Stephen Baxter

What first kindled your interest in SF?

The Gerry Anderson TV shows, which were then being shown for the first time, especially Fireball XL5 – shot in mysterious black and white, with a very 1950’s sensibility. That caught my imagination at a very young age. I'd get involved in very elaborate play-acting based on the shows, and later I started to draw comics and write little stories, and migrated to SF from reading tie-in books (which is why I generally approve of such things – a good way into literacy).

I moved on to writing short stories in my teens, and a teacher who was a freelance writer showed me how to format and submit material, and I went on from there. A story like 'In The Manner of Trees' (in Traces) has astronauts exploring a mysterious planet, referring right back to Fireball I guess.

How serious were your early dreams of becoming an astronaut?

Well, as a kid, yes, I wanted to. When I got older, no; I couldn't compete with all the athletic types. But when the Juno mission was advertised – the one Helen Sharman flew – I applied. I actually qualified in many of the criteria, except I had no foreign language. But for that I might have made a later cut. Now I've got to know NASA and I've found it's just a big government bureaucracy, much like any other. I don't think I'd enjoy much being a NASA employee!

But if I had the chance I'd go. You can forget the G-contorted faces beloved of our childhood; the Space Shuttle is about as demanding a ride as a roller coaster. But I'd much rather go someplace away from Earth. The astronauts tell me that after three months or so in Earth orbit you want to go somewhere. But it's all part of the appeal for me of working on books like Voyage, Titan and Moonseed. I work very intently on the scenes set on the Moon and Mars – how it would feel, what would you see; it's (almost) as good as being there.

You have been described as a 'hard' SF writer. Are the concepts in your work based on scientific research?

Yes, that's the source of most of my ideas. The title story in Traces is a good example. I read some pop science about electrons having a bizarre 'memory' property, and I spun the story by speculating on what that could lead to. But that's only the start of the story idea; in the end you need strong characters with a problem of some kind to drive a plot.

What atmosphere do you like to write in, and how do you go about constructing a new novel?

I research heavily before starting a novel (or a short story come to that). I work at home in my study, which is a nest of books, papers, manuscripts. I always write out outlines in as much detail as I can; I find it more efficient to know where I'm going roughly (though the outline usually gets kicked to pieces). I slog painfully through a first draft, folding in all the research stuff (and breaking off for supplementary research along the way). Then I'll go through three or four more drafts before it's knocked into shape. The only need I seem to have when writing is quiet, one reason I live in a quiet(ish) village in Bucks.

Are there other writers in the field that you particularly admire?

Clarke and Wells and Aldiss for their huge imaginations and sense of cosmic destiny. Heinlein (at his best) for his story-telling and character. Niven was a role model when I started out; I thought I could see how his stories worked. Benford and Bear for their smart use of physics. Of the current crop, Stan Robinson for his feel for a landscape, Paul McAuley for his use of big ideas.

As we enter the new millennium do you see NASA's space program reaching a plateau or do you visualise significant leaps forward in technology to a time in the near future where space travel is an affordable reality?

I think we'll see an expansion of space exploration, but it will be robots. NASA (and other agencies) is exploring concepts of smart autonomous self-directing robot craft, and also the use of miniaturisation to get more science for the buck. So we'll see lots of small smart robots going to very interesting places (like Europa, Jupiter's moon) but it's probably bad news for manned space travel. Humans are just too big and heavy and expensive to cart around right now. "Arthur Clarke said the transistor killed off the manned space programme; in the 1940s he imagined comsats as giant space stations with 50 technicians to change the valves, not the small smart craft we already have. It seems to me that trend is going to continue. Sadly, I think the International Space Station, while spectacular, is going to be a $50 billion white elephant as far as science goes.

Would you like to see man settling on other worlds and establishing colonies or simply travelling through space, exploring and learning more about it?

In Moonseed, I'm interested in terraforming the Moon. But I do think we should learn as much as we can about the other worlds (and, incidentally, check out native life) before destroying their native surfaces. Some of the environments are surprisingly fragile. The Moon has a very thin atmosphere, but one Apollo landing would dump as much gas as contained in the whole of that atmosphere. The lunar dust has an exotic structure caused by billions of years of micrometeorite impacts; when you walk on it you destroy it. I have to say I would enjoy a trip to the Moon, though. My story 'Moon Six' (in Traces) is about the wonders of the Moon, and 'In the MSOB' is a poignant story about the plight of a Moonwalker stranded on Earth.

Speaking of 'Moon Six', the story tells the tale of an astronaut moving through parallel universes. Is this a theory that you believe strongly in?

Actually, yes; in fact there may be an infinite number of them (as hinted at in 'Moon Six'). The idea of many worlds spinning off from each moment is an old speculation of quantum mechanics, but now it's become more fashionable as the easiest way to resolve the paradoxes of time travel. But you can only live in one at a time, and still have to face the consequences of your actions.

What are you hopes for the future of the space program?

Well, the Americans have mapped out a good program of unmanned missions for ten years or so, culminating in a sample-return mission in 2005. Meanwhile the Europeans say they might send a probe in 2003 which can do a lot of science there. And I've seen the work the Americans are doing in support of a manned mission one day – long duration life support experiments, growing plants in weightlessness (which they can't do yet for more than one generation). It looks as if a manned Mars mission in the near future might be based on living off the land, making oxygen and rocket propellants for the return, which brings the costs right down. It's a program I like, especially as a precursor to a manned mission. "I think we should go somewhere. As I've said, I would like to see a return to the Moon. It's a desert compared to Mars, but it has metals and oxygen and maybe water, and it's only three days away. After that there are the near-Earth asteroids, some of which look more promising as resource destinations than Mars. Getting there would be somewhere between Moon and Mars in terms of difficulty. But, the whole point of being human, I think, is to go places. There's something a little decadent about VR exploration!

This interview was conducted by HarperCollinsPublishers in the UK and appears on www.fireandwater.com