John MacDonald was a prolific fiction writer back in the 1940s...he took a stab at science fiction with the short story Flaw, which appeared in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 11 (1949), published by DAW Books, 1984. It is an example of science fiction that, like stories about "habitable" Venus, soon became obsolete with its erroneous science...although it was still great fiction. It reminded me of the "Moon hoax" conspiracy theory narrative which stated that deep space radiation was too toxic for space travelers to survive for long in. There is a different angle to the "space travel is impossible" conclusion in Flaw...one that is so bizarre that it actually made a perverse kind of sense to me...
It is still early in man's exploration of space, and the moon has just been reached. The next logical step is to go to Mars, so a rocket sets off for the Red Planet. And loses communication with Earth soon after takeoff...as expected. The following year, people on the home planet are anxiously awaiting their predicted return...but I suppose by now you know that this story is not going to have a happy ending. The main protagonist in Flaw is a woman...rare for science fiction stories from this period...and she is engaged to one of the astronauts going to Mars. In their ring exchange, she had given him her late father's star ruby ring...which he wears on his voyage. I mention this because that ring figures greatly in the story's stunning and dismal ending...
Flaw is only about eight pages long, a quick read. I had looked over the Internet for it, but it seems that this particular story of John MacDonald must be purchased as part of a larger anthology or collection. Still, it's a good one! And it proves that you "don't have to be a rocket scientist" to be able to write good science fiction...
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