howdy!

It's mentioned multiple times in the book that "Stratt makes sure to stand at the front" for every major step taken for Project Hail Mary. It's easy to interpret that as an authority thing. But no!! She's the scapegoat. Shes on her own suicide mission!! Shes making sure that when humanity looks back for a culprit in its darkness moments, it's her that they see. Not the scientists. HER.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the theory Simon had that the ships disappeared, not the stars. So in this particular theoretical, in order for their universes to exist somewhat congruently, there would have been humans living on Mars and in space crafts at some point in Ryland's universe. And a lot of people like to put Mark Watney who lived on Mars for a not insignificant amount of time in the PHM universe, so it wouldn't be that out there. Especially considering it would be 13 years of Grace travelling (while he experiences only 4). So theoretically the Great Rapture could have occured around the same time as the Hail Mary took off and the timeline would still be feasible.

true, but then, thatd mean that markiplier wouldnt be able to also exist, because hed be simon, not mark. unless markiplier has a twin named simon, but even then, he wouldnt have gained popularity until after grace was shot into space. i do get what youre saying, and im not saying it doesnt make sense, but for the hypothetical im trying to make here, that mark exists in graces universe and simon is basically just mark but iron lunged, it doesnt fit. really the whole point of the explanation i gave was for the specific silly hypothetical. BUT. youre not wrong. and if not for the hypothetical point i was trying to get to, youre probably very right. its just not the point i was trying to make lol-