The Jovian Astronautical-Biological Orbital Laboratory circles Jupiter and its moons--a metal shell bathed in lethal radiation, held in tenuous place by the gravity of the massive gas giant like a fragile glass ornament in a monstrous fist.
For seventeen-year-old Matt Bohles and his friends, "the Can" is home.
Life onboard the aging space station is cramped, spartan, and dangerous. Its mission--to monitor incoming signals and transmissions in search of alien life--has so far proven fruitless.
It is the only world Matt has ever known.
But now, as the threshold of adulthood--with its onset of new questions, confusions and feelings --Matt Bohles faces an impending crisis that threatens everything he knows and is. For unless he can prove himself an invaluable member of the scientific team--and quickly--he will be exiled to a filthy, perilous and unfamiliar hell called Earth.
This book was similar in style to Podkayne of Mars, Orphans of the Sky, Double Star, Farmer in the Sky, Starship Troopers, Farmer in the Sky, you get the drift. There are plenty of stories where the young hero is in a low position or just on the outskirts looking in. A raw recruit, the son or daughter of one of the people on the remote location, a student. What distinguishes all of the Heinlein novels is the manner in which he tells it. He tries to inform us of how a particular job is done, and sometimes going so far as to say this is how it should be done. I got that feel from Project Jupiter.
There's a space station in orbit around Jupiter with a small population of permanent residents, being permanent they came in family groups (because that's the way to do it.) Matt Bohles is the 17 year old son of a couple of scientists, and he's been learning about how the station runs and some of the different jobs.
Benford starts with a zero-g game of squash between Matt and Yuri. Explaining to us how zero gravity works, at the same time we find that Matt doesn't get along with Yuri. Are you with me on how this is so like those Heinlein novels? His dad comes to him to discuss his future, saying the next ship from Earth will be here in eleven months, maybe you ought to look at colleges there. This doesn't appeal to Matt. Then we hear that the station is going to get shut down and everybody is going back to Earth, until the current budget crisis is over.
They're thinking of ways to at least leave a skeleton crew at the station, and at least for the now they'll go on with there routine. The scientists with their work. Matt and Zak go to Gannymede on their mandatory once every sixth month vacation. Matt and Zak plan on voluteering to take the rovers out to check on instrument sites. Zak sprains his ankle on the first day of their vacation and won't be able to go, but there's someone who can take his place. It's Yuri.
I don't want to give away the entire plot. The book went quickly, it was interesting, not extremely deep, but I liked it quite a bit. If you like Heinlein, this is right up your alley.
