Rocheworld (first published in serial form in 1982; first book publication, under the title The Flight of the Dragonfly, 1984) is a science fiction novel by Robert Forward which depicts a realistic interstellar mission using a laser driven light sail propulsion system to send the spaceship and a crew of 20 on a one-way journey of 5.9 light-years (ca. 34 trillion miles; ca. 56 trillion km) to explore a double planet that orbits Barnard's Star, which they call Rocheworld, and where they make many startling discoveries. It had four sequels, written in collaboration with Julie Forward Fuller and Margaret Dodson Forward, which detail the exploration of the other worlds in the Barnard System: Return to Rocheworld, Marooned on Eden, Ocean Under the Ice, and Rescued from Paradise. Plot A small group of civilian and military personnel carries out humanity's first crewed mission to another star system. They embark on a one-way exploratory mission to Barnard's Star, where planets have been discovered by a robot probe. They travel in a laser-driven light sail spacecraft christened Prometheus. The journey lasts 40 years, but the crew uses a drug called "No-Die," which slows their aging process, whilst lowering their effective I.Q. and emotional state to that of small children. They arrive only a decade physically older than when they left. They are cared for during this period by the ship's AI computer. At Barnard they begin their exploration, moving around the system and deploying various robot probes. Part of the crew then uses a lander to visit the double planet Rocheworld, which consists of a solid-surface lobe they call Roche (French for rock as well as the name of the French mathematician who worked on Roche limits) and an ammonia/water-covered lobe they call Eau (French for water). A subset of the landing party journeys to Eau in the space-plane Dragonfly, which was carried on the lander. Over Eau the Dragonfly is caught in a violent storm that forces it to ditch. Unable to take off, the crew uses the plane's lift fans as propellers to make their way to the inner pole of the double planet, where the gravitation from Roche will help them to break free and return to the lander. While making this journey, the Dragonfly attracts the attention of one of the native species of the planet: the very intelligent but non-technological Flouwen. The Flouwen and the AI aboard the