‘The Mission’: From Houston to deep space
Author invests seven years researching and writing on NASA effort
Much like the oddball thinkers, dreamers and doers who populate his book “The Mission” — all movers and stakeholders in the realm of space exploration — David W. Brown tried to think ahead a few steps.
Brown invested seven years into researching and writing his book about the labored efforts to secure a mission to Europa, the ocean moon of Jupiter, which was found by the Galileo probe to have liquid water beneath its frozen surface.
Brown followed as many paths in the labyrinthine process as he could, talking to scientists, engineers and politicians, including former U.S. Rep. John Culberson, who played a crucial role in making the project happen. Such a mission faced numerous hurdles: a public more interested in manned space travel, and a scientific fixation with Mars. But Europa holds the potential to be both a scientific gold mine and a philosophical Pandora’s box, as its aquatic makeup could yield signs of other life forms in our solar system.
“The Mission” reads almost like a novel. Brown immersed himself in the lives of his characters and their work, coming away from his research with a richly realized story about fascinating people. The story has its challenges: Our culture favors immediate gratification, which makes an endeavor such as the Europa Clipper feel somewhat far away. The estimated launch is 2024, with a journey of three years.
But Brown’s work covered the two-decade process of securing the project. With the publication of “The Mission” this month, he says, “I breathed a big sigh of relief. Every day I was checking to see if somebody else was writing about this, worried they’d write faster than me. But my book certainly won’t be the last. There’ll be 100 books about this written over 100 years.”
Q: There’s a sense of wonder in this book: for exploration and discovery, and the processes by which they happen. But you found a tension, too, in these struggles to get missions approved. I was curious how much of it felt that way to you reporting it. Did you come in with a big base of knowledge?
A: Early, I went in like most people with a pretty good grip on what NASA does. But when I started doing interviews, I realized immediately that I didn’t know anything. And that was terrifying. Suddenly, I had to write about something about which I knew nothing. But in a way, that was liberating. It allowed me to approach it with a beginner’s mindset. That allowed me to enjoy the wonder at what these people were doing, and what magic NASA is capable of doing. And that allowed me to feel comfortable letting it permeate the text. I endeavored to write it with zero cynicism and irony. Just a sense of wonder and sincerity. But as you said, there is a tension there, simply because the men and women doing this never knew day to day if they were going to be doing it tomorrow.
Q: Did you have to winnow your cast of characters? You have a lot of big personalities and interesting folks in here. They also appear and reappear like people in a movie.
A: I originally thought — because there are hundreds, if not thousands of people involved in these projects — that there would be some less interesting stories. But every person I spoke to had an amazing story. It was an embarrassment of riches, and the finest diamonds are all here. But the truth is I look smarter than I am, that I saved some of the story so the characters would reappear that way. That was just dumb luck. The people appeared in the story the way they were in real life. That’s how NASA is: It’s a group of the foremost engineers and scientists. When there’s a problem, everybody is willing and eager to try to tackle it.
Q: I felt very aware of the passing of time. When a project takes 20 years, you’re going to have people retire, some won’t live to see its completion …
A: That’s a good observation, and when I first started writing, it’s something I wanted to convey. I’d covered the New Horizon when it did the flyby of Pluto. That was a deeply moving moment for me as an American. I was talking to someone dear to me and asked if she watched it. And her response was, “Why are we going to Pluto? Isn’t not even a planet anymore, is it?” I think that applies to most people. We have an impoverished idea of how these missions work. It took nine years to reach Pluto, and well over a decade just to get that mission going. So in 2015, that was a project that started in the 1980s. Europa is the same way. It was a slog just getting it off the ground. To me, what’s fascinating is that the scientists, they get into the field because they have questions they want answered. They do this work with the recognition that they might never get the answers to their questions, but they know those answers might help people one day. What kind of person does that? There’s a selflessness to it, especially in our world of immediate gratification. That’s inspiring to me.
Q: This was a good reminder that even public figures have these facets we don’t get to see firsthand. The book clearly credits John Culberson for securing the money for this project.
A: He’s somebody who surprised me. You go into an interview with politicians not knowing what to expect. We first had a normal getting-toknow-you interview. Not very useful for the book as I envisioned it. I was worried months later, I’d only get guarded, cagey politician answers. It was the end of a long day, and a parade of constituents had all been in his office wanting things done; it’s a congressman’s job. I could tell he was tired. But we started talking and within five minutes, the façade fell away. I wasn’t talking to a politician but instead a guy who loved space and a guy who loved Texas. Those were the things he loved most, and he spoke deeply about them. So I fell in love with the guy. He operated from a place of sincerity that gets back to what I talked about earlier. And he ended up losing his job in part because his opponent said he was more concerned with fish on Europa than people in Houston. I thought that was an unjust characterization. For a politician, there’s no political benefit to pursuing something like space. But it’s the right thing to do: The search for life is vitally important for the human species. He was thinking three, four steps ahead. And it comes at a cost because public support for NASA has never been super high. He was playing a longer game that cost him politically. But in the end, he’s going to be right. Houston will be the beneficiary of groundwork he did during the first 20 years of the 21st century.
Q: Safe to say that even with the book out, you’ll be tracking this project closely as it evolves?
A: Definitely. As a storyteller who approached a subject, I feel like I put it all out there. I gave it all I have. As just a guy who likes space, I’ll be devouring this stuff. I’ll be on my sofa eating popcorn following it for the rest of my life.