Kannada author’s visionary tale: Foreseeing the perils of extended space stay

Mangaluru:  In the year 2020, when the world was grappling with the uncertainty of a pandemic, Kallachchu Mahesh R Nayak was on a mission of a different kind. Driven by an insatiable curiosity about life beyond Earth, Nayak travelled to the United States and visited NASA to study the challenges faced by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

His journey into the world of space exploration culminated in a remarkable work of fiction, ‘Kupola Kalpita Yaana’ (The Imaginary Voyage Through the Cupola), a Kannada novel that delves into the psychological and physical toll of prolonged space travel.

His book was published in 2022, two years before the Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore episode.

A vision beyond his time

Nayak’s novel, published shortly after his return, follows the story of a fictional NASA space scientist who finds herself trapped aboard the ISS after an unexpected delay in her return mission. As days stretch into weeks and months, the protagonist grapples with the irreversible effects of microgravity on his body and the unrelenting solitude that gnaws at his mind. Through gripping narrative and meticulous detail, Nayak paints a vivid picture of the existential challenges faced by astronauts when their return journey extends beyond the permissible limits of human endurance. What sets Kupola Kalpita Yaana apart is the striking foresight with which Nayak anticipated real-life events that unfolded years later. In 2024, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore found themselves in a similar predicament after their spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner, encountered technical issues that delayed their return to Earth.

Williams and Wilmore were left stranded aboard the ISS for an unexpectedly long duration, a scenario eerily reminiscent of the one portrayed in Nayak’s novel.

Blurring the line between science and fiction

Nayak’s depiction of the physiological and emotional struggles of astronauts was not merely a product of imagination. His research at NASA had provided him with insights into the rigorous training astronauts undergo and the unforeseen risks they face while in orbit. In Kupola Kalpita Yaana, the author explores the fragile balance between survival and sanity in a weightless environment, highlighting the toll that extended isolation can take on the human psyche.

His protagonist’s battle with bone density loss, muscle atrophy, and the gradual fading of cognitive sharpness mirrors the real-life concerns of astronauts who spend prolonged periods in space. The haunting loneliness experienced by the fictional astronaut, who yearns to return to Earth but is trapped in the silent void, resonates with the psychological challenges faced by Williams and Wilmore during their extended stay on the ISS.

A glimpse into the future

Although Kupola Kalpita Yaana was classified as science fiction, Nayak’s prescient narrative underscores the thin line between imagination and reality in space exploration.

“I started writing this novel during the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21. It took me about one year to complete the final version. Before that, a decade ago, I visited NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, Florida, USA, which naturally mesmerized me, especially as an author.

‘The entire subject of both the International Space Station and NASA, its methods, and the astrophysics and all sorts of science behind it is very vast to learn. I started reading most of the available books in that area, both fiction and nonfiction, along with watching movies connected to the subject. Once my notes were ready, I simply started giving it an Indian touch with my own style and pattern of writing, which I have been involved in for the last three decades.

‘‘Today, I am really thrilled to know that the main character of my novel is, of course, an India-based young lady astronaut who also spends exactly the same time in the space station as Sunita Williams did (about 9+ months) under unavoidable circumstances and finally comes back to Earth with full of surprises for the whole world! ‘ It reminds me of how, before the tragic Titanic mishap, an author named Morgan Robertson wrote in his novel elaborately about it. And coincidentally, today I have completed it, that too in my mother tongue, Kannada, for which I am absolutely proud” concluded Kallachchu Mahesh R Nayak.