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Forward slash plan.

This is a podcast extra from Nature.

Every week, nature publishes a science fiction story in its futures slot,

and every month we read you our favourite.

This month's story is One Slow Step for Man,

by S.R. Algernon and read by me, Kerry Smith.

Greetings, Mission Commander. How are things back on Earth? I wish our first transmission from

the Alpha Centauri system could bring better news, but I'm sorry to say that Captain Thurga

did not survive the trip. Something happened to the CO2 filters, I'm afraid. The rest of the crew

died as well, some sooner than others. "'That's what the logs say, anyway.

"'As for the details, well, you might as well ask me

"'what caused the fall of the Roman Empire.

"'Questions on that scale don't concern us much anymore.

"'In case you were wondering, no, I'm not part of the crew.

"'In fact, it took years to drift over to the communications console and considerably

...