Allusions To Actual History
In various scenes, this novel re-creates an entire J-mission profile, including a launch sequence for an equally fictional Apollo 20 mission flown with the stated objective of reclaiming the astronauts' remains using the Skylab Rescue CSM for the mission, rather than leave dead astronauts' bodies in space, something that has never happened in the history of manned spaceflight. (The Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11 capsules returned their cosmonauts' bodies to Earth while Challenger and Columbia disintegrated, leaving scattered remains.) Johnson clearly demonstrates extensive knowledge of Project Apollo mission hardware and systems, from the Saturn V down to the EVA suits that Apollo astronauts wore. A number of actual persons appear in fictional scenes, including CBS News Managing Editor Walter Cronkite, Flight Director Gene Kranz, and astronauts Jim Lovell, James Irwin and Donald K. Slayton. The novel references the precision landing made by astronaut Pete Conrad during Apollo 12 and to the nearly disastrous Apollo 13. (It also features a foreword from astronaut Charles Duke and a cover painting by astronaut Alan Bean.)
In addition, Ice lays out a theory of how the Moon came to be the pockmarked, meteor-scarred body that we know today and of how the Biblical Flood took place.
Read more about this topic: Ice (Johnson Novel)
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