Dear Dawn: How a NASA robot messed up our science fiction
The creators of the hit series “The Expanse” pay tribute to the spacecraft that proved them gloriously wrong.
Dear Dawn:
Did we do something to piss you off? Because to tell you the truth, your attacks on our books seemed kind of personal.
In 2011, we came out with a science-fiction novel called Leviathan Wakes that featured a big plotline on the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. In particular, we imagined a hard, nickel-iron Ceres with a population of millions thirsty for water harvested from the rings of Saturn. We did pretty well with the story; it got a Hugo nomination, and the publisher bought some follow-ups.
Four years later, we were launching a television show based on the book, starring the embattled crew of an ice hauler trying to keep Ceres Station