A Space Oddessey 2061 Book 3 Chapter 41: Memoirs of a Centenarian Table PART V: THROUGH THE ASTEROIDS

A Space Oddessey 2061 Book 3 Chapter 41: Memoirs of a Centenarian Table PART V: THROUGH THE ASTEROIDS

Dr Heywood Floyd preferred not to talk about the first mission to Jupiter, and the second to Lucifer ten years later. It was all so long ago - and there was nothing he had not said a hundred times to Congressional Committees, Space Council boards and media persons like Victor Willis. Nevertheless, he had a duty to his fellow passengers which could not be avoided. As the only living man to have witnessed the birth of a new sun - and a new solar system - they expected him to have some special understanding of the worlds they were now so swiftly approaching. It was a naïve assumption; he could tell them far less about the Galilean satellites than the scientists and engineers who had been working there for more than a generation. When he was asked 'What's it really like on Europa?' (or Ganymede, or Io, or Callisto...) he was liable to refer the enquirer, rather brusquely, to the voluminous reports available in the ship's library. Yet there was one area where his experience was uniq…