Oxygen by John B. Olson

First published: Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House, 2001

Genre(s): Novel

Subgenre(s): Science fiction; thriller/suspense

Core issue(s): Doubt; ethics; faith; love; sacrifice

Principal characters

• Valkerie Jansen, a microbial ecologist and a Christian
• Bob Kaganovski, the chief engineer of Ares 10
• Kennedy Hampton, mission commander and pilot
• Lex Ohta, an astronaut and geochemist
• Steven Perez, NASA Administrator
• Nate Harrington, mission director
• Josh Bennet, capsule communicator (capcom)
• Senator Axton, a U.S. congressman
• Sidney Nichols, Jansen’s former boyfriend, a fundamentalist terrorist
• Sarah Laval, former fiancé of Bob Kaganovski, a born-again Christian

Overview

In Oxygen, biochemist John B. Olson and physicist Randall Scott Ingermanson produce a work of science fiction that poses an intriguing question. If a catastrophe should strike midway between Earth and Mars, what should an astronaut trust: God or technology? The protagonist, Valkerie Jansen—astronaut, scientist, doctor, and Christian—responds in a way that honors both her faith-based heritage and her empirical training.

In this account of a mission gone awry, events begin on Tuesday, August 14, 2012, in Alaska and end on Friday, July 4, 2014, on Mars. During the short two-year span, Jansen is selected to the astronaut corps, trains for a flight, and begins the mission to Mars. The pressure of time is a significant catalyst: NASA must launch Ares 10 as scheduled or the program will be scrapped; Jansen has months, not years, to complete her training; and, following a series of mishaps, the astronauts have limited time to find a solution to their depleting oxygen supply. Furthermore, if NASA is to profit from televised coverage and gain public support for future flights, it must meet expectations for a Fourth of July landing. This haste is conveyed effectively in the novel’s format. Comprising four long sections that house forty short chapters, the novel is fast-paced.

Part 1, “Human Factors,” opens with Jansen camped in Alaska, collecting biological samples from an active volcano as part of her postdoctoral work. Poisonous gases leak from the earth’s crust and she instinctively seeks higher ground. When the gases reach into the treetops she climbs, she returns to camp, punctures her Jeep’s tires, and inhales the stale oxygen they provide. Her survival instinct and vast scientific knowledge are a combination sought by NASA. In a coincidence that is at odds with an otherwise believably scripted work, two NASA officials arrive by helicopter during this episode to interview their applicant. Instead of conducting an interview, they find themselves rescuing the oxygen-deprived Jansen, airlifting her to safety. The episode tells them what they hoped to discover in their interview, and they offer her a dream job.

Throughout much of the novel, the relationship between crew members is a tenuous one. Even prior to the flight disasters, tension exists. Others are suspicious of Jansen’s Christian beliefs, which she downplays in their presence. Fundamentalist protesters mob NASA’s gates, angered at the agency’s search for evidence of life on Mars. Their presence embarrasses Jansen and inflames fellow astronauts. In particular, Chief Engineer Bob Kaganovski worries that Jansen might thwart the discovery of life on Mars to avoid a potential conflict with Creationism. Jansen’s fellow astronauts are aggrieved she has replaced the more affable Josh Bennet, the former leader of their mission, who remains behind to assume responsibilities as capcom.

The rough launch in part 2, “The Point of No Return,” creates mechanical and physical problems for the crew even before they leave Earth orbit. Commander Kennedy Hampton suffers a detached retina that leaves him blind in one eye, though a greater blindness is his lack of faith in his crew and in God. His paranoia infects the morale of his crew, and they begin to question loyalties. Desperate to continue the mission, he withholds information from NASA about damage to onboard systems, endangering the lives of his comrades.

In part 3, “The Belly of the Beast,” Kaganovski and Hampton take an unplanned spacewalk to assess vehicle damage and attempt repairs. When Kaganovski touches an exposed wire, he causes an explosion of such intensity that a metal seam ruptures. Jansen must aid injured astronaut Lex Ohta, repair the breach to prevent further loss of oxygen, and rescue the bewildered spacewalkers. As the origins of the explosion remain unknown, the consensus among crew and NASA is sabotage: Someone attached a bomb to the ship prior to launch. Tight security precludes all but one of six individuals as the culprit: the four crew members and two ground commanders. With a dwindling supply of oxygen, Jansen induces a state of coma in her fellow crew members (consequently reducing their oxygen intake) and monitors their conditions over several months. Alone she ponders existential questions: her role in the mission, God’s role (if any) in their rescue, the nature of her being, the nature of God. Attempting to douse her faith with cold logic, she finds she cannot; it is too ingrained.

