Project Hail Mary Codexery

Xenonite

The Eridian metal made of xenon.

Xenonite is the Eridian building material of Project Hail Mary, a metal made mainly of the noble gas xenon with almost unlimited tensile strength. It comes in many colours and textures, from transparent to tan, often with a mottled, mixed-paint look that the sightless Eridians neither notice nor care about.

Quick Facts

Made by
The Eridians
Composition
Mainly xenon
Strength
Virtually unlimited tensile strength
Forms
Transparent, tan and other colours and textures
Weakness
The bred Taumoeba can eat through it

Facts from the source article.

Background

Rocky's ship, the Blip-A, is built mostly of it, and he uses it for the message cylinders he throws to the Hail Mary, the tunnel joining the two ships and the hexagonal ball in which he works aboard Grace's ship. The first tunnel's barrier was a patchwork of hexagons of different xenonite types, Rocky's way of testing which medium Grace could 'see' through; when Grace pointed to the clear one, the next tunnel was made of clear xenonite and he saw Rocky properly for the first time. Grace and Rocky also build a ten-kilometre xenonite chain to sample Adrian's air, and the Taumoeba they breed turns out to eat through xenonite, which threatens the Blip-A's fuel.

Source

Text adapted from Xenonite on the Project Hail Mary Wiki (Fandom, CC BY-SA 3.0). Page history: contributors. Codexery summarised the page, and this entry is shared under the same licence.

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