A Walk In The Sun

by Geoffrey A. Landis

• Word count: 6424

• Page count: 15

A Walk In The Sun is an award winning science fiction short story by Geoffrey A. Landis. It is about an astronaut stranded on the moon who must stay in the sunlight until she is rescued.

The story follows Trish, the only surviving member of a terrible crash landing on the moon. After regaining her senses she contacts Earth only to find out that it will be thirty days before they can rescue her. In the meantime she is forced to use a wing-like solar array to provide power to her suit's recycling facilities. While she waits for the rescue party she has to continually walk in order to stay in the sunlight.

An interesting story of determination and survival that is reminiscent of Apollo 13. I enjoyed the descriptions of unique places on the moon, as well as Trish's struggles to hold onto her sanity. A Walk In The Sun was the winner of the 1992 Hugo Award for Best Short Story and the winner of the 1992 Asimov's Reader Poll. It was also nominated for the Locus Reader Poll that same year.

On Earth it would have been a marathon pace. On the moon it was an easy lope. After ten miles the trek fell into an easy rhythm: half a walk, half like jogging, and half bounding like a slow-motion kangaroo. Her worst enemy was boredom. Her comrades at the academy—in part envious of the top scores that had made her the first of their class picked for a mission—had ribbed her mercilessly about flying a mission that would come within a few kilometers of the moon without landing. Now she had a chance to see more of the moon up close than anybody in history. She wondered what her classmates were thinking now. She would have a tale to tell—if only she could survive to tell it.

Where you can find A Walk In The Sun:

• A Walk In The Sun originally appeared in the October 1991 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction.

• It was collected in Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell's book The Hard SF Renaissance.^†

• You can read an HTML version for free at webscription.

Geoffrey A. Landis holds a Ph.D. in solid-state physics AND has been honored with many of science fiction's most prestigious awards - impressive huh? Learn more about him on Wikipedia.

If you enjoyed this story you may like Falling Onto Mars, also by Geoffrey A. Landis.

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(This is a revised version of a post which was originally published on BestScienceFictionStories.com on Feb 21st, 2008.)