Sunshine story
Taking place in the year 2057, the story follows a group of astronauts on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun.
13 total · 7 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| choosing who dies and who lives | major | Four men had to decide who among them would get to use the single spacesuit available to them on Icarus I to get back to Icarus II. The other three men seemed as good as dead. Although in the end they found a way for two of them to live. The crew decided to kill Trey in order to leave enough oxygen for the others to complete their mission. |
| dying sun | major | The story followed a crew of eight astronauts on their mission to reignite the sun by dropping an enormous nuclear bomb on it. |
| global cooling | major | Earth was gripped in an ice age because the sun's output had suddenly diminished. |
| human self-sacrifice | major | The lion's share of the eight astronauts sacrificed themselves in one way or another to deliver their nuclear payload into the sun. |
| interplanetary space travel | major | We saw a crew of eight astronauts got on a voyage to the sun. |
| speculative spaceship | major | A crew of eight astronauts flew a spacecraft to the sun with a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan island strapped to it. |
| stellar rejuvenation | major | The approach to rejuvenating the sun in this story involved exploding a Manhattan-sized nuclear bomb inside it. |
| beating one's self up | minor | Trey blamed himself for Captain Kaneda's death and had to be sedated to prevent him from committing suicide. |
| decision making in the face of uncertainty | minor | Should the crew divert from their mission to reignite the sun to rescue the crew of the previous failed mission? If they do, then they not only might rescue the crew, but also could stand the chance picking up another nuclear bomb to drop on the sun, thus increasing their chances of succeeding on their mission. |
| risk taking vs. playing it safe | minor | Captain Kaneda choose to risk rescuing the crew of a previous failed mission, instead of proceeding directly to the sun to complete his mission. |