stressful, but in all of that- what's one pleasant surprise you've had since joining the project?

1. How's Project Hail Mary treating me? OH BOY. Listen, if nothing else, it's going. No adverbs required. There are times when I don't sleep for days because I'm too caught up in the fun of the science; there are other times where I have hour-long existential crises/breakdowns because, you know, the apocalypse; there are movie nights once in a blue moon with the crew; there are boring staff meetings and social events I'd rather skip; there are beautiful sunsets on an aircraft carrier. I don't think I can classify it as a solely good or bad experience -- it's just not dichotomous like that.

2. And, to be honest, I probably dread having to be the pro-tempore social media guy more than the workload. Science is Fun! "The Astrophage Challenge" (????) is not fun! I'm scared of it!

3. (Firstly, yes, this is just like the hit musical Hamilton: the world's turned upside down and gosh-darn it is stressful.) Honestly, despite the whole they're-eating-the-sun thing, aliens existing is/are SUPER cool! I'm a theoretical extraterrestrial molecular biologist by trade (say that five times fast), so it's no surprise that I find them cool as heck, but definitely getting to be the first guy to work with them and (by the way, not bragging at all, ahem ahem) getting to be the guy to name them was definitely a good experience -- though I'm not sure "pleasant" is the exact word.

I hope that answers your questions!! :)

#blog tags: #graceoutinspace #project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog #// I LOVE ASKS LIKE THESE ADGSGASJDGSA

[graceoutinspace]

noo i cant boop you :((

Find me and boop me in real life, I challenge you.

#blog tags: #graceoutinspace #project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog

[graceoutinspace]

Do you want to go back to teaching at the same school after the Hail Mary launches? Or a college? Or what

I think I'd like to try my hand at being a research professor, if anywhere'll take me. I really liked teaching junior high, but being back in the academic space (albeit in a weird way) has had me craving doing research again. And teaching is always fun.

#plus id have funny stories that college kids would probably find more funny than teens and preteens would #and you know me and my epic sense of humour #|| blog tags: #graceoutinspace #project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog

[graceoutinspace]

I had a dream last night that a friend of mine replaced all of the fuel in their vehicle with astrophage and I was desperately trying to convince them not to, because I really didn't want to blow up. But in hindsight, I'm not sure if that would've done anything other than just break the car. What are your thoughts?

The whole point of normal cars is to turn fuel into (a) energy, and (b) CO2 (as well as other things). Therefore, there would be at least a little CO2 in the gas-tank. Double therefore, kablooey.

#astrophage is NOT car fuel #it is spaceship fuel though #and a pretty damn good spaceship fuel at that #|| blog tags: #graceoutinspace #project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog

[graceoutinspace]

how are the kids

Still not teaching unfortunately :(

Stratt is still being a pain in the butt, for what it's worth. I have been allowed off of Stratt's Vat for the time being, instead being shoved off to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center which is FREAKING COLD. My inner southern californian lilly is really coming out.

#it's really cool here though #both temperature-wise and adjective-wise #gotta love yuri gargarin #|| blog tags: #graceoutinspace #project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog

[graceoutinspace]

Why don't you guys just send a ship to Venus/to the Petrova Line to collect more astrophage? Like yeah the og trip only got a few cell but they didn't know what it was, y'all could send a real big collector ship

Because Venus is very large, and the Petrova Line is very wide.

Let's start with the Petrova Line. Why now show up to it around the orbit of mercury and gather samples? Well the answer to that is very simple: it would decimate the collector. At that point, the astrophage are travelling at light speed. Getting hit by light-speed anything is very bad for an object's structure -- even if they're microscopic little astrophages. It's okay to collect some samples from it while closer to Venus, but where it would be effective (closer to the sun) it would be disastrous.

As for Venus, while the astrophage in the Petrova Line is fast and dense, at Venus it's slow but very, very spread out. ArcLight circled Venus for a while, and it got a total of about forty cells (only some of which were viable for testing). The astrophage cells are simply too spread out to make it an efficient gathering method, not to mention that you'd only be in the collecting-zone for half of every orbit.

Imagine it like this: you want a bunch of flowers for a bouquet. (Also imagine, for this senario, that these are very specific flowers that the flower-shops don't carry.) So you forage, and get five flowers in as many hours of foraging. You can do two things: plant the seeds of your foraged flowers, or go out into the forest and spend dozens and dozens of hours foraging. The answer is obvious.

#project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog #graceoutinspace

[graceoutinspace]

Could astrophage potentially be used as a coolant for nuclear reactors? I'm not a nuclear physicist, but I think it could?

I mean, in theory, yes. If you tried hard enough. But in practice it's unwise. Astrophage is quite volatile when you get down to it, and the chances of a big explosion when you have that much of it around are likely higher than the average nuclear engineer would want, especially seeing as if the astrophage does explode, it would ionize everything around it and cover a large area in radioactive material.

#TL;DR: in theory yes in practice no #though i will say i am not the most versed in the world in the intricacies of coolants in nuclear reactors #|| blog tags: #graceoutinspace #project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog

[graceoutinspace]

I dunno. Perchance

If you've been on tumblr for the last couple of days, you may have noticed that NASA, for some reason, apparently has an official account on here. With that information in mind, I would like to propose a question to the council:

Do we think the Project: Hail Mary had an official tumblr blog in universe?

#“in universe” no in this one #why not this one too #teehee #not exactly the same thing #but who cares !!!! #you see this is funny because of irony #fyi this is me yapping not “in character” grace leave me be

[graceoutinspace]

Thoughts on the astrophage challenge?

(I personally don't think it's real at all, there just isn't enough astrophage for a bunch of dumb teens to be getting their hands on it)

THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

DO NOT EAT ASTROPHAGE.

DO NOT EAT ULTRABLACK PAINT. (since that's what they're mostly using; it's super freaking hard to get hold of astrophage on Stratt's Vat, nevermind rural America)

DO NOT POUR ASTROPHAGE OVER YOURSELF.

...Maybe pour ultrablack paint over yourself? I mean, there's no obvious downside besides that being a rather stupid thing to do.

(P.S.: I only have a vague knowledge of who Mr. Beast is but he needs to stop this whole astrophage challenge thing, if what news outlets are reporting is true. Which, to be fair, may not be true.)

#im not kidding about astrophage being hard to get hold of #i mean i came up with the breeding system #and discovered how they breeded before that (because I am very cool and smart) #and even i am low on the “people who get an eency meency little speck of astrophage” list #probably for good reason #but still #|| blog tags: #graceoutinspace #project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog

[graceoutinspace]

hey grace! have you ever read IHNMAIMS ; any opinions on it?

I have! I read it in high school because I had to, and it scared the living daylights out of me. Big AI AM guy terrorising these people who have no out was not helpful to my teenage brain.

However. A few years ago, the English teacher at the junior-high school I work/used to work at taught the story to the advanced class. And, while I was talking to her about her curriculum, she asked if I had read it. I told her what I just told you. And then she urged me to read it again, citing that it isn't that bad the second way around and I had grown a lot since then and all that. It was a lot shorter than I remembered so I got through it in an afternoon.

And it still scared the living daylights out of me. Whaddya know.

#i mean it's a good story just not my thing you know? #I think I'm gonna stick to my happy sci-fis #or at least the sci-fis that are less extremely sad and scary #i have no mouth and i must scream #IHNMAIMS #|| blog tags: #graceoutinspace #project hail mary #andy weir #phm #ask blog