The Calculating Stars

Abstract

This science fiction and alternate history novel follows the life of mathematician Elma York and her husband, NASA engineer Nathaniel York, in the aftermath of a meteorite strike that destroyed the east coast of the United States of America in 1952. Following this disaster, it is up to Elma to calculate and assess the repercussions the strike will bring to the planet’s climate and humanity’s survival in the long term, leading to the decision that humankind must leave Earth. The novel focuses on Elma’s role as a computer in the newly founded International Aerospace Coalition and the calculations that are required to put humans in space, as well as on Elma’s campaign to bring women to the space program as astronauts. Directly related to this are the short term effects the meteorite strike is causing throughout the planet and the creation of conditions to minimize these effects. However, the novel shows that all scientific progress at this time is focused on the mission to abandon the planet and colonize the moon.