After siphoning oxygen from another ship, the crew reaches Mars. Their final journey in part 4, “Independence Day,” is an arduous trek for two to the Mars Habitation Module (Hab). Unbeknownst to Kaganovski and Hampton, the female crew adds their ration of oxygen to the men’s tanks, fearing that without it their colleagues will not survive. Returning to the Ares 10, the men discover the lifeless women, realize their sacrifice, and transport their bodies for later burial. A despondent Kaganovski realizes his love for Jansen and his renewed faith in God. Later a noise outside the Hab disturbs Kaganovski. He enters the rover, and in a scene reminiscent of Mary Magdalene discovering Christ’s empty tomb, fails to find Jansen’s body. She steps into view and speaks his name. Jansen’s resurrection, and subsequently Ohta’s, is not a miraculous return to life but a reawakening from an induced coma. The mystery of the explosion is revealed as well. Bennet, the replaced astronaut, confesses to having attached a canister of arctic bacteria to the ship with which he hoped to seed life on Mars, thereby furthering space exploration. Its premature explosion was unintended. The novel concludes with an image of Kaganovski on bended knee proposing to Jansen with the Martian landscape behind them. Not only has their mission succeeded; so, too, has their love.

Christian Themes

The counterpart of faith is doubt, and their contradiction is explored fully in Oxygen. Science is a field that relies on experimentation and logic to ascertain truths about the universe. God becomes an improvable element through normal scientific channels, but when faced with the loneliness of space, these voyagers consider his presence with greater frequency the further they travel from Earth. After inducing comas in her comrades, Valkerie Jansen is left alone with her thoughts, which become prayer in outer space. Hurtling toward Mars, she contemplates her relationship with God and its impersonal nature. She asks for a sign; she hears the rumblings of a damaged spacecraft. Clear proof is evasive, yet when she tries to dismantle her faith through empirical examination, it refuses to abandon her.

Her shipmate Bob Kaganovski, an avowed skeptic despite twelve years of Catholic education, demands proof of God’s existence. His former fiancé, the born-again Christian Sarah Laval, was persuaded by friends not to marry “outside the yoke” (to a nonbeliever). Confronted with his own mortality, Kaganovski realizes what he must do before death: forgive Sarah and relinquish the bitterness he carried with him into space. With that burden lifted, he recovers his spiritual identity. His developing love for another believer, Jansen, and her Christian witness—expressed not in words but through selfless actions—lead him to repentance and acceptance.

Ethics is central to the novel’s focus on science and religion, strange bedfellows when events begin but wedded partners by the narrative’s end. Neither is perfect; both fields are revealed to suffer serious ethical lapses. NASA, spurred by fears of government cuts, hastens preparations for the Mars mission and launches in unfavorable conditions, a decision that spawns calamity. By valuing public relations and funding over safety, NASA cheapens life. Likewise, protesters who fear what space might reveal about life’s origins value ignorance over knowledge, impeding research that might extend the human race. As one of the astronauts notes in a broadcast from space, Mars might be where humans reside when Earth can no longer sustain them. In a subplot, Jansen’s college boyfriend is revealed to have died in an explosion at a Yale laboratory. Ironically, in his protest against stem cell research, he destroyed human life. Jansen has distanced herself from such violent Christians.

In Jansen, science and faith blend. She lives the Christian ethos by applying her scientific knowledge to the service of others. As doctor, scientist, and Christian, Jansen does everything within her power to sustain human life, even relinquishing precious oxygen so that others might live.

Sources for Further Study

Duncan, Melanie. Review of Oxygen. Library Journal, September 1, 2001, 156. Examines the novel’s genre-blending elements and concludes that science fiction melds with mystery in a satisfying marriage.

Mort, John. Review of Oxygen. Booklist, June 1, 2001, 1844. An appraisal of the novel’s technical savvy, compelling story line, and spiritual elements.

Tomasso, Phillip. Review of Oxygen. Curled up with a Good Book. http://curledup .com. Focuses on novel’s stylistic features that contribute to its readability; also notes its relevance to contemporary issues.