So they make an interstellar ship called the Hail Mary and power it with astrophage and send people out into space. For some reason nobody understands, Tau Ceti is unaffected, so they need to figure out what makes it immune and how can they duplicate that to save humanity. And the reason they do this is they notice that all other regional stars are getting dimmer, except for Tau Ceti. This organism they call astrophage, which is Greek for 'a thing that eats stars.' So they breed it up and use that as a fuel for propulsion. Now these little critters are consuming so much of the sun's energy that Earth is in danger of extinction as the solar output goes down. It's breeding out of control and we're basically having an algae bloom on the sun.

It breeds and then spores out to other nearby stars. Basically the sun is getting dimmer and there's a microscopic, single-celled organism that's an interstellar lifeform that lives on the surfaces of stars. He has some idea of who he is and why he's there, and through a series of flashbacks as he's getting his memory back you find out what's been going on on Earth. : Can you launch into a speed run of the 'Project Hail Mary' plot and the main threat that propels the story?Īndy Weir: The plot is presented as a guy who wakes up aboard a spaceship.

This Q&A has been edited lightly for length and clarity. spoke with Weir on the genesis of this interstellar odyssey, dropping down the rabbit hole for some deep research, reining in the narrative's nerdier scientific data, and becoming a producer on the upcoming Hollywood film adaptation linked with Gosling's involvement. Lord and Miller are also attached to direct Weir's lunar crime caper novel, ' Artemis.' 'Project Hail Mary' has already been purchased by MGM for a film adaptation to be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller ('The Lego Movie'), with Ryan Gosling signed on to star as reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace.

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