Project Hail Mary

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Chapters 21-25

Chapters 26-30

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Chapters 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 26 Summary

In flashback, Stratt visits Grace in his cell at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Stratt explains that her background in history taught her that for thousands of years, until the Industrial Revolution, human culture revolved primarily around food. The famine and crop failure caused by the dimming sun will likely lead to global wars, which will exacerbate food shortages and lead to more death. Stratt tells Grace she will sacrifice anything to ensure the Hail Mary’s success but felt she owed him her explanation. Grace tells Stratt to go to hell, but she responds that “hell is coming to us” (431).

On the Hail Mary, Grace maintains the ship and Taumoeba farms and debates staying awake or re-entering a coma for the long and lonely trip. Missing Rocky and remorseful about his lack of a social life on Earth, Grace occasionally turns his engines off and coasts so he can use the Petrovascope to track the Blip-A.

Grace attaches miniature Taumoeba farms to the Beetle probes so he can send them to Earth separately just in case something should go wrong. The farms are made of Eridian steel, not xenonite, so that Earth scientists will be able to open them without damaging the Taumoeba inside. Grace goes to fuel the Beetles with extra Astrophage but discovers that Taumoeba have contaminated his Astrophage storage bin.

Chapter 27 Summary

Grace tries to remain calm in light of the Taumoeba leak. He deduces that the Hail Mary’s life support cooling and heating system is the most likely source of the Taumoeba breach, as it uses air to move Astrophage across exposed coils. Grace disables the life support system and dons his space suit to open the air lock and flush all oxygen from the ship. He replaces the oxygen with 100% nitrogen, which he has plenty of thanks to DuBois’s intended method of suicide. After several hours, Grace reactivates the life support system to flush the nitrogen and return the ship’s atmosphere to normal Earth levels. He immediately sets to work isolating the Taumoeba breeding farms and Beetle probes in nitrogen-filled containers, not willing to take any chances of another outbreak that might imperil his fuel tanks.

Chapter 28 Summary

Grace spends three days isolating and testing each fuel tank, which all pass the test for Taumoeba infestation. Confident that all sources of Taumoeba are contained, Grace turns next to the problem of identifying the source of the leak. Although Grace trusts Rocky’s engineering implicitly, he runs a diagnostic test on the mini Taumoeba farms on each of the Beetles to be totally certain. When all tests come back clean, Grace sets up tests for the larger Taumoeba breeding farms, then goes to sleep, noting that it now feels strange not to have someone watching him.

When Grace wakes, he finds that the Taumoeba breeding farms are in fact the source of the leak. Grace runs another experiment to figure out how the Taumoeba farms could be leaking but the Taumoeba inside could be unaffected by nitrogen: How can the Taumoeba be getting out of the xenonite tank if no nitrogen can enter the xenonite tank? Grace discovers that in the rush to breed nitrogen-resistant Taumoeba inside the xenonite tanks, he has accidentally bred Taumoeba that learned to burrow between the molecules of xenonite for safety. Nitrogen, since it is not alive, cannot replicate this maneuver, so Taumoeba could escape it. Grace tests the Taumoeba-82.5 just to be certain that they are nitrogen resistant even without xenonite and is relieved to confirm that they are. Grace can transfer the farms to metal containers and stop the leak, but he realizes that Rocky, whose entire ship and fuel tanks are made of xenonite, is in danger.

Chapter 29 Summary

Grace can no longer find the Blip-A with the Petrovascope, confirming his fears that a Taumoeba outbreak has gotten out of the xenonite tanks on Rocky’s ship and destroyed the Blip-A’s fuel. Grace debates his options. Grace can launch the beetle probes, turn around to rescue Rocky from the Blip-A, and take him to Erid, but without sufficient food, Grace will starve and be unable to return to Earth from Erid. Alternatively, Grace can continue on to Earth and return a hero, but Rocky and all the Eridians will die. Grace breaks down into sobs at the decision before him.

Grace launches the Beetle probes and searches for Rocky and the Blip-A just outside the Tau Ceti system, hindered by Rocky’s inability to send a signal from the powerless Blip-A. He uses the Petrovascope as a radar and searches for a reflection of the infrared light emissions. He locates what he thinks must be the Blip-A and sets course, hoping that he isn’t headed toward a random asteroid.

