Hi Raoul

"Titan" is cool... but damn depressing. The shit-gnawing "artist"/servant that Baxter describes fits too many arts-wankers I know. The isolationist USA doesn't quite fit the present, but Baxter's far-future Titan and its ammonos is a master-piece. H.G.Wells would've been proud.

I'd forgotten it was "Columbia" that went down in the novel. Pity NASA doesn't launch a manned Titan mission instead of more insipid Mars missions and promising fanciful JIMO scenarios. I couldn't think of a better fate for the remaining Saturn Vs and SSMEs than boosting "Endeavour" to Titan...

Adam

PS Baxter copied the "Endeavour's" flight-plan to Titan entirely from Cassini's - I doubt the planets would be so obliging so soon after Cassini.