Eden M51 by G. R. Paskoff

SPSFC

Eden exists, tucked away in a remote corner of the universe.In the year 2283, overpopulation, resource depletion, and climate change have pushed global civilization to the brink of collapse. Colonies on the moon and beneath the oceans, despite years of development, are struggling to survive. As international tensions escalate, and humanity faces an impending crisis for subsistence, a new race has quietly begun, one to find a habitable planet for human expansion outside the solar system. Thus far, however, every expedition sent has resulted in monumental disappointment, and occasionally, tragedy.But all is not lost.A U.S. interstellar probe, launched decades earlier, unexpectedly transmits a burst of tantalizing figures on a remote alien world in the M51 galaxy, yielding the first promising data scientists have seen in years. In response, an international team of experts is hastily assembled to investigate the prospective planet over thirty million light years away. Each with their own set of hopes and agendas, what they discover upon arrival is more than any of them imagined – something that forces them to confront the shadows of their past and to reevaluate their choices for Man’s future.Commander Nathaniel Hawke, a renowned pilot in the United States Department of Space Defense, is selected to lead the mission. Seven years after the controversial death of his best friend, he views the expedition to M51 as one last opportunity for redemption. But will the journey offer the salvation he seeks or cast him further into despair?