Grace arrives at the Blip-A, and, hoping that Rocky has survived within and knowing that Rocky will assume that no help is on the way, Grace spacewalks to knock on the Blip-A’s hull. Rocky is moved that Grace has returned for him and reconnects the tunnel between their ships. Grace explains to Rocky how the Taumoeba-82.5 evolved to be able to move through xenonite and that he will take Rocky back to Erid in the Hail Mary. Grace admits that without enough food to return to Earth, he will die on Erid. Rocky suggests that Grace eat Taumoeba, sine it is an organic life form similar to single-celled organisms on Earth. Hopeful, they head for Erid.

Chapter 30 Summary

In the final chapter—styled Chapter Vℓ, using the Eridian numerals for 30—Grace is established in his life on Erid. The Eridians, grateful for Grace’s sacrifice to save their world, have built Grace an extensive habitat and developed vitamin shakes and lab-grown protein, which Grace calls “meburgers,” based on Grace’s muscles to feed him. After 16 Earth years in Eridian gravity, Grace is prematurely aged, although he estimates he is either 53 or 71 years old, depending on whether he uses relative time or Earth time.

Grace meets Rocky, who has resumed life with his mate Adrian and maintained his friendship with Grace. Rocky tells Grace that Eridian scientists have determined that the star Sol, Earth’s sun, has returned to full brightness, indicating that the Beetle probes were successful and Earth successfully fought the Astrophage infestation with Taumoeba. According to Eridian scientists, Earth scientists solved the Petrova Problem within one year of receiving Taumoeba and Grace’s research.

Rocky asks Grace if he will now stay on Erid or return to Earth. The Hail Mary is in orbit around Erid, fully fueled and ready for the journey if Grace wants to leave, and he would now have enough food to survive, although the trip would be long, lonely, and dangerous. Grace is noncommittal, and Rocky tells Grace that he selfishly hopes that Grace will stay on Erid. Again, Rocky and Grace reflect on the surprising similarities between them and wonder what other life might be in their shared galaxy.

Grace leaves Rocky to go to work, where he teaches science to young Eridians. Grace wonders briefly about what life has been like on Earth and how bad things got before the Beetles arrived, but he is comforted by the knowledge that humans would have needed to work together to send a probe with the Taumoeba to Venus. Grace takes a seat at the musical organ-like keyboard he uses to “speak” Eridian and begins a lightning-round-style quiz with his Eridian students.

Chapters 26-30 Analysis

In the final chapters of the novel, Weir delivers two plot twists that add tension and momentum to the falling action of the novel. Still, these plot twists—that the Taumoeba-82.5 can pass through xenonite and that Rocky saves Grace with his suggestion to eat Taumoeba—function entirely within the logic and context of the narrative thus far. Weir has prepared the reader to be wary of reckless experiments, while understanding the necessity of risk-taking, and has also established Rocky as a brilliant problem solver who often has just the answer that Grace is looking for.

Weir again places Grace in total isolation in the present timeline, yet events unfold very differently from the first chapters of the novel. Grace has not only regained a sense of self and purpose, but his competence is now complemented by a new moral clarity. For the first time, Grace must make a choice without the threat of personal harm: Should he save himself and return to Earth, or save Rocky and all Eridians and perish? It is notable that Grace does not have to choose between saving Earth or saving Erid, but merely between self-preservation and sacrifice for others. It is a choice that most closely parallels his choice to volunteer for the Hail Mary or to try to survive on Earth. Grace completes his arc, and attains moral redemption, by choosing to sacrifice himself for Rocky and all Eridians.

That Grace ultimately survives supports Weir’s point of view that sacrifice and survival are inextricably linked. Without a willingness to sacrifice himself, Grace may have perished on the four-year trip back to Earth. Sacrificing himself for Rocky actually secures his survival and allows Grace to bring his values and passions into alignment as a teacher of young Eridians.

In an emotional flashback scene, Stratt finally explains in-depth her reasons for her ruthless pursuit of success. Everything, she says, comes down to food, in an echo of Grace’s dilemma aboard the Hail Mary. His survival, too, is defined by access to food. Stratt’s explanation is the final flashback sequence in the novel and crucially contains Stratt’s admission that she feels she owes Grace an explanation since she is sending him to his death. Even Stratt, Weir shows, feels a moral obligation to others.

The final chapter, titled with the Eridian numerals for “30,” functions as an epilogue. Grace, finally secure in his character and certain of his values, is able to celebrate the success of Project Hail Mary without regret or resentment. His self-knowledge and passion for discovery have allowed him to establish a satisfying life on Erid. With this ending, Weir reminds his reader that happiness can be found in ways we haven’t thought to imagine—yet.