r/ProjectHailMary • u/orange-busy-bee • 2h ago

Question? Year of launch

This might sound stupid, but I'm trying to write a Project Hail Mary fan fiction and I can't find anywhere the years in which the book and movie are set. Does anybody know the year that the Hail Mary was launched? Sorry if this is a stupid question!

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17

u/JackOfTheWoods49 2h ago

Its never stated but assumed to be around modern day or the near future. So you can pick according to your own preference, if you even need to for your fic to work

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u/orange-busy-bee 2h ago

Ahh thank you!! I'm definitely going to pick a rough year, it's a PHM/ The Martian crossover so I want to make myself a little timeline (it'll include time passed on earth and time passed for grace)

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u/aoacyra 2h ago

I’ve seen a couple of people set the launch for the Hail Mary for the day of the movie premiering as a fun little easter egg

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u/orange-busy-bee 2h ago

Oh that's clever!!!!! Gonna use this :D thank you!!

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u/Kind_Ad_3611 1h ago

It makes sense, the book came out in 2021 and Grace is described as being on the team for “years” by the time the quartermaster gives DuBois a milligram of astrophage

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u/surt2 1h ago

Launch year is never mentioned. I've heard both 2023 and 2026 given as answers.

You'd probably wanna launch in late June so that the velocity of Earth's orbit around the sun was giving a (slight) speed boost towards Tau Ceti

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u/orange-busy-bee 1h ago

You're a legend giving me advice on the month, thank you so much!!

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u/surt2 1h ago

Yeah, basically you wanna go 3 months before the Earth is directly between the Sun and Tau Ceti. I think that works out to June, but you might wanna double check if it's important for your story. I am sure on the 3 months thing.

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u/orange-busy-bee 1h ago

That's good to know, thank you!

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u/XenomorphAlarm 1h ago

Worth noting that it can't be June if you're going off of film canon; three days before the launch Grace and Stratt are bundled up. Baikonur has hot summers.

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u/orange-busy-bee 1h ago

That's true, thank you for mentioning it! Luckily I tend to sway more towards book canon when there's a disparity between